Pons Neronianus
Encyclopedia
The Pons Neronianus or Bridge of Nero was an ancient bridge
in Rome
built during the reign of the emperors Caligula
or Nero
to connect the western part of the Campus Martius
with the Campus Vaticanus ("Vatican Fields"), where the Imperial Family
owned land along the Via Cornelia
.
at that time, not knowing the origins of the ruined bridge, named it after the region rather than after Nero
himself. Whatever its origins, the bridge gave Nero easier access to the Gardens of Agrippina, his mother Agrippina the Younger
's riverside gardens and portico which were located on the right bank just downstream from the bridge.
The Emperor Caligula
built a circus
on the right bank of the Tiber. The historian Tacitus
says it was in this circus, renamed the Circus of Nero
, that the Emperor Nero
executed the Christian
s who were accused of causing the Great Fire of Rome
of 64 AD, in order to entertain the people of Rome after that fire. It is believed that Nero substituted the timber bridge
of the Via Triumphalis with the stone bridge named after him, the Pons Neronianus or 'Triumphalis' because the Via Triumphalis, the Triumphal Way, passed over it. The people of Rome most likely crossed the Pons Neronianus to get to the Circus of Nero.
Starting with Titus
, the victorious Emperors celebrating their Triumph
s entered Rome marching across the Pons Neronianus along the Via Triumphalis. It is probable that the capacity of the Pons Neronianus could not cope with the day to day traffic in Rome because within a century of its completion the Emperor Hadrian
built the Pons Aelius
less than two hundred metres upstream. Nero's bridge was also called Pons Vaticanus (meaning "Vatican Bridge" in Latin), because it connected the Ager Vaticanus to the left bank. The bridge may well have been in ruins in the fourth century. Certainly, by the Middle Ages
the bridge was called Pons ruptus ("Broken Bridge"), because it was broken. In the fifteenth century Pope Julius II planned to restore it.
The Pons Neronianus is not mentioned in the classical literary sources or regionary catalogues; it is mentioned only in the medieval Mirabilia Urbis Romae
and Graphia Aureae Urbis Romae as one of the ruins of Rome that could still be seen at that time. Neither is it mentioned in Procopius
’ account of the siege of Rome by the Goths
in 537. The evidence that the Pons Neronianus was out of use by the fourth century was first cited by Henri Jordan
. It is based on a brief passage in Prudentius
:
Prudentius was still alive when Honorius
and Arcadius
built the triumphal arch
referred to in the text quoted about a dual ceremony at St. Peter's Basilica
and the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls
which states that the route to St. Peter’s Basilica from the east bank crossed at "Hadrian’s bridge", the Pons Aelius
upstream. As passing over the Pons Neronianus would have been a shorter way to St. Peter’s Basilica from the left bank, it becomes clear that the Pons Neronianus was out of use by that time.
The Pons Neronianus crossed the river immediately below the modern Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II
, but at a slightly different angle; little of the ancient structure survives today. When the Tiber is at low water level it is possible to see the foundation of one of the four piers that once supported the Pons Neronianus. However, in the nineteenth century all the piers were still visible above water. These were removed to allow boats to pass safely up the Tiber.
Roman bridge
Roman bridges, built by ancient Romans, were the first large and lasting bridges built. Roman bridges were built with stone and had the arch as its basic structure....
in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
built during the reign of the emperors Caligula
Caligula
Caligula , also known as Gaius, was Roman Emperor from 37 AD to 41 AD. Caligula was a member of the house of rulers conventionally known as the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Caligula's father Germanicus, the nephew and adopted son of Emperor Tiberius, was a very successful general and one of Rome's most...
or Nero
Nero
Nero , was Roman Emperor from 54 to 68, and the last in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius to become his heir and successor, and succeeded to the throne in 54 following Claudius' death....
to connect the western part of the Campus Martius
Campus Martius
The Campus Martius , was a publicly owned area of ancient Rome about in extent. In the Middle Ages, it was the most populous area of Rome...
with the Campus Vaticanus ("Vatican Fields"), where the Imperial Family
Julio-Claudian Dynasty
The Julio-Claudian dynasty normally refers to the first five Roman Emperors: Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula , Claudius, and Nero, or the family to which they belonged; they ruled the Roman Empire from its formation, in the second half of the 1st century BC, until AD 68, when the last of the line,...
owned land along the Via Cornelia
Via Cornelia
Via Cornelia is an ancient Roman Road that supposedly ran east west along the northern wall of the Circus of Nero on land now covered by the southern wall of St. Peter's Basilica. It is closely associated with the Via Aurelia and the Via Triumphalis...
