Lapideus, to distinguish it from the wooden, Sublician bridge. The modern Ponte Rotto represents this bridge; but the existing arches are mainly medieval. An ancient basalt-paved road still exists, leading to the bridge from the Forum Boarium. The Pons Fabricius united the city and the island (Insula Tiberina).[1] The bridge derived its name from L. Fabricius, a curator viarum in 62 B.C.; its inscription, twice repeated, is L . FABRICIVS . C . F . CVR . VIAR . FACIVNDVM . COERAVIT. Like the other existing bridges, it is built of great blocks of peperino and tufa, with a massive facing of travertine on both sides. Corbels to support centering were built in near the springing of the arches, so that they could be repaired or even rebuilt without a scaffolding erected in the river-bed. The well-preserved Pons Cestius, probably named after L. Cestius, praefectus urbi in 46 B.C., unites the island and the Janiculan side; on the marble parapet is a long inscription recording its restoration in 370 by Gratian, Valentinian, and Valens.[2] The next bridge, Ponte Sisto, is probably on the site of an ancient bridge called in the Notitia Pons Aurelius. Marliano gives an inscription (now lost) which recorded its restoration in the time of Hadrian. About 100 yards above this bridge have been found the remains of sunken piers, which are proved by an inscription (C. I. L. vi. 31545) to have belonged to the Pons Agrippae, not otherwise known. The Pons Aelius was built in 134 by Hadrian, to connect his mausoleum with the Campus Martius; it is still well preserved, and is now called the Ponte S. Angelo (see Dante, Inferno, xviii. 28-33). It had eight arches, of which the three in the centre were higher than the rest, so that the road sloped on both sides. The material is peperino, with travertine facings. Its inscription, now lost, is given in the Einsiedeln MS.—IMP . CAESAR . DIVI . TRAIANI . PARTHICI . FILIVS . DIVI . NERVAE . NEPOS . TRAIANVS . HADRIANVS . AVG . PONT . MAX . TRIB . POT . XVIIII . COS . III . P . P . FECIT. The Pons Aelius is shown on coins of Hadrian. A little below it are the foundations of another bridge, probably the Pons Neronianus of the Mirabilia, called also Vaticanus, built probably by Nero as a way to his Vatican circus and the Horti Agrippinae. At the foot of the Aventine, near the Marmorata, are the remains of piers which seem to have belonged to the Pons Probi, mentioned in the Notitia. It is uncertain whether this bridge is to be identified with the Pons Theodosii, which was built in A.D. 381-387 (Symm. Ep. 4, 70, 2; 5, 76, 3), and is mentioned in the Mirabilia.[3]
Regiones of Augustus.
In spite of the extensive growth of the city under the republic no addition was made to the four regiones of Servius till the reign of Augustus, who divided the city and its suburbs into fourteen regiones. The lists in the Notitia and Curiosum are the chief aids in determining the limits Augustan regiones. of each, which in many cases cannot be done with any exactness (see Preller, Die Regionen der Stadt Rom (1846) and Urlich's Codex Topographicus (Würzburg, 1871)). Each regio was divided into vici or parishes, each of which formed a religious body, with its aedicula larum, and had magistri victorum. The smallest regio (No. II.) contained seven vici, the largest (No. XIV.) seventy-eight.
