The river rises atMount Fumaiolo in Central Italy and flows in a generally southerly direction pastPerugia and Rome to meet the sea atOstia. Known in ancient times asFlavus (Latin for 'the Blond'), in reference to the yellowish colour of its water, the Tiber has advanced significantly at its mouth, by about 3 km (2 mi), since Roman times, leaving the ancient port ofOstia Antica 6 kilometres (4 miles) inland.[4][5] However, it does not form a proportionaldelta, owing to a strong north-flowing sea current close to the shore, due to the steep shelving of the coast, and to slowtectonic subsidence.
Thesource of the Tiber consists of twosprings 10 m (33 ft) away from each other onMount Fumaiolo. These springs are calledLe Vene.[6] The springs are in abeech forest 1,268 m (4,160 ft) abovesea level. During the 1930s,Benito Mussolini had an antiquemarble Roman column built at the point where the river rises, inscribedQUI NASCE IL FIUME SACRO AI DESTINI DI ROMA ("Here is born the river / sacred to the destinies of Rome"). Aneagle is on the top of the column, part of itsfascist symbolism. The first miles of the Tiber run throughValtiberina before entering Umbria.[7]
The genesis of the nameTiber probably was pre-Latin, like the Roman name of Tibur (modernTivoli), and may be specificallyItalic in origin. The same root is found in the LatinpraenomenTiberius. Also,Etruscan variants of this praenomen are inThefarie (borrowed fromFaliscan*Tiferios, lit. '(He) from the Tiber' <*Tiferis 'Tiber') andTeperie (via the Latin hydronymTiber).[8][9]
Legendary kingTiberinus, ninth in the king-list ofAlba Longa, was said to have drowned in the River Albula, which was afterwards calledTiberis.[8] The myth may have explained a memory of an earlier, perhapspre-Indo-European name for the river, "white" (alba) with sediment, or "from the mountains" frompre-Indo-European word "alba, albion" mount, elevated area.[10]Tiberis/Tifernus may be a pre-Indo-European substrate word related toAegeantifos "still water", Greekphytonymτύφη a kind of swamp and river bank weed (Typha angustifolia),IberianhydronymsTibilis,Tebro andNumidianAquae Tibilitanae.[11] Yet another etymology is from *dubri-, water, considered by Alessio asSicel, whence the form Θύβρις later Tiberis. This root *dubri- is widespread in Western Europe e.g. Dover, Portus Dubris.[12]
According to legend, the city of Rome was founded in 753 BC on the banks of the Tiber about 25 km (16 mi) from the sea atOstia.Tiber Island, in the center of the river betweenTrastevere and the ancient city center, was the site of an important ancientford and was later bridged. Legend says Rome's founders, the twin brothersRomulus and Remus, were abandoned on its waters, where they were rescued by the she-wolf, Lupa.[13]
The river marked the boundary between the lands of theEtruscans to the west, theSabines to the east and theLatins to the south.Benito Mussolini, born inRomagna, adjusted the boundary betweenTuscany andEmilia-Romagna, so that the springs of the Tiber would lie in Romagna.
The Tiber was critically important to Roman trade and commerce, as ships could reach as far as 100 km (60 mi) upriver; some evidence indicates that it was used to ship grain from the Val Teverina as long ago as the fifth century BC.[4] It was later used to ship stone, timber, and foodstuffs to Rome.
During thePunic Wars of the third century BC, the harbour at Ostia became a key naval base. It later became Rome's most important port, wherewheat,olive oil, andwine were imported from Rome's colonies around the Mediterranean.[4] Wharves were also built along the riverside in Rome itself, lining the riverbanks around theCampus Martius area. The Romans connected the river with a sewer system (theCloaca Maxima) and with an underground network of tunnels and other channels, to bring its water into the middle of the city.
Wealthy Romans had garden-parks orhorti on the banks of the river in Rome through the first century BC.[14] These may have been sold and developed about a century later.
The heavy sedimentation of the river made maintaining Ostia difficult, prompting the emperorsClaudius andTrajan to establish a new port on the Fiumicino in the first century AD. They built a new road, theVia Portuensis, to connect Rome with Fiumicino, leaving the city byPorta Portese (the port gate). Both ports were eventually abandoned due to silting.
Severalpopes attempted to improve navigation on the Tiber in the 17th and 18th centuries, with extensive dredging continuing into the 19th century. Trade was boosted for a while, but by the 20th century, silting had resulted in the river only being navigable as far as Rome.[4]
The Tiber was once known for its floods — the Campus Martius is aflood plain and would regularly flood to a depth of 2 m (6 ft 7 in). There were also numerous major floods; for example, on September 15, 1557 the river flooded to a height of 62 feet above sea level and over 1,000 people died.[15] The river is now confined between high stone embankments, which were begun in 1876. Within the city, the riverbanks are lined by boulevards known aslungoteveri, streets "along the Tiber".
Because the river is identified with Rome, the terms "swimming the Tiber" or "crossing the Tiber" have come to be the shorthand term for converting toRoman Catholicism.[16] A Catholic who converts to Protestantism, in particular Anglicanism, is referred to as "swimming theThames" or "crossing the Thames".[17]
In ancient Rome,executed criminals were thrown into the Tiber. People executed at theGemonian stairs were thrown in the Tiber during the later part of the reign of the emperorTiberius. This practice continued over the centuries. For example, the corpse ofPope Formosus was thrown into the Tiber after the infamousCadaver Synod held in 897.
In addition to the numerous modernbridges over the Tiber in Rome, there remain a fewancient bridges (now mostly pedestrian-only) that have survived in part (e.g., thePonte Milvio and thePonte Sant'Angelo), or in whole (Pons Fabricius).
In addition to bridges, the Metro trains use tunnels.
Following the standard Roman depiction of rivers as powerfully built reclining male gods, the Tiber, also interpreted as a god namedTiberinus, is shown with streams of water flowing from his hair and beard.[18]
^Richard J. A. Talbert, ed. (2000).Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World: Map-By-Map Directory. Vol. I. Princeton, NJ and Oxford, UK: Princeton University Press. p. 630.ISBN0691049459.
^George Davis Chase, "The Origin of Roman Praenomina", inHarvard Studies in Classical Philology, vol. VIII (1897)
^Cf. e.g. G. Alessio "Studi storico-linguisitci messapici" inArchivio Storico Pugliese p. 304; "Sul nome di Brindisi" inArchivio Storico Puglese VIII 1955 p. 211 f.; "Apulia et Calabria nel quadro della toponomastica mediterranea" inAtti del VII Congresso Internazionale di Studi Onomastici Firenze 1962 p. 85.
^G. Simonetta "La stratificazione linguistica dell' Agro Falisco" p. 6 citing G. Alessio.
^G. Alessio "Problemi storico-linguistici messapici" inStudi Salentini12 1962 p. 304.
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