A View of Rome with the Bridge and Castel St. Angelo by the Tiber Framed Giclee Print
Vanvitelli
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The principal springs of the Tiber are located in a gorge of Monte Coronaro, in the Apennines of Tuscany, at the height of 3,600 feet above the sea. The river runs through the lowlands of Etruria, Umbria, Sabina, and Latium for a distance of 249 miles, of which nearly 80 are navigable even by steamers of moderate size. Between Rome and the sea, it expands into a beautiful channel some 400 feet wide, and is navigated by steamers and barges of nearly 100 tons register. Nothing can be more charming than a sail down the river from Rome to the sea, not only on account of the historical associations of the river itself, but more especially on account of its natural beauty. Let us recall the magnificent verses in which Virgil describes how Aeneas, sailing along the Latin coast, discovered the mouth of the Tiber and entered the unknown waters, wondering at the lovely scene which opened before his eyes, and at the feeling of rest and tranquillity which pervaded all his being, after a long and eventful voyage, —
“Atque hie Aeneas ingentem ex æquore lucum Prospicit: hunc inter fluvio Tiberinus amceno, Vorticibus rapidis, et multâ flavus arenâ, In mare prorumpit. Variæ circumque supraque Assuetae ripis volucres et fluminis alveo, Aethera mulcebant cantu lucoque volabant.”
The fidelity of this picture is astonishing; at least it was so, until two or three years ago, before the appearance in this remote region of peace and enchantment of so-called civilization, with its pretence of making the air healthier, and of banishing malaria from the lowlands of the delta. The trees sung by Virgil have been cut down; the sandbanks, a favorite resort of flamingoes and pelicans, have been dredged away; and to make the profanation complete, a cast-iron bridge is to be thrown across the river, in place of the picturesque old boat which for centuries has ferried passengers across from Ostia to Fiumicino.
The special characteristics of the river are three: first, the wholesome quality of its waters; second, the considerable amount of solid matter it carries down to the sea, which, deposited on each side of the bar, makes the coast advance at a considerable rate; and, third, the abundance of the springs that feed the river, in consequence of which its normal level never varies by an inch, summer or winter.
We may observe that the Tiber, as regards volume and level of water, has never changed within historical times. One may read, even in books of sound archæological value, that the Tiber was much lower in ancient times than it is now. Even Bonini, one of our best engineers, has stated the difference of level at eighteen feet. His great argument, repeated so often, is drawn from the passage in Pliny which describes how Agrippa once rowed into the Cloaca Maxima, the mouth of which is not high enough above the water now to admit the possibility of any such anti-hygienic sport. But from a series of observations taken in the course of the present works of embankment, it appears that for the last twentyone centuries the level of the water, and consequently the bed of the river, has risen only two feet and two or three inches.
There is an important work, written in Latin by Paolo Giovio on the fish belonging to the Tiber. The most famous and costly in ancient times was the lupus, a fish described and praised by Macrobius, Pliny the elder, and Juvenal. The best in quality, the ones reserved for imperial and aristocratic tables, were caught inter duos pontes, near the island of S. Bartolomeo and near the mouth of the Cloaca Maxima. The sturgeon also was highly appreciated.
In the Conservatori Palace, on the Capitol, there is still to be seen a marble bas-relief, representing a sturgeon fortysix inches long, and underneath it is engraved the text of a law passed by the Senatus populusque Romanus, in the year 1581, according to which any sturgeon caught in Roman waters, equalling or exceeding the statute size, as represented in the bas-relief, must be considered public property, and placed at the disposal of the city authorities. As far as I know, the city authorities have never feasted on a sturgeon since the promulgation of that strange decree.