The list is as follows:—
| I. | Porta Capena, a narrow strip traversed by the Appian Way; it extended beyond the walls of Aurelian to the brook Almo. |
| II. | Caelemontium, the Caelian Hill. |
| III. | Isis et Serapis, included the valley of the Colosseum and the adjoining part of the Esquiline. |
| IV. | Templum Pacis, included the Velia, part of the Cispius, most of the Subura, the fora of Nerva and Vespasian, the Sacra Via, and also buildings along the north-east side of the Forum Magnum. |
| V. | Esquiliae, north part of the Esquiline and the Viminal. |
| VI. | Alta Semita, the Quirinal as far as the praetorian camp. |
| VII. | Via Lata, the valley bounded on the west by the Via Lata, and by the neighbouring hills on the east. |
| VIII. | Forum Romanum, also included the imperial fora and the Capitoline hill. |
| IX. | Circus Flaminius, between the Tiber, the Capitol, and the Via Flaminia. |
| X. | Palatium, the Palatine hill. |
| XI. | Circus Maximus, the valley between the Palatine and the Aventine, with the Velabrum and Forum Boarium. |
| XII. | Piscina Publica, the eastern part of the Aventine, and the districts south of and beyond the Via Appia, including the site of Caracalla's thermae. |
| XIII. | Aventinus, the hill, and the bank of the Tiber below it. |
| XIV. | Trans Tiberim, the whole district across the river and the Tiber Island.[4] |
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Fig. 13.—Aurelian's Wall; plan showing one of the towers and the passage in thickness of wall. |
The walls of Aurelian (see fig. 7), more than 12 m. in circuit, enclosed almost the whole of the regiones of Augustus, the greater part of which were then thickly inhabited. This enormous work was begun in 271, to defend Rome against sudden attacks of the Germans and other northern races when the Aurelian wall. great armies of Rome were fighting in distant countries.[5] After the death of Aurelian the walls were completed by Probus in 280, and about a century later they were restored and strengthened by the addition of gate-towers under Arcadius and Honorius (A.D. 403), in place of the earlier gateways of Aurelian; this is recorded by existing inscriptions on three of the gates.[6] At many periods these walls suffered much more from the attacks of the Goths (Procop, Bell. Goth. iii. 22, 24), and were restored successively by Theodoric (about 500), by Belisarius (about 560), and by various popes during the 8th and 9th centuries, and in fact all through the middle ages. A great part of the Aurelian wall still exists in a more or less perfect state; but it has wholly vanished where it skirted the river, and a great part of its trans-Tiberine course is gone. The best-preserved pieces are between Porta Pinciana and Porta Salaria (in which breaches have lately been made for streets), and between the Lateran and the Amphitheatrum Castrense. The wall, of concrete, has the usual brick-facing and is about 12 ft. thick, with a guard's passage formed in its thickness. Fig. 13 shows its plan: on the inside the passage has tall open arches, which look like those of an aqueduct, and at regular intervals of about 45 ft. massive square towers are built, projecting on the outside of the wall, in three storeys, the top storey rising above the top of the wall. The height of the wall varies according to the contour of the ground; in parts it was about 60 ft. high outside and 40 inside. Necessaria, supported on two travertine corbels, projected from the top of the wall on the outside beside most of the towers. The Einsiedeln MS. gives a description of the complete circuit, counting fourteen gates, as follows:—
Porta S. Petri (at the Pons Aelius, destroyed); P. Flaminia (replaced by P. del Popolo); P. Pinciana (in use); P. Salaria (now P. Salara); P. Nomentana (replaced by P. Pia); P. Tiburtina (now P. S. Lorenzo); P. Praenestina (now P. Maggiore); P. Asinaria (replaced by P. San Giovanni); P. Metrovia or Metroni (closed); P. Latina (closed); P. Appia (now P. S. Sebastiano); P. Ostiensis (now P. S. Paolo). On the Janiculan side, P. Portuensis (destroyed); P. Aurelia (now Porta San Pancrazio). Besides these there was a gate, now closed (Porta Chiusa), to the south of the Castra Praetoria; and in all probability a gate on the right bank of the Tiber, replaced by the modern Porta Settimiana.
These existing gates are mostly of the time of Honorius; each is flanked by a projecting tower, and some are double, with a second pair of towers inside. Several have grooves for a portcullis (cataracta) in the outer arch. The handsomest gate is the P. Appia, with two massive outer towers, three stages high, the upper semicircular in plan. Many of the gates of Honorius have Christian symbols or inscriptions. The general design of all these gates is much the same—a central archway, with a row of windows over it and two flanking towers, some square, others semicircular in plan. In many of the gates older materials are used, blocks of tufa, travertine, or marble. The doors themselves swung on pivots, the bottom ones let into a hole in the threshold, the upper into projecting corbels,
At many points along the line of the Aurelian wall older buildings form part of the circuit—near the Porta Asinaria a large piece of
- ↑ Livy (ii. 5) gives the fable of the formation of this island from the Tarquins' corn, cut from the Campus Martius and thrown into the river.
- ↑ The two stone bridges connecting the island with the right and left banks took the place of earlier wooden structures.
- ↑ See Mayerhöfer, Die Brücken im alten Rom, 1883.
- ↑ The text of the Regionary Catalogues is printed by Richter, Topographie der Stadt Rom,² pp. 371 ff.
- ↑ Vita Aurel. 21, 39; Zosimus, i. 37, 49; Eutrop. ix. 15.
- ↑ The inscriptions run thus: S. P. Q. R. IMPP . CAESS . D. D. INVICTISSIMIS . PRINCIPIBVS . ARCADIO . ET . HONORIO . VICTORIBVS . AC . TRIVMPHATORIBVS . SEMPER . AVGG . OB . INSTAVRATOS . VRBIS . AETERNAE . MVROS . PORTAS . AC . TVRRES . EGESTIS . IMMENSIS . RVDERIBVS—the rest refers to honorary statues erected to commemorate this work.
