VIA TECTA (1)
a street in the campus Martius, mentioned three times in
the literature of the first century (Seneca, Apoc. 13:
descendunt per
viam Sacram .. inicit illi manum Talthybius. ..et trahit. . . per
campum Martium; et inter Tiberim et viam Tectam descendit ad
inferos;
Mart. iii. 5. 5;
viii. 75. I, 2 :
dum repetit sera conductos nocte
penates / Lingonus a tecta Flaminiaque recens), which seems to have
connected the region of the via Flaminia and forum with the Tarentum.
The pavement of an ancient street leading in this general direction has
been found at various points in the Vie di Pescheria, del Pianto, de'
Giubbonari, de' Cappellari, and del Banco di S. Spirito, and on the same
line as the fragments of the
PORTICUS MAXIMAE (q.v.). It is possible
that this was the via Tecta, so called because it was protected by some
sort of a colonnade before the porticus Maximae were built (HJ 485;
KH iii.).
1 The name
VIA RECTA, which some authorities apply to the
road going east from the pons Aelius to the via Flaminia (LF 14), is due to
a wrong reading of the first passage (HJ 503, n. 78).
