sions; on the parapet were stationed, at regular distances, square pillars surmounted by statues. The last small arch is observed to stand at an angle with the rest, which gives reason to suppose it was so made to accommodate a road which issued in that direction. Nardini supposes the bridge only led to the mausoleum; and this might be the case in the first instance, for certainly it could not be required for public accommodation so long as the Vatican bridge near it was standing: it appears, however, to have been in public use at the time of Belisarius, as we shall see in the course of our circuit. The present appearance of the Ponté S. Angelo is not much unlike what it originally was; for which it is indebted to the care of Pope Clement IX. and the genius of Bernini. It fell down in 1450, and a number of persons were precipitated into the river 39: when Nicolas V. renewed it, he placed, in memory of that sad accident, two chapels at the extremity: these were found inconvenient, and accordingly were taken down by Clement VII., who placed in their stead 39 Camucci, dell' Antichità di Roma, p. 185.; Lucio Mauro, Antich. della Città, &c. p. 110. the statues of St. Peter and St. Paul. Much of the ancient construction of peperine stone still remains in the vaulting of the arches. 3. Pons Vaticanus. Some vestiges of the foundations were visible until lately 40, but can only be discerned occasionally now, when the river is low. They indicate the bridge stood about 300 paces below the Ponte S. Angelo, where the Tyber in turning forms a small bay. The additional title of "triumphalis" is given to this bridge, not upon the authority of any ancient writer, but from inference; because it was the direct communication between the Campus Martius and the Clivus Cinnæ 41 (Monte Mario), by which we know the triumphs descended. 4. Pons Janiculensis is usually identified with the site of the Ponte Xysto, which Sixtus IV. built upon the ruins of the old bridge. To adopt the language of Forsyth, it "denies us the pleasure of disputing upon it;" for nothing except the mere name has been rescued from oblivion. The old antiquaries 2 repeat a tradition which brings down the name of Antoninus as the founder, or at least the restorer, of this bridge; and they add the 42 40 See Piranesi, tom. iv. tav. 13. and 45.; and compare Vacca, Mem. No. 93. 41 See Dissertation II. p. 72.; and compare Venuti, Antichità, &c. tom. ii. p. 190. 42 Marliano, apud Grævium, tom. iii. p. 185.; Mazocchi, Epigram. Urb. Rom. p. 11.; Andreas Fulvio, carta 94.; Panciroli Descript. Urb. Rom. apud Grævium, tom. iii. p. 378. But they are not agreed whether it is to be called Aurelius on the emperor's account, or because of the ancient Via Aurelia. name of Aurelius to it. A terrible inundation of the Tyber took place in the reign of Marcus, which threw down many buildings of the city, and not unlikely some of the bridges suffered by it. The emperor, it is said, repaired all the mischief43, and might restore this bridge among the rest: but he was not the founder of it; for an inscription of the time of Trajan was still existing upon it in the sixteenth century.44 As it led to the Janiculum, there is more show of reason for the received ancient name, which we must adopt without a murmur; and with the same implicit confidence we must find the ancient Via Recta in the modern Strada Julia; because, forsooth, it was a straight street, leading along the Tyber from one bridge to another. 5. and 6. Pons Fabricius and Pons Cestius. These belong to the island of the Tyber, to which we shall shortly recur. 7. Pons Palatinus, gratuitously named also Senatorius, was in the middle ages called Ponte di S. Maria, from an image or chapel of the Virgin which stood upon it. From a passage in Livy 45, it is supposed to have been founded in the 573d year of the city, by Marcus Fulvius the censor, who put down the piles; and to have been finished 43 Julii Capitolin. M. Antonin. cap. 8.; et vide Martinelli, Descript. de' Ponte, &c. p. 33. 44 See this inscription, corrected by Nardini, tom. iii. p. 361. I suspect Trajan was the founder of this bridge, the next in position and age to those of the island. 45 M. Fulvius plura et majoris locavit usus; portum et pilas pontis in Tiberim; quibus pilis fornices post aliquot annos P. Scipio Africanus et L. Mummius censores locaverunt imponendos." Lib. xl. cap. 51. - by the censors P. Scipio Africanus and L. Mummius. Livy, indeed, only mentions a bridge across the Tyber; but as, at that time, any other would have been without the walls of Rome, a circumstance which he must have noticed, and as we can trace any of the others which could come in competition, to a different origin, it is concluded the Pons Palatinus must be meant. An inscription which was read upon it46 shows that Augustus repaired it; but it is shrouded in perplexing silence till the thirteenth century, when it fell down, and was rebuilt by Pope Honorius III. It had to be renewed again by Julius III. in 1564. It was carried away a third time, and again restored by Gregory XIII. in 1595. In the great inundation of 1598, two arches were swept away; and in that state it has since remained, with the appropriate name of Ponte Rotto. 47 8. Pons Sublicius, though last in order, is first in antiquity and renown. It was, as our author says, afterwards called Æmilius.48 He little recked "what mischief dire he brewed" by such an insinuation; and if we were to enter the lists of controversy in this particular, we might be amply recompensed for all the loss sustained in not being able to dispute upon the other bridges. It is, 46 DIVVS. AVG. PONT. MAX. EX. S.c REFECIT. Mazocchi, Epigram. Urb. Rom. p. 11. 47 It is on this occasion we find it mentioned by the Cardinal of Aragon under the name of "Pons S. Mariæ." See note, in Nardini, tom. iii. p. 357. 48" Æmilius, qui ante Sublicius." Victor de Region. Also in Regio XI. " Ædis Portumni ad pontem Æmilii olim Sublici," however, granted that Ancus Martius was the founder of it, under the circumstances we have already detailed"; and its name was derived from a word in the Volscian dialect significant of the materials of which it was first constructed 50-stakes or piles of wood. The heroic action of Horatius Cocles consecrated it in the eyes of posterity, and it could never even be repaired without the intervention of the pontiffs, and all the circumstance of religious sacrifice; nay, the very name of Pontifex, according to Varro 51, meant nothing more originally than a builder of this sacred bridge! It is mentioned by Dionysius as the only one existing in the 461st year of the city; and in time of war, he observes, they were accustomed to take it down 52. Comparing this account with what has been said of the origin of the Pons Palatinus, we shall find that Rome existed for six centuries with but one temporary bridge; so that the district beyond the Tyber must have been very thinly inhabited. Whatever repairs were done to the Pons Sublicius, it was necessary to copy the original model and construction: it was sacrilege to use spikes of metal, in order, as Pliny observes, that the rafters could be taken away and replaced at 49 See Dissertation I. p. 25. Vol. I. 50 Festus in verb. "Sublicius." The Marian law required the bridges should be made narrow, as we find they all are. Cic. de Legibus, lib. iii. sect. 16.; sed vide Paulum Merulam de Leg. Roman. cap. i. sect. 20. 51" Pontifices ego a ponte arbitror, nam ab his Sublicius est factus primum et restitutus sæpe, cum ideo sacra et uls et cis Tiberim non mediocri ritu fiant.". Varro, de Ling. Lat. lib. iv. сар. 15. |