Tiber

Coordinates: 41.7405°N 12.2334°E

The Tiber (/ˈtaɪbər/ TY-bər; Italian: Tevere [ˈteːvere];[1] Latin: Tiberis[2]) is the third-longest river
Tiber
in Italy and the longest in Central Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and
flowing 406 km (252 mi) through Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio, where it is joined by the River
Aniene, to the Tyrrhenian Sea, between Ostia and Fiumicino.[3] It drains a basin estimated at
17,375 km2 (6,709 sq mi). The river has achieved lasting fame as the main watercourse of the city
of Rome, which was founded on its eastern banks.

The river rises at Mount Fumaiolo in Central Italy and flows in a generally southerly direction past
Perugia and Rome to meet the sea at Ostia. Known in ancient times as Flavus (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 of Ostia Antica 6
The Tiber in Rome near the Ponte
kilometres (4 miles) inland.[4][5] However, it does not form a proportional delta, owing to a strong
Sant'Angelo
north-flowing sea current close to the shore, due to the steep shelving of the coast, and to slow
tectonic subsidence.

Sources
The source of the Tiber consists of two springs 10 m (33 ft) away from each other on Mount
Fumaiolo. These springs are called Le Vene.[6] The springs are in a beech forest 1,268 m (4,160 ft)
above sea level. During the 1930s, Benito Mussolini had an antique marble Roman column built
at the point where the river rises, inscribed QUI NASCE IL FIUME SACRO AI DESTINI DI ROMA
("Here is born the river / sacred to the destinies of Rome"). An eagle is on the top of the column,
part of its fascist symbolism. The first miles of the Tiber run through Valtiberina before entering
Umbria.[7]

Etymology
The genesis of the name Tiber probably was pre-Latin, like the Roman name of Tibur (modern Native Tevere (Italian)
Tivoli), and may be specifically Italic in origin. The same root is found in the Latin praenomen name
Tiberius. Also, Etruscan variants of this praenomen are in Thefarie (borrowed from Faliscan Location
*Tiferios, lit. '(He) from the Tiber' < *Tiferis 'Tiber') and Teperie (via the Latin hydronym Country Italy
Tiber).[8][9]
Physical characteristics
Legendary king Tiberinus, ninth in the king-list of Alba Longa, was said to have drowned in the Source
River Albula, which was afterwards called Tiberis.[8] The myth may have explained a memory of • location Mount Fumaiolo
an earlier, perhaps pre-Indo-European name for the river, "white" (alba) with sediment, or "from • elevation 1,268 m (4,160 ft)
the mountains" from pre-Indo-European word "alba, albion" mount, elevated area.[10]
Mouth
Tiberis/Tifernus may be a pre-Indo-European substrate word related to Aegean tifos "still water",
Greek phytonym τύφη a kind of swamp and river bank weed (Typha angustifolia), Iberian • location Tyrrhenian Sea
hydronyms Tibilis, Tebro and Numidian Aquae Tibilitanae.[11] Yet another etymology is from Length 406 km (252 mi)
*dubri-, water, considered by Alessio as Sicel, whence the form Θύβρις later Tiberis. This root Basin size 17,375 km2 (6,709 sq mi)
*dubri- is widespread in Western Europe e.g. Dover, Portus Dubris.[12] Discharge
• average 239 m3/s (8,400 cu ft/s)
History (in Rome)

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 at Ostia. Tiber Island, in the center of the river between Trastevere and the ancient
city center, was the site of an important ancient ford and was later bridged. Legend says Rome's
founders, the twin brothers Romulus 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 the Etruscans to the west, the Sabines to the east
and the Latins to the south. Benito Mussolini, born in Romagna, adjusted the boundary between
Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna, so that the springs of the Tiber would lie in Romagna. View of the Tiber looking towards
Vatican City
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 the Punic Wars of the third century BC, the harbour at Ostia became a key naval base. It later
became Rome's most important port, where wheat, olive oil, and wine were imported from Rome's
colonies around the Mediterranean.[4] Wharves were also built along the riverside in Rome itself,
lining the riverbanks around the Campus Martius area. The Romans connected the river with a sewer
system (the Cloaca 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 or horti 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.
Rome flood marker, 1598, set into a
The heavy sedimentation of the river made maintaining Ostia difficult, prompting the emperors
pillar of the Santo Spirito Hospital
Claudius and Trajan to establish a new port on the Fiumicino in the first century AD. They built a new near Basilica di San Pietro.
road, the Via Portuensis, to connect Rome with Fiumicino, leaving the city by Porta Portese (the port
gate). Both ports were eventually abandoned due to silting.

Several popes 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 a flood 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, Highest level of Tiber for 40+ years,
the riverbanks are lined by boulevards known as lungoteveri, streets "along the Tiber". 13 December 2008, at Tiber Island.

