Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/869

 ROMA. mains of the Sublician bridge; whilst Becker, in his De Mm-is, held them to belong to the Pons Aemi- lius. That writer in the treatise alluded to (p. 78, seq.) made three assertions respecting the Ae- milian bridge: (1) That it was not the same as the Sublician; (2) that it stood where the Sublician is commonly placed, i. e. just below the Porta Trige- niina; (3) that it was distinct from the Pons La- pideus, or Lepidi. But in his Handbuch, published oidy in the following year, he rejected all these assertions except the first. According to the most probable view of this intricate and much disputed question at which we can arrive, the matter appears to us to have stood as follows: the Pons Sublicius was outside of the Porta Trigemina, at the place where remains of a bridge still exist. The reasons for arriving at this conclusion have been stated at the beginning of this discussion. Another bridge, of stone, also called Sublicius, was erected close to it to serve the pur- poses of traffic; but the wooden one was still pre- served as a venerable and sacred relic, and as in- dispensable in certain ancient religious ceremonies, such as the precipitating from it the two dozen men of straw. But the stone bridge had also another name, that of Lapideus, by way of distinction from the wooden bridge. Becker is of opinion that the notion of Aelhicus, or Julius Orator, that Pons Lapideus was only a vulgar error for Pons Lepidi, is a " falsae eruditionis con- jectura," and we think so too. We do not believe that the bridge ever bore the name of Lepidus. We may see from the account given of the wooden bridge by Dionysius, that, though preserved in his time, it was useless for all practical purposes (iii. 45). EOIIA. 8-^9 We may be sure that the pontifices would not have taken upon themselves the repairs of a bridge subject to the wear and tear of daily traffic. Ovid (Fast. v. 622) adverts to its existence, and to the sacred purposes to which it was applied : — " Tunc quoque priscorum virgo simulacra virorum Mittere roboreo seirpea potite solet." The coexistence of the two bridges, the genuine wooden Sublician, and its stone substitute, is shown in the following passage of Plutarch : oii yap dffjinof, oAA.' iiraparov 7jye7a6ai 'Poofiaiivs ri]v Ka.rdvcriv ttjs ^vXivrjs y€<pvpas. . . 'H Se XSivtj TToXKols vcrrepov (^apydaOr] xpoi'ois vir^ Al/xiXiou raiXLiiiovros. (Num. 9.) Still more decisive is the testimony of Servius : " Cum per Sublicium pontem, hoc est ligneum, qui modo lapideus dicitur, transire conaretur (Porsena) " (lul Aen. viii. G4G). There must certainly have been a strong and prac- ticable bridge at an early period at this place, for the heavy traffic occasioned by the neighbourhood of the Emporium ; but when it was first erected cannot be said. The words of Plutarch, inr' AtixiXiov rafjit- ivovTos, are obscure, and perhaps corrupt; but at all events we must not confound this notice with that in Livy respecting the building of the Pons Aemilius ; the piles of which were laid in the cen- sorship of M. Aemilius Lepidus and M. Fulvius Nobilior, B.C. 179, and the arches completed some years afterwards, when P. Scipio Africanus and L. Mummius were censors (xl. 51). There is no proof that the Ponte Potto is the Pons Aemilius; but Becker, in his second view, and Canina assume that it was; and this view is as probable as any other. LNSUL.V TIBEl'.INA, -WITII TIIK TONS FABRICIL'S AND PONS CESTIUS. There were several bridges at Rome before the Pons Aemilius was built, since Livy (xxxv. 21) mentions that tivo were carried away by the stream in B. c. 193; and these could hardly have been all, 0;- he would undoubtedly have said so. The Insula Tiberina was, in very early times, connected with each shore by two bridges, and hence obtained the name of Inter Duos Pontes. (Plut. Popl. 8; JIacrob. Sat. ii. 12.) That nearest the city (now Ponls Quattro Capi) was the Pons Fabiiicius, so named from its founder, or probably its restorer, VOL. n. L. Fabricius, as appears from the inscription on it, ami from Dion Cassius (xxxvii. 45). It was the favourite resort of suicides: — « jussit sapientem pascere barbam Atone a Fabricio non tristem ponte revert i." (Hor. S. ii. 3. 36.) The bridge on the farther side of the island (now Punte S. Bartohmmeo) is commonly called Pons CK.STIUS, and appears to have borne that name in 3 I