PONS AEMILIUS
the official name (hemerol. Amit. Vail. Allif. ad Kal. Sept.,
CIL i². pp. 217, 240, 244; Not. app.; Pol. Silv. 545; Hist. Aug. Elag. 17)
of the first stone bridge across the Tiber, said to have been built
,
ὑπ̓ Αἰμιλίου ταμιεύοντος (Plut. Numa 9). A comparison of the citations
just made with other passages (Ov.
Fast. vi. 477-478; Serv.
Aen. viii. 646;
Aethicus, Cosmog. 28 (ed. Riese 83) ) indicates that this bridge was close
to the pons Sublicius and crossed the river from the forum Boarium
(cf. CIL i². p. 325). According to Livy (xl. 51. 4) M. Fulvius Nobilior
when censor in 179 B.C. contracted (undoubtedly with his colleague
M. Aemilius Lepidus) for the placing of '
pilas pontis in Tiberi,' and
P. Scipio Africanus and L. Minucius, the censors of 142 B.C., built arches
(fornices) on these piers. This statement is now generally believed to
refer to the pons Aemilius, and Plutarch's attribution of the building
of the bridge to a quaestor, Aemilius, is interpreted as a mistake or on
the hypothesis that the fornices of 142 were of wood and that the stone
arches were laid by a later Aemilius in his quaestorship. That the
upper part of the bridge was of wood, until 142 at least, is certain,
and therefore a statement in Obsequens (16) under date of 156 B.C.,
pontis maximi tectum cum columnis in Tiberim deiectum, is cited as
evidence that pons maximus was then a name in common use, although
Mommsen's conjecture pontificis may be correct.
In the fourteenth century an arch was standing in the forum Boarium
in front of the Ponte Rotto described as arcus marmoreus in platea
pontis S. Mariae (Anon. Magl. 155), on which was an inscription (
CIL
vi. 878) referring to a restoration by Augustus after 12 B.C. It is possible
that this restoration may have been that of the bridge. Besides pons S.
Mariae (
LS ii. 22-28;
iv. 49, 84) this bridge was called in the Middle
Ages pons Senatorum (Mirab. II), and pons Maior (Eins. 7. 4; cf.
Delbruck, Hellenistische
Bauten i. 14). In the seventh century Aethicus
(loc. cit.) writes:
pontem Lepidi qui nunc abusive a plebe lapideus
dicitur iuxta forum boarium transiens. Both these early variants of
Aemilius are easily explained, Lepidi from Aemilius, and lapideus from
the tradition that it was the first stone bridge (Plut. loc. cit.). The
identification of the pons Aemilius of the empire with the present Ponte
Rotto may be regarded as certain. This bridge was partially destroyed
by the flood of 1557 (cf. M61. 1906, 189-193) and repaired by Gregory XIII
(III. 37). In 1598 the eastern half was carried away, and in 1887 two of
the three remaining arches were removed, so that only one now stands
in midstream. Recent investigation has shown that the ancient pier
of this arch is not the earliest, as the remains of the abutment are earlier
and belong to a bridge slightly further north which crossed the river
at a slightly different angle. This was therefore the bridge of the second
century B.C. and the existing arch and pier belong to a second structure,
probably that of Augustus (Delbrfick, op. cit. i. 12-22 ; ii. taf. 2 ; Richter,
Befestigung d. Ianiculums 18-20; Jord. i. I. 409-414; 420-421;
RE
i. 593; M61. 1906, 180-181, 189-193 ;
Gilb. iii. 257-260 ; Ber. d. sachs.
Gesell. 1850, 320-326; Besnier 128-130;
BC 1914, 390; DuP 58, and
fig. 31; TF 139-141). Cf. Ill. 32: and see
FORNIX AUGUSTI.
For a viaduct on the road leading from the bridge to the Janiculum,
cf.
VIA AURELIA.
