Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/673

 PONS MOSAE. TTrention of the name in history occurs in the Second Punic War, when Livy tells us that the Roman peo- ple poured out in a continuous stream as far as the Jlilvian Bridge to meet the messengers who brought the tidings of the defeat of Hasdrubal, b. c. 207. (Liv. xxvii. 51). Hence, when Aurelius Victor reckons it among the works constructed by Aemilius Scaurus in his censorship (b. c. 1 10), it is evident that this can refer only to its rebuilding or restor- ation. (Vict, cle Vir. Illnstr. 72.) It is veiy pos- sible that there was no stone bridge before that time. At the time of the conspiracy of Catiline, the Mil- vian Bridge was selected as the place where the ambassadors of the Allobroges were arrested by the orders of Cicero. (Sail. Cat. 45 ; Cic. in Cat. iii. 5.) It is probable that under the Empire, if not earlier, a suburb extended along the Via Flaminia as far as the Milvian Bridge. Hence we are told that it was the point from which Caesar (among iiis other gigantic schemes) proposed to divert the course of the Tiber, so as to carry it further from the city (Cic. ad Att. xiii. 33): and again, the emperor Gallienus is said to have proposed to extend the Flaminian portico as far as the Milvian Bridge. (Treb. Poll. Gallien. 18.) In the reign of Nero the neighbourhood of the bridge was occupied by low taverns, which were much resorted to for purposes of debauchery. (Tac. ^?m. xiii. 47.) Its prximity to Rome, to which it was the principal approach from the N., rendered the Milvian Bridge a point of impnrtance during civil wars. Hence it is repeatedly mentioned by Tacitus during those which followed the death of Nero (Tac. Hist. i. 87, ii. 89, iii. 82): and again, in A. d. 193, it was there that Didius Julianus was defeated by Severus (Eutrop. viii. 17; Vict. Caes. 19). At a later period, also, it witnessed the defeat of Maxentius by Constantine (a. D. 312), when the usurper himself perished in the Tiber. (Vict. Caes. 40 ; Eutrop. x. 4 ; Zosim. ii. 16.) Its military importance was recognised also in the Gothic Wars, when it was occupied by Vitiges during the siege of Rome, in a. d. 537; and again, in 547, when Totila destroyed all the other bridges in the neighbourhood of Rome, he spared the Mil- vian alone. (Procop. B. G. i. 19, iii. 24.) The present bridge is in great part of modern construc- tion, but the foundations and principal piers are ancient. [E. H. B.] PONS MOSAE, in northera Gallia, is mentioned by Tacitus {Hist. iv. 66), but there is nothing said to show where this bridge was. A Roman road ran from Aduatuca (rowgrerM) across the Mosa (]Jaas) past Juliacum {Juliers) to Colonia (Cologne). It is veiy probable that the Pons Mosae was on this route, and that it was at Maastricht. The termi- nation tricht is a corruption of the Roman word Trajectum. [Trajectum.] [G. L.] PONS NA'RTIAE. [Gallaecia, p. 934, b.] PONS NE'RVIAE. [Gallafxia, p. 934, b.] PONS NOMENTA'NUS. [Nomestum.] PONS SALA'RIUS (Ponte Salara), a bridge on the Via Salaria where that highroad crossed the Anio (Teverone) about 2.^ miles from Rome. From its position this is certainly the bridge meant by Livy under the name of Pons Anienis, on which the single combat of Manlius Tonjuatus with the Gaul is described as taking place. (Liv. vii. 9.) The name is not again mentioned in history, but we learn from an inscription still remaining that the present bridge was constructed by Narses, in the room of the more ancient one which had been destroyed by Totila VOL. II. PONTES TESSENII. 657 in A. r). 547, when he broke up the siege of Rome and withdrew to Tibur. (Procop. i?. G. iii. 24- Nibby, Dintorm. vol. ii. p. 594.) [E. H. B.] PONS SARAVI, a bridge over the Saravus (Sarre) in Gallia on the road from Divodunim {Metz) to Argentoratum (Strasshurg). The Table marks 10 from Decem-pagi (Dievze) to Tabernae {Saverne). Though the distances are not quite correct, it is clear that Saarburg on the Sarve must be the Pons Saravi ; and it cannot be Saai'briic/c on the Soar, for Saarbriick is more than 30 miles north of Saarburg, and quite out of the way. This is an instance in which a hasty conclusion has been derived solely from the sameness of name. [G. L.] PONS SCALDIS, or bridge over the Schdde in North Gallia, is placed both by the Table and the Antonine Itin. on the road from Turn.acum (To/irnai) to Bagacum {Barai). There is a place on the Schelde named Escaut-pont between Valenciennes and Conde which may represent the Pons. [O.L.] PONS SERVI'LII. [Ili.ykicuji, Vol. II. p. 36, b.] PONS TILL'RI, a station on the ro.id fi-om Sir- mium to Salona, in the interior of Dalm;itia. (Itin Anton.; Tihmwm. Peitt. Tub.; Geogr. Rav. iv. 16.) It may be iilentified with the passage of the river Ceftina or Tsettina (Tilurus), at Triyl, with the opposite height of Gardun, where there are ves- tiges of a Roman town, which was probably the colony of Aequu.m (AikoCoi' ic6.. Ptol. ii. 16 (17). § 11 ; Itin. Anton.; Pent. Tab.; Orelli, Inscr. 502), where an inscription has been found com- memorating the restoration of the bridge under the name of Pons Hipri, — a Graccised form of the Latin name of the town, which was sometimes spelt as Equum. (Wilkinson, Dulmatia, vol. i. p. 238 ; Neigebaur, Lie Sud-Slaven, p. 178.) [E. B. J.] PONS UCASI, a town of Thrace, near the Da- cian border. (Itin. Ant. p. 567.) [T. H. D.] PONS ZITHA, a station on the Roman road ninning along the coast-line of Syrtica, and a n}u- nicipium. (Itin. Anton. ; Geogr. Rav.) In the Peutinger Table it is wrongly called Liha. Earth (Wanderungen, p. 263) has fixed its site at the promontory opposite to Meninx, where he found remains of a stone bridge or mole connecting the mainland with the island of the Lotophagi. [E.B.J.] PONTEM, AD, a town of Britain, on the road from Londinium to Lindum (Itin. Ant. p. 477), identified by Camden (p. 560) with Paunton on the Withani, in Lincolnshire, where a great many Roman coins and antiquities have been discovered. Others take it to have been Farndon. near South- well, in Nottinghamshire. [T. II. D.J PONTES, in North Gallia, is placed in the Ant. Itin, on a road from Samarobriva (Amiem) to Ge- soriacum (Boulogne): it is 36 M. P. from Samaro- briva to Pontes, and 39 M. P. from Pontes to Ge- soriacum. The Table, which marks a road between Samarobriva and Gesoriacum, does not jjlace Pontes on it, but it has another place, named Duruicoregum, supposed to be Doiiricrs on the Authie. D'Anville concludes that Pontes is Ponches on the Avthie, at which place we arrive by following the traces of the old road which still exists under the name of CItamssee de Briuieliaut. [G. L.] PONTES, a Roman station in the territory of the Atrebates, seated on the Thames, on the road from Calleva (Silcitester) to Londinium (Itin. Ant. p. 478). It was at or near Old Windsot: [T. H. D.] PONTES TESSE'NII (Diesseti), a place in u u