.
History
There is no direct evidence that Nero actually built the bridge named after him. It may well have been named the 'Bridge of Nero' because the area on the right bank of the Tiber beyond the bridgehead was still named the "Plain(s) of Nero" well into the Medieval period, so that the inhabitants of RomeRome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
at that time, not knowing the origins of the ruined bridge, named it after the region rather than after Nero
Nero
Nero , was Roman Emperor from 54 to 68, and the last in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius to become his heir and successor, and succeeded to the throne in 54 following Claudius' death....
himself. Whatever its origins, the bridge gave Nero easier access to the Gardens of Agrippina, his mother Agrippina the Younger
Agrippina the Younger
Julia Agrippina, most commonly referred to as Agrippina Minor or Agrippina the Younger, and after 50 known as Julia Augusta Agrippina was a Roman Empress and one of the more prominent women in the Julio-Claudian dynasty...
's riverside gardens and portico which were located on the right bank just downstream from the bridge.
The Emperor Caligula
Caligula
Caligula , also known as Gaius, was Roman Emperor from 37 AD to 41 AD. Caligula was a member of the house of rulers conventionally known as the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Caligula's father Germanicus, the nephew and adopted son of Emperor Tiberius, was a very successful general and one of Rome's most...
built a circus
Circus (building)
The Roman circus was a large open-air venue used for public events in the ancient Roman Empire. The circuses were similar to the ancient Greek hippodromes, although serving varying purposes. Along with theatres and amphitheatres, Circuses were one of the main entertainment sites of the time...
on the right bank of the Tiber. The historian Tacitus
Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors...
says it was in this circus, renamed the Circus of Nero
Circus of Nero
The Circus of Nero or Circus of Caligula was a circus in ancient Rome.-Construction:It was begun by Caligula on the property of his mother Agrippina on the Ager Vaticanus , and finished by Nero...
, that the Emperor Nero
Nero
Nero , was Roman Emperor from 54 to 68, and the last in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius to become his heir and successor, and succeeded to the throne in 54 following Claudius' death....
executed the Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
s who were accused of causing the Great Fire of Rome
Great Fire of Rome
The Great Fire of Rome was an urban fire that occurred beginning July 19, AD 64.-Background:According to Tacitus, the fire spread quickly and burned for six days. Only four of the fourteen districts of Rome escaped the fire; three districts were completely destroyed and the other seven suffered...
of 64 AD, in order to entertain the people of Rome after that fire. It is believed that Nero substituted the timber bridge
Roman bridge
Roman bridges, built by ancient Romans, were the first large and lasting bridges built. Roman bridges were built with stone and had the arch as its basic structure....
of the Via Triumphalis with the stone bridge named after him, the Pons Neronianus or 'Triumphalis' because the Via Triumphalis, the Triumphal Way, passed over it. The people of Rome most likely crossed the Pons Neronianus to get to the Circus of Nero.
Starting with Titus
Titus
Titus , was Roman Emperor from 79 to 81. A member of the Flavian dynasty, Titus succeeded his father Vespasian upon his death, thus becoming the first Roman Emperor to come to the throne after his own father....
, the victorious Emperors celebrating their Triumph
Roman triumph
The Roman triumph was a civil ceremony and religious rite of ancient Rome, held to publicly celebrate and sanctify the military achievement of an army commander who had won great military successes, or originally and traditionally, one who had successfully completed a foreign war. In Republican...
s entered Rome marching across the Pons Neronianus along the Via Triumphalis. It is probable that the capacity of the Pons Neronianus could not cope with the day to day traffic in Rome because within a century of its completion the Emperor Hadrian
Hadrian
Hadrian , was Roman Emperor from 117 to 138. He is best known for building Hadrian's Wall, which marked the northern limit of Roman Britain. In Rome, he re-built the Pantheon and constructed the Temple of Venus and Roma. In addition to being emperor, Hadrian was a humanist and was philhellene in...
built the Pons Aelius
Ponte Sant'Angelo
Ponte Sant'Angelo, once the Aelian Bridge or Pons Aelius, meaning the Bridge of Hadrian, is a Roman bridge in Rome, Italy, completed in 134 AD by Roman Emperor Hadrian, to span the Tiber, from the city center to his newly constructed mausoleum, now the towering Castel Sant'Angelo...
less than two hundred metres upstream. Nero's bridge was also called Pons Vaticanus (meaning "Vatican Bridge" in Latin), because it connected the Ager Vaticanus to the left bank. The bridge may well have been in ruins in the fourth century. Certainly, by the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
the bridge was called Pons ruptus ("Broken Bridge"), because it was broken. In the fifteenth century Pope Julius II planned to restore it.
