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Tusci fluminis, of the Albula, subsequently called from this accident the Tiber. Cf. 328, Virg. Aen.VIII. 331, where a different account is given. The Tiber is frequently thus referred to as ‘the Tuscan stream.’ Cf. Fast. iv. 48, Hor. C. III. vii. 27. Virgil even calls it ‘Lydian,’ in allusion to the traditional origin of the Etruscans, and Ovid, Fast. iii. 524, hails it as advena Tibri. The colour which gave to the river its earlier name, as to the Nar and Liris (cf. 330 n., Sil. Ital. VIII. 402) the epithet sulfureus, was due to the presence in its waters of sulphuretted hydrogen, which precipitated the substance called gesso. This process is still in operation in the sulphureous waters near Tivoli, but has ceased in the Tiber like the precipitation of carbonate of lime, which provided Roman builders with their stores of travertine. The later epithets flavus and fulvus describe the discoloration of the water by a fine micaceous sand. See Burn, Rome and the Campagna, pp. 3, 20.
Charles Simmons. Metamorphoseon XIII. xiv. The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Books XIII. and XIV. Edited, with introduction, analysis, and notes by Charles Simmons. New York. Macmillan. 1899.
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