# Tiber > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Tiber > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Tiber.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiber > Source revision: 1343731390 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{short description|Major river in central Italy}} {{about|the Italian river}} {{Infobox river | name = Tiber | native_name ={{native name|it|Tevere}} | image = PonteSantAngeloRom.jpg | map = Tibre.png | image_caption = The Tiber in [Rome](/source/Rome) near the [Ponte Sant'Angelo](/source/Ponte_Sant'Angelo) | mapframe = yes | mapframe-zoom = 6 | source1_location = [Mount Fumaiolo](/source/Mount_Fumaiolo) | mouth_location = [Tyrrhenian Sea](/source/Tyrrhenian_Sea) | subdivision_type1 = Country | subdivision_name1 = [Italy](/source/Italy) | length = {{convert|406|km|mi|0|abbr=on}} | source1_elevation = {{convert|1268|m|ft|-1|abbr=on}} | mouth_elevation = | discharge1_avg = {{convert|239|m3/s|ft3/s|-2|abbr=on}}{{citation needed|date=July 2018}} (in Rome) | basin_size = {{convert|17375|km2|mi2|0|abbr=on}} | extra = }} [[File:0 Tibre - Pont Vittorio Emanuele II - San Spirito in Sassia - St-Pierre (Vatican).jpg|thumb|right|View of the Tiber looking towards [Vatican City](/source/Vatican_City)]] [[File:Rome flood marker.jpg|thumb|Rome [flood marker](/source/Historical_marker), 1598, set into a pillar of the [Santo Spirito Hospital](/source/Ospedale_di_Santo_Spirito_in_Sassia) near [Basilica di San Pietro](/source/Basilica_di_San_Pietro).]] [[File:tiber in flood.jpg|thumb|right|Highest level of Tiber for 40+ years, 13 December 2008, at [Tiber Island](/source/Tiber_Island).]] The '''Tiber''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|t|aɪ|b|ər}} {{respell|TY|bər}}; {{langx|it|Tevere}} {{IPA|it|ˈteːvere|}};{{DOP|id=1089885|lemma=Tevere}} {{langx|la|Tiberis}}{{cite book |title=Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World: Map-By-Map Directory |editor=Richard J. A. Talbert |volume=I |year=2000 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton, NJ and Oxford, UK |isbn=0691049459 |page=630 }}) is the [third-longest river](/source/List_of_rivers_of_Italy) in [Italy](/source/Italy) and the longest in [Central Italy](/source/Central_Italy), rising in the [Apennine Mountains](/source/Apennine_Mountains) in [Emilia-Romagna](/source/Emilia-Romagna) and flowing {{convert|406|km|mi|0|abbr=on}} through [Tuscany](/source/Tuscany), [Umbria](/source/Umbria), and [Lazio](/source/Lazio), where it is joined by the River [Aniene](/source/Aniene), to the [Tyrrhenian Sea](/source/Tyrrhenian_Sea), between [Ostia](/source/Ostia_(Rome)) and [Fiumicino](/source/Fiumicino).[http://www.lifeinitaly.com/tourism/lazio/default.asp Lazio – Latium | Italy] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090828051204/http://www.lifeinitaly.com/tourism/lazio/default.asp |date=28 August 2009 }} It [drains a basin](/source/Drainage_basin) estimated at {{convert|17375|km2|0|abbr=on}}. The river has achieved lasting fame as the main watercourse of the city of [Rome](/source/Rome), which was founded on its eastern banks. The river rises at [Mount Fumaiolo](/source/Mount_Fumaiolo) in Central Italy and flows in a generally southerly direction past [Perugia](/source/Perugia) and Rome to meet the sea at [Ostia](/source/Ostia_(town)). The Tiber has advanced significantly at its mouth, by about {{convert|3|km|0|abbr=on}}, since Roman times, leaving the ancient port of [Ostia Antica](/source/Ostia_Antica_(archaeological_site)) {{convert|6|km|0|abbr=off}} inland."Tiber River". ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. 2006"Tiber". ''World Encyclopedia''. Philip's, 2005. However, it does not form a proportional [delta](/source/river_delta), owing to a strong north-flowing sea current close to the shore, due to the steep shelving of the coast, and to slow [tectonic subsidence](/source/tectonic_subsidence). ==Sources== thumb|Column built in 1930s near the source of Tiber The [source](/source/Source_(river_or_stream)) of the Tiber consists of two [springs](/source/Spring_(hydrosphere)) {{convert|10|m|abbr=on}} away from each other on [Mount Fumaiolo](/source/Mount_Fumaiolo). These springs are called ''Le Vene''.