The Pons Neronianus is not mentioned in the classical literary sources or regionary catalogues; it is mentioned only in the medieval Mirabilia Urbis Romae
Mirabilia Urbis Romae
Mirabilia Urbis Romae is a much-copied medieval Latin text that served generations of pilgrims and tourists as a guide to the city of Rome. The original, which was written by a canon of St Peter's, dates from the 1140s...
and Graphia Aureae Urbis Romae as one of the ruins of Rome that could still be seen at that time. Neither is it mentioned in Procopius
Procopius
Procopius of Caesarea was a prominent Byzantine scholar from Palestine. Accompanying the general Belisarius in the wars of the Emperor Justinian I, he became the principal historian of the 6th century, writing the Wars of Justinian, the Buildings of Justinian and the celebrated Secret History...
’ account of the siege of Rome by the Goths
Goths
The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....
in 537. The evidence that the Pons Neronianus was out of use by the fourth century was first cited by Henri Jordan
Henri Jordan
Henri Jordan was a German scholar of Roman topography in the 19th century.He worked together with Christian Huelsen and Rodolfo Lanciani and is most famous for his 2 volume study of Roman topography, Topographie der Stadt Rom im Alterthum.Jordan was born in Berlin and died in Königsberg, where he...
. It is based on a brief passage in Prudentius
Prudentius
Aurelius Prudentius Clemens was a Roman Christian poet, born in the Roman province of Tarraconensis in 348. He probably died in Spain, as well, some time after 405, possibly around 413...
:
Prudentius was still alive when Honorius
Honorius (emperor)
Honorius , was Western Roman Emperor from 395 to 423. He was the younger son of emperor Theodosius I and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla, and brother of the eastern emperor Arcadius....
and Arcadius
Arcadius
Arcadius was the Byzantine Emperor from 395 to his death. He was the eldest son of Theodosius I and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla, and brother of the Western Emperor Honorius...
built the triumphal arch
Triumphal arch
A triumphal arch is a monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a road. In its simplest form a triumphal arch consists of two massive piers connected by an arch, crowned with a flat entablature or attic on which a statue might be...
referred to in the text quoted about a dual ceremony at St. Peter's Basilica
St. Peter's Basilica
The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter , officially known in Italian as ' and commonly known as Saint Peter's Basilica, is a Late Renaissance church located within the Vatican City. Saint Peter's Basilica has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world...
and the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls
Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls
The Papal Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls , commonly known as St Paul's Outside the Walls, is one of four churches that are the great ancient major basilicas or papal basilicas of Rome: the basilicas of St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major, and St. Peter's and Saint Paul Outside the Walls...
which states that the route to St. Peter’s Basilica from the east bank crossed at "Hadrian’s bridge", the Pons Aelius
Pons Aelius
Pons Aelius or Newcastle Roman Fort was an auxiliary castra and small Roman settlement on Hadrian's Wall in the Roman province of Britannia Inferior...
upstream. As passing over the Pons Neronianus would have been a shorter way to St. Peter’s Basilica from the left bank, it becomes clear that the Pons Neronianus was out of use by that time.
The Pons Neronianus crossed the river immediately below the modern Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II
Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II
Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II is a bridge in Rome constructed to designs of 1886 by the architect Ennio De Rossi. Construction was delayed, and it was not inaugurated until 1911...
, but at a slightly different angle; little of the ancient structure survives today. When the Tiber is at low water level it is possible to see the foundation of one of the four piers that once supported the Pons Neronianus. However, in the nineteenth century all the piers were still visible above water. These were removed to allow boats to pass safely up the Tiber.
External links
- The Tiber River, Tiber Bridges, and Tiber Island in Rome on catholic-resources.com
- http://www.iath.virginia.edu/~spw4s/RomanForum/GoogleEarth/HTML/BR-007.htmlPons Neronianus on the University of VirginiaUniversity of VirginiaThe University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
website]