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 to Roman Catholicism.[16] A Catholic who
converts to Protestantism, in particular Anglicanism, is referred to as "swimming the Thames" or
"crossing the Thames".[17]

In ancient Rome, executed criminals were thrown into the Tiber. People executed at the Gemonian
stairs were thrown in the Tiber during the later part of the reign of the emperor Tiberius. This practice
continued over the centuries. For example, the corpse of Pope Formosus was thrown into the Tiber
after the infamous Cadaver Synod held in 897.
Column built in 1930s near the
Bridges source of Tiber

In addition to the numerous modern bridges over the Tiber in Rome, there remain a few ancient bridges (now mostly pedestrian-only) that
have survived in part (e.g., the Ponte Milvio and the Ponte Sant'Angelo), or in whole (Pons Fabricius).

In addition to bridges, the Metro trains use tunnels.

Representations
Following the standard Roman depiction of rivers as powerfully built reclining male gods, the Tiber,
also interpreted as a god named Tiberinus, is shown with streams of water flowing from his hair and
beard.[18]

See also
Hollywood on the Tiber Roman representation of Tiber as a
god (Tiberinus) with cornucopia at
the Campidoglio, Rome
References
1. (in Italian) Dizionario d'ortografia e di pronunzia (http://www.dizionario.rai.it/poplemma.a
spx?lid=6319&r=19952) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20201202061558/http://
www.dizionario.rai.it/poplemma.aspx?lid=6319&r=19952) 2020-12-02 at the Wayback
Machine
2. 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. ISBN 0691049459.
3. Lazio – Latium | Italy (http://www.lifeinitaly.com/tourism/lazio/default.asp) Archived (http
s://web.archive.org/web/20090828051204/http://www.lifeinitaly.com/tourism/lazio/defaul
t.asp) 28 August 2009 at the Wayback Machine
4. "Tiber River". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2006
5. "Tiber". World Encyclopedia. Philip's, 2005.
 6. "Tiber Springs – Mount Fumaiolo" (https://web.archive.org/web/20130927020843/http://www.turismo.fc.it/_vti_g2_608.asp
x?rpstry=30_). turismo.fc.it. Archived from the original (http://www.turismo.fc.it/_vti_g2_608.aspx?rpstry=30_) on 27
September 2013. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
7. "Tuscany tours – the origin of the Tiber River" (https://web.archive.org/web/20100511054240/http://www.tuscanyfarmholida
y.net/tuscany-tours/tevere-monte-fumaiolo.php). Farm Holidays Le Ceregne. Archived from the original (http://www.tuscanyf
armholiday.net/tuscany-tours/tevere-monte-fumaiolo.php) on 11 May 2010. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
8. "Tiber". Concise Dictionary of World Place-Names. John Everett-Heath. Oxford University Press 2005.
9. George Davis Chase, "The Origin of Roman Praenomina", in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, vol. VIII (1897)
10. Cf. e.g. G. Alessio "Studi storico-linguisitci messapici" in Archivio Storico Pugliese p. 304; "Sul nome di Brindisi" in Archivio
Storico Puglese VIII 1955 p. 211 f.; "Apulia et Calabria nel quadro della toponomastica mediterranea" in Atti del VII
Congresso Internazionale di Studi Onomastici Firenze 1962 p. 85.
11. G. Simonetta "La stratificazione linguistica dell' Agro Falisco" p. 6 citing G. Alessio.
12. G. Alessio "Problemi storico-linguistici messapici" in Studi Salentini12 1962 p. 304.
13. Moore, Malcolm (21 November 2007). "The legend of Romulus and Remus" (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/157
0109/The-legend-of-Romulus-and-Remus.html). Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group Limited. Archived (https://ghostarchive.
org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1570109/The-legend-of-Romulus-and-Remus.html) from
the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
14. "Horti:LacusCurtius • Gardens of Ancient Rome (Platner & Ashby, 1929)" (https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazettee
r/Places/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Roma/Rome/_Texts/PLATOP*/horti.html).
15. Long, Pamela O. (2018). Engineering the Eternal City : infrastructure, topography, and the culture of knowledge in late
sixteenth-century Rome (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1028881404). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. pp. 19–20.
ISBN 978-0-226-54379-6. OCLC 1028881404 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1028881404).
16. Madigam, Kevin (2010). "Pope Benedict, Disaffected Anglicans, and Holocaust-Denying Bishops" (https://bulletin-archive.h
ds.harvard.edu/articles/winterspring2010/pope-benedict-disaffected-anglicans-and-holocaust-denying-bishops). Harvard
Divinity Bulletin. 38 (1 & 2). Retrieved 16 June 2022.
17. Olderr, Steven (2012). Symbolism : a comprehensive dictionary (2nd ed.). Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co. p. 202.
ISBN 978-0-7864-6955-0.
18. Tiber. Bloomsbury Dictionary of Myth (1996)

External links

The river mouth of the Tiber and city of Fiumicino on the Tyrrhenian Sea

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