{{cite web |url=http://www.turismo.fc.it/_vti_g2_608.aspx?rpstry=30_ |title=Tiber Springs – Mount Fumaiolo |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927020843/http://www.turismo.fc.it/_vti_g2_608.aspx?rpstry=30_ |archive-date=27 September 2013 |access-date=23 February 2019 |work=turismo.fc.it}} The springs are in a [beech](/source/beech) forest {{convert|1268|m|abbr=on}} above [sea level](/source/sea_level). During the 1930s, [Benito Mussolini](/source/Benito_Mussolini) had an antique [marble](/source/marble) Roman column built at the point where the river rises, inscribed QUI NASCE IL FIUME SACRO AI DESTINI DI ROMA ("Here is born the river / sacred to the destinies of Rome"). An [eagle](/source/eagle) is on the top of the column, part of its [fascist symbolism](/source/fascist_symbolism). The first kilometres of the Tiber run through [Valtiberina](/source/Valtiberina) before entering Umbria.{{cite web |url=http://www.tuscanyfarmholiday.net/tuscany-tours/tevere-monte-fumaiolo.php |title=Tuscany tours – the origin of the Tiber River |work=Farm Holidays Le Ceregne |access-date=23 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100511054240/http://www.tuscanyfarmholiday.net/tuscany-tours/tevere-monte-fumaiolo.php |archive-date=11 May 2010}} ==Etymology== The genesis of the name ''Tiber'' probably was pre-Latin, like the Roman name of Tibur (modern [Tivoli](/source/Tivoli%2C_Italy)), and may be [Italic](/source/Italic_languages) in origin. The same root is found in the Latin ''[praenomen](/source/praenomen)'' ''[Tiberius](/source/Tiberius_(praenomen))''. Also, [Etruscan](/source/Etruscan_language) variants of this praenomen are in ''Thefarie'' (borrowed from [Faliscan](/source/Faliscan_language) ''*Tiferios'', lit. '(He) from the Tiber' < ''*Tiferis'' 'Tiber') and ''Teperie'' (via the Latin hydronym ''Tiber'')."Tiber". ''Concise Dictionary of World Place-Names''. [John Everett-Heath](/source/John_Everett-Heath). [Oxford University Press](/source/Oxford_University_Press) 2005.George Davis Chase, "The Origin of Roman Praenomina", in ''Harvard Studies in Classical Philology'', vol. VIII (1897) Legendary king [Tiberinus](/source/Tiberinus_Silvius), ninth in the king-list of [Alba Longa](/source/Alba_Longa), was said to have drowned in the River Albula, which was afterwards called ''Tiberis''. The myth may have explained a memory of an earlier, perhaps [pre-Indo-European](/source/Proto-Indo-European_language) name for the river, "white" (''alba'') with sediment, or "from the mountains" from [pre-Indo-European](/source/Pre-Indo-European_languages) word "alba, albion" mount, elevated area.Cf. e.g. G. Alessio "Studi storico-linguisitci messapici" in ''Archivio Storico Pugliese'' p. 304; "Sul nome di Brindisi" in ''Archivio Storico Puglese'' VIII 1955 p. 211 f.; "Apulia et Calabria nel quadro della toponomastica mediterranea" in ''Atti del VII Congresso Internazionale di Studi Onomastici'' Firenze 1962 p. 85. ''Tiberis/Tifernus'' may be a pre-Indo-European substrate word related to [Aegean](/source/Tyrsenian_languages) ''tifos'' "still water", Greek [phytonym](/source/phytonym) ''τύφη'' a kind of swamp and river bank weed (''[Typha angustifolia](/source/Typha_angustifolia)''), [Iberian](/source/Iberian_language) [hydronym](/source/hydronym)s ''Tibilis'', ''Tebro'' and [Numidian](/source/Numidian_language) ''Aquae Tibilitanae''.G. Simonetta "La stratificazione linguistica dell' Agro Falisco" p. 6 citing G. Alessio. Yet another etymology is from *dubri-, water, considered by Alessio as [Sicel](/source/Sicel), whence the form Θύβρις later Tiberis. This root *dubri- is widespread in Western Europe e.g. Dover, Portus Dubris.G. Alessio "Problemi storico-linguistici messapici" in ''Studi Salentini'' '''12''' 1962 p. 304. ==History== According to legend, the city of Rome was founded in 753 BC on the banks of the Tiber about {{convert|25|km|abbr=on}} from the sea at [Ostia](/source/Ostia_Antica). [Tiber Island](/source/Tiber_Island), in the center of the river between [Trastevere](/source/Trastevere) and the ancient city center, was the site of an important ancient [ford](/source/Ford_(crossing)) and was later bridged. Legend says Rome's founders, the twin brothers [Romulus and Remus](/source/Romulus_and_Remus), were abandoned on its waters, where they were rescued by the she-wolf, Lupa.