Tiber

Tiber River in Rome

The River Tiber (Italian Tevere, Latin Tiberis), the third-longest river in Italy at 406 km (252 miles) after the Po and the Adige, flows through Rome in its course from Mount Fumaiolo to the Tyrrhenian Sea, which it reaches in two branches that cross the suburbs of Ostia-Isola Sacra (south) and Fiumicino (north). The Tiber drains a basin estimated at 18,000 km² (6845 square miles). This river's banks is where the city of Rome is said to have started.

Name

It is probable that the name Tiber is pre-Latin, like the Roman name of Tibur (modern Tivoli). A mythic king Tiberinus, ninth in the legendary king-list of Alba Longa, was said to have drowned in the Albula river, which was subsequently renamed the Tiber. The myth may have explained a memory of an earlier, perhaps pre-Indo-European name for the river, 'white' with sediment. Legend says Rome's founders, the twin brothers Romulus and Remus, were abandoned on its waters, where they were rescued by a she-wolf.

On the other hand, if the Etruscan name, Tiberius (Thefarie), is based on the name of the river, then the earlier language would be Etruscan, and the name would be *Thefar. Whether this would mean "white" is unknown. The closest known Etruscan word to it is probably thafna, "cup."

History

The Tiber has been an important river in trade and commerce since the days of the Punic Wars, during which the harbor at Ostia became a key naval base. As the Ostia harbor silted up, a new road, the via Portuensis, was built at the end of the 1st century, to connect Rome with the new Imperial port, Fiumicino, leaving the city by Porta Portese ('the port gate').

The Tiber receives another important Roman stream, the Anio, and has an island (Isola Tiberina) in the center of Rome, between Trastevere and the ancient center. The ford at the island was probably the most ancient settlement of the city. Legend goes that the River Tiber, after the mother of twins Romulus and Remus - she being Rhea Silva aka Ilia a Vestal Virgin, was also sent to drown in the water, the Tiber married her and flooded because of the injustice done to his wife.

View over Vatican City

Popularly called flavus, "the blond river", the Tiber is heavily charged with sediment but does not form a proportionable delta, owing to a strong north-flowing sea current close to the shore, to the steep shelving of the coast, and to slow tectonic subsidence. The coastline has advanced at each mouth about 3 km (2 miles) since Roman times, leaving the remains of ancient Ostia inland. A century ago, the rate of advance at Fiumicino was estimated at 4 m (13 ft) per year.

The arm which reaches the sea at Fiumicino is a canal, which was dug in the reign of the Emperor Claudius and improved by Trajan. It silted up during the Middle Ages enough to be useless for barges, but was reopened for navigation by Pope Paul V in 1612.

Ancient Romans connected the river with a sewer system (the Cloaca Maxima) and with an underground net of tunnels and other channels, to bring its water into the middle of the town. The modern stone embankments were begun in 1876.

Floods of the Tiber have affected the course of history. In modern times, famous floods occurred in 1598, 1870 and 1900.

Benito Mussolini, born in Romagna, adjusted the boundary between Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna, so that the springs of the Tiber would lie in Romagna. By the limpid spring was erected an antique Roman column, inscribed QUI NASCE IL TEVERE SACRO AI DESTINI DI ROMA ("Here is born the Tiber, sacred to the destinies of Rome")

When an Anglican converts to Roman Catholicism, that person is said to have "swum the Tiber". The reverse is referred to as "swimming the Thames". Tiberium is named for the Tiber River.