Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

PONS. PONS. 937
The Greek term for a permanent bridge is?y&Epa, remained at the time of Otho, when it was carried
which the ancient etymologists connected with the away by an inundation of the Tiber. (Tacit. Ilist.
Gephyraei (requpaot), a people whom Herodotus i. 86, who calls it pens sublicius.) In later ages it
(v. 57) states to have been Phoenicians, though was also called peons Aem7ilius, probably from the
they pretended to have come from Eretria; and name of the person by whom it was rebuilt; but
the etymologists accordingly tell us that the first who this Aemilius was is uncertain. It may have
bridge in Greece was built by this people across been Aemilius Lepidus the triumvir, or probably
the Cephissus; but such an explanation is opposed the Aemilius Lepidus who was censor with Munato sound etymology and common sense. As the tius Plancus, under Augustus, ten years after the
rivers of Greece were small, and the use of the arch pons sZublicius fell down, as related by Dion Cassius
known to them only to a limited extent [ARcvs], (p. 423, c.) We learn from P. Victor, in his deit is probable that their bridges were built entirely scription of the Regio xi., that these two bridges
of wood, or, at best, were nothing more than a were one and the same- " Aemilius qui ante subwooden platform supported upon stone piers at licius." It is called Aemilian by Juvenal (Sat.
each extremity, like that of Nitocris described vi. 32) and Lampridius (Heliog. c. 17), but it is
above. Pliny (HI. N. iv. 1) mentions a bridge mentioned by Capitolinus (Antonin Piuts, c. 8) as
over the Acheron 1000 feet in length; and also the poes Sullicius; which passage is alone suffisays (iv. 21) that the island Euboea was joined cient to refute the assertion of some writers that it
to Boeotia by a bridge; but it is probable that was built of stone at the period when the name of
both these works were executed after the Roman Aemilius was given to it. (Nardini, Rosm. Alst.
conquest. viii. 3.)
In Greece also, as well as in Italy, the term This bridge was a favourite resort for beggars,
bridge was used to signify a roadway raised upon who used to sit upon it and demand alms. (Senec.
piers or arches to connect the opposite sides of a De Vit. Beat. 25.) Hence the expression of Juravine, even where no water flowed through it venal (xiv. 134), aliquis de ponte, for a beggar.
(T'v?y&uspav, i dEirl T- varet iv, Xeon. Assl. (Compare also Juv. iv. 116.)
vi. 5. ~ 22). It was situated at the foot of the Aventine, and
The Romans were undoubtedly the first people was the bridge over which C. Gracchus directed
who applied the arch to the construction of bridges, his flight when he was overtaken by his opponents.
by which they were enabled to erect structures (Plut. Graccn. p. 842, c.; compare Val. Max. iv. 7.
of great beauty and solidity, as well as utility; ~ 2; Ovid. Fast. vi. 477.)
for by this means the openings between the piers IT. PONS PALATINUS formed the commnnicafor the convenience of navigation, which in the tion between the Palatine and its vicinities and
bridges of Babylon and Greece must have been very the Janiculum, and stood at the spot now occupied
narrow, could be extended to any necessary span. by the " ponte Rotto." It is thought that the
The width of the passage-way in a Roman words of Livy (xl. 51) have reference to this bridge.
bridge was commonly narrow, as compared with It was repaired by Augustus. (Inscrip2. ap. Grut.
modern structures of the same kind, and corre- p. 160. n. 1.)
sponded with the road (viac) leading to and from III. IV. PONs FABRICIUS and PONS CESTIUS
it. It was divided into three parts. The centre were the two which connected the Insula Tiberina
one, for horses and carriages, was denominated with the opposite sides of the river; the first with
eqgcer or iter; and the raised footpaths on each the city, and the latter with the Janiculumn. Both
side (decursoria), which were enclosed by parapet are still remaining. The pons Fabricius was oriwalls similar in use and appearance to the plitees ginally of wood, but was rebuilt by L. Fabricius;
in the basilica. [BASILICA, p. 199, b.] the curator viarum, as the inscription testifies, a
Eight bridges across the Tiber are enumerated short time previous to the conspiracy of Catiline
by P. Victor as belonging to the city of Rome. (Dion Cass. xxxvii. p. 50); which passage of Dion
1. Of these the most celebrated, as well as the Cassius, as well as the words of the Schloliast on
most ancient, was the PONS SUBLIC1US, SO called Horace (Sat. ii. 3. 36), warrant the assumption that
because it was built of wood; sublices, in the lan- it was then first built of stone. It is now called
guage of the Formiani, meaning wooden bealns. "Ponte quattro capi." The peons Cestiis is, by
(Festus, s. v. Sebdlicium.) It was built by Ancus some authors, supposed to have been built during
Martits, when he united the Janiculhm to the city the reign of Tiberius by Cestins Gallus, the per(Liv. i. 33; Dionys. iii. p. 183), and became re- son mentioned by Pliny (x. 60; Tacit. Ann. vi.
nowned from the well-known feat of Horatius 31), though it is more reasonable to conclude
Codes in the war with Porsenna. (Liv. ii. that it was constructed before the termination of
10; Val. Max. iii. 2. ~ 1; Dionys. v. pp. 295, the republic, as no private individual would have
296.) In consequence of the delay and dificulty been permitted to give his own name to a public
then experienced in breaking it down, it was re- work under the empire. (Nardini, 1. c.) The inconstructed without nails, in such a manner that scriptions now remaining are in commemoration of
each beam could be removed and replaced at plea- Valentinianus, Valens, and Gratianus, the emperors
sure. (Plin. H. N. xxxvi. 23.) It was so rebuilt by whom it was restored. Both these bridges are
by the pontifices (Dionys. iii. p. 183), from which represented in the following woodcut: that on the
fact, according to Varro (De Lisig. Lat. v. 83), right hand is the poens Fabricius, and is curious as
they derived their name; and it was afterwards being one of the very few remaining works which
considered so sacred, that no repairs could be made bear a date during the republic; the pens Cestius
in it without previous sacrifice conducted by the on the left represents the efforts of a much later
pontifex in person. (Dionlys. ii. I. c.) In the age; and, instead of the buildings now seen
age of Augustus it was still a wooden bridge, as upon the island, the tenlples which originally
is manifest from the epithet roboreo, used by Ovid stood there, as well as the island itself, have been
(Fst. v. 621); in which state it appears to have I restored.