Giacobbe Giusti, Pons Fabricius or Ponte dei Quattro Capi

Giacobbe Giusti, Pons Fabricius or Ponte dei Quattro Capi

 

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Pons Fabricius or Ponte dei Quattro Capi

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Pons Fabricius or Ponte dei Quattro Capi

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Pons Fabricius or Ponte dei Quattro Capi

L’un des Hermès quadrifrons.

Pons Fabricius Ponte Fabricio Ponte dei Quattro Capi Giacobbe Giusti, Pons Fabricius or Ponte dei Quattro Capi
Pons Fabricius
Coordinates	41°53′28″N 12°28′42″ECoordinates: 41°53′28″N 12°28′42″E
Carries	Connection Campus Martius–Tiber Island
Crosses	Tiber
Locale	Rome, Italy
Characteristics
Design	Arch bridge
Total length	62 m (203 ft)
Width	5.5 m (18 ft)
Height	55.5 feet
Longest span	24.5 m (80 ft)
No. of spans	2
History
Designer	Lucius Fabricius
Construction end	62 BC

Giacobbe Giusti, Pons Fabricius or Ponte dei Quattro Capi

Pons Fabricius as it appears in a Piranesi engraving of 1756

Pons Fabricius and Tiber island as seen from the Tiber river walkway

The Pons Fabricius(Italian: Ponte Fabricio, meaning « Fabricius’ Bridge ») or Ponte dei Quattro Capi, is the oldest Roman bridge in Rome, Italy, still existing in its original state.^[1]Built in 62 BC, it spans half of the Tiber River, from the Campus Martius on the east side to Tiber Island in the middle (the Pons Cestius is west of the island). Quattro Capi(« four heads ») refers to the two marble pillars of the two-faced Janusherms on the parapet, which were moved here from the nearby Church of St Gregory (Monte Savello) in the 14th century.^[2]

Bridge

According to Dio Cassius, the bridge was built in 62 BC, the year after Cicero was consul, to replace an earlier wooden bridge destroyed by fire. It was commissioned by Lucius Fabricius, the curator of the roads and a member of the gens Fabricia of Rome. Completely intact from Roman antiquity, it has been in continuous use ever since.

The Pons Fabricius has a length of 62 m, and is 5.5 m wide. It is constructed from two wide arches, supported by a central pillar in the middle of the stream. Its core is constructed of tuff. Its outer facing today is made of bricks and travertine.

Inscription

CIL VI, 1305, the inscription on the bridge

An original inscription on the travertine commemorates its builder in Latin: L . FABRICIVS . C . F . CVR . VIAR | FACIVNDVM . COERAVIT | IDEMQVE | PROBAVIT (« Lucius Fabricius, son of Gaius, superintendent of the roads, took care and likewise approved that it be built »). It is repeated four times, once on each side of each arch.

A later inscription, in smaller lettering, records that the bridge was restored under Pope Innocent XI, probably in 1679.

• List of Roman bridges
• Roman architecture
• Roman engineering

References

1. Jump up^ Rabun M. Taylor (2000). Public Needs and Private Pleasures: Water Distribution, the Tiber River and the Urban Development of Ancient Rome. L’ERMA di BRETSCHNEIDER. pp. 141–. ISBN 978-88-8265-100-8.
2. Jump up^ Claridge, Amanda (1998). Rome: An Oxford Archaeological Guide. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press

Sources

• O’Connor, Colin (1993), Roman Bridges, Cambridge University Press, p. 66, ISBN 0-521-39326-4

Pons Fabricius at Wikimedia Commons

• LacusCurtius: Pons Fabricius
• Pons Fabricius at Structurae
• The Waters of Rome: Tiber River Bridges and the Development of the Ancient City of Rome
• Tiber Island information (in Italian)
• Ponte Fabricio (in Italian)

hide v t e Ancient bridges on the Tiber (from source to mouth)
Upstream   Milvius (Molle) Ælius (Sant’Angelo) Neronianus† Agrippae(Sisto) Aurelius† After Tiber Island   Fabricius Cestius Æmilius (Rotto)† Sublicius† Probi†
† partly or wholly underwater or demolished Names are in the original Latin; in parentheses are the Italian names that differ significantly

show v t e Roman bridges

Categories:

• Bridges in Rome
• Roman bridges in Italy
• Deck arch bridges
• Stone bridges in Italy
• Bridges completed in the 1st century BC
• Rome R. XII Ripa

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pons_Fabricius

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