Littell's Living Age/Volume 125/Issue 1612/Garibaldi and the Tiber
From The Spectator.
GARIBALDI AND THE TIBER.
Few will be inclined to quarrel with the latest pronunciamiento of the Italian patriot. Clerical and Liberal may alike welcome his exchange of the sword for the pruning-hook. From time immemorial the Tiber has defied the efforts of senate and people, of pagan emperor and of Christian pontiff, but at length it seems that modern science must prevail, and sentence of divorce be pronounced against the "uxorius amnis." For such a work — the diversion of the river at a point thirty miles from its mouth — the enthusiasm of the Italians must be awakened, and for this task Garibaldi is of all men the most fitted. But enthusiasm unaided will hardly dig through the Campagna, and the navvy requires more solid sustenance than patriotic fervour. Capital is the one thing needful, and at the same time, perhaps, the thing most difficult to obtain in Italy itself. It is to England, therefore, that the general looks for material as well as moral support. In England, the progress of such an enterprise must surely be watched with interest. Without doubt, many a disappointed tourist has condemned the Tiber as an insignificant and muddy stream, and looked with contempt on "the noble river that rolls by the towers of Rome." But on the other hand, many Englishmen, though knowing Italy from books alone, could trace the windings of the Tiber from the beech forest in which it rises to the marshy shore where its turbid current mingles with the blue waters of the Mediterranean. In view, however, of the important works now about to be commenced, the sympathy of the scholar will
of less importance than the favour of the capitalist. It is proposed to turn the waters of the Tiber into the channel of the Teverone as far as Ponte Mammolo, a
short distance above their present conflence. Thence a new channel must carry their united waters to the sea. At first, the idea of meeting the "headlong
Anio" face to face is somewhat startling, but Horace's epithet is applied to the falls at Tivoli, below which the stream loses the violence which characterizes its upper course. Hence Silius Italicus describes it as "gently creeping," —
Sulfureis gelidus qua serpit leniter undis |
As to the cost of such an undertaking, it could be at present premature to hazard a conjecture. One prediction, however, may safely be uttered. Whatever sum may be named in the first estimates will be largely exceeded. The benefits to be secured are threefold; the drainage of the Campagna, the permanent protection of the city from inundation, and the development of the port of Rome.
That the Agro-Romano was in ancient times the home of a thriving population is well I known; that it is now a wilderness is equally undeniable. Whether the drainage of the stagnant pools now formed in the hollows will suffice to remove the curse of malaria remains to be seen. The attainment of so important a result will, without doubt, be greatly facilitated by the improved agriculture which will be developed if the new waterway is brought through the lifeless wastes of the Campagna. Equal in importance with the reclamation of the Roman territory is the prevention of the inundations which have periodically caused so much misery to the inhabitants of the low-lying districts of the city itself. The original level of the Roman Forum was only just above the level of the river in its ordinary state; and though the surface of the soil is now considerably raised by the débris of the city, the river-bed also must have risen to some extent, if we consider the vast quantity of alluvial matter which must be constantly deposited by "the Yellow Tiber."
In the time of the republic, we hear of the Campus Martins being inundated twelve times in a single year; and the waters seem sometimes to have reached far down the Appian Way. The losses of life and property became, of course, more serious as the city spread further along the river's banks, but till Cæsar became master of Rome no effectual remedy seems to have been even proposed. One of Cicero's letters tells of a caller dropping in at his Tusculan villa — one Capito, an industrious news-gatherer — with the intelligence that Cæsar had determined to turn the Tiber from its course at the Mulvian Bridge, and to bring it along the foot of the Vatican, while the space between this new channel and the abandoned one was to form a new Campus Martins. Cicero pricked up his ears at this, for it would materially affect the value of Scapula's gardens, which he had long been wishing to purchase. In a few months, however, Cæsar was murdered, and with him fell both this scheme and others for a new port at Ostia and a canal through the Pontine Marshes to Terracina.
Of these schemes, the last alone has been taken in hand with some profitable result. Augustus constructed along the line of the Appian Way the canal which has been immortalized in Horace's "Journey to Brundusium." Theodoric the Ostrogoth and Pope Boniface VIII. are said to have done something to improve the drainage of the Pontine Marshes; and Leo X. repaired and enlarged their chief outlet, the canal of Badino, which passes through the ridge stretching along the coast from Monte Circeo to Terracina. But no systematic and sustained effort to grapple with the diflficulty was made till within a hundred years of the present time. In 1777, when sixty thousand acres were under water, Pius VI. availed himself of the services of Rapini, who, by clearing out old excavations and forming new, contrived to keep the waters within due bounds, and connected the canal of Badino with the port of Terracina by a navigable canal. The work occupied fifteen years and cost £360,000. Under Napoleon a commission was appointed to superintend these hydraulic works, but from that day to this nothing, we believe, has been done in the matter beyond maintaining the system of drainage as it was left by Pius VI. Part of the reclaimed land forms rich pasture for cattle, on other parts are raised large crops of rice and corn; but the pestilent exhalations from a basin, of which some portion lies even below the level of the sea, forbid the permanent residence of any considerable population.
In the reign of Tiberius a plan to turn aside the chief tributaries of the Tiber was discussed, only to be abandoned, though at present this idea is to a slight extent carried out by conducting some of the waters which flow into the Val di Chiana northwards to the Arno. Among the evil omens that foreshadowed the fall of Otho is recorded an inundation which bore death and destruction into the higher districts, before deemed secure from such visitations, and produced that terror of Roman rulers, — a scarcity of food among the common people.
Such were the constantly recurring disasters when Roman power was at its greatest height. In the confusion of the Middle Ages, the only barriers raised against inundation were the ruins of the city, and even in our own day, any attempt to protect Rome by embankment would in all probability be but a postponement of calamity. The scheme now brought forward seems likely to give free passage to the waters, and to avoid the winding reaches which in the existing channel must seriously impede the hurrying flood. To the antiquarian, this question is peculiarly interesting, for who knows what treasures of bronze and of marble, what relics of pomp or war, lie hidden in those reaches of the Tiber between the Ponte St. Angelo and the Marmorata?
To the commercial world the third object proposed — the construction of a ship-canal to Rome — will especially commend itself, and the co-operation of Prince Torlonia will greatly facilitate its realization. He undertakes to aid in reopening the port which Claudius constructed to take the place of the still more ancient port of Ostia, and he will drain the lake of Trajan. The preparation of the necessary plans is said to have been already entrusted to an English firm, and it is hoped that the works will be commenced at an early date. But the port must not only be reopened, — it must be kept permanently clear. The old mouth of the Tiber has long been rendered useless by the vast accumulation of sand. The coast-line has grown two miles beyond the port of Trajan. The work to be undertaken is great, and will entail watchful care for the future. While answering to their leader's call, the Italians should give heed to his advice to imitate the steadfastness of England.