{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1570109/The-legend-of-Romulus-and-Remus.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1570109/The-legend-of-Romulus-and-Remus.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=The legend of Romulus and Remus |first=Malcolm |last=Moore |date=21 November 2007 |access-date=23 February 2019 |newspaper=[Telegraph](/source/Telegraph_(newspaper)) |publisher=[Telegraph Media Group Limited](/source/Telegraph_Media_Group_Limited)}}{{cbignore}} The river marked the boundary between the lands of the [Etruscans](/source/Etruscans) to the west, the [Sabines](/source/Sabines) to the east and the [Latins](/source/Latins_(Italic_tribe)) to the south. [Benito Mussolini](/source/Benito_Mussolini), born in [Romagna](/source/Romagna), adjusted the boundary between [Tuscany](/source/Tuscany) and [Emilia-Romagna](/source/Emilia-Romagna), so that the springs of the Tiber would lie in Romagna. The Tiber was critically important to Roman trade and commerce, as ships could reach as far as {{cvt|100|km|mi|-1}} upriver; some evidence indicates that it was used to ship grain from the Val Teverina as long ago as the fifth century BC. It was later used to ship stone, timber, and foodstuffs to Rome. During the [Punic Wars](/source/Punic_Wars) of the third century BC, the harbour at Ostia became a key naval base. It later became Rome's most important port, where [wheat](/source/wheat), [olive oil](/source/olive_oil), and [wine](/source/wine) were imported from Rome's colonies around the Mediterranean. Wharves were also built along the riverside in Rome itself, lining the riverbanks around the [Campus Martius](/source/Campus_Martius) area. The Romans connected the river with a sewer system (the ''[Cloaca Maxima](/source/Cloaca_Maxima)'') and with an underground network of tunnels and other channels, to bring its water into the middle of the city. Wealthy Romans had garden-parks or ''horti'' on the banks of the river in Rome through the first century BC.{{cite web| url = https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Roma/Rome/_Texts/PLATOP*/horti.html| title = Horti:LacusCurtius • Gardens of Ancient Rome (Platner & Ashby, 1929)}} These may have been sold and developed about a century later. The heavy sedimentation of the river made maintaining Ostia difficult, prompting the emperors [Claudius](/source/Claudius) and [Trajan](/source/Trajan) to establish a new port on the Fiumicino in the first century AD. They built a new road, the ''[Via Portuensis](/source/Via_Portuensis)'', to connect Rome with Fiumicino, leaving the city by [Porta Portese](/source/Porta_Portuensis) (the port gate). Both ports were eventually abandoned due to silting. Several [pope](/source/pope)s attempted to improve navigation on the Tiber in the 17th and 18th centuries, with extensive dredging continuing into the 19th century. Trade was boosted for a while, but by the 20th century, silting had resulted in the river only being navigable as far as Rome. The Tiber was once known for its floods — the Campus Martius is a [flood plain](/source/flood_plain) and would regularly flood to a depth of {{cvt|2|m}}. There were also numerous major floods; for example, on 15 September 1557 the river flooded to a height of {{cvt|62|ft|order=flip}} above sea level, over 1,000 people died.{{Cite book |last=Long |first=Pamela O. |title=Engineering the Eternal City : infrastructure, topography, and the culture of knowledge in late sixteenth-century Rome |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |year=2018 |isbn=978-0-226-54379-6 |location=Chicago |pages=19–20 |oclc=1028881404}} The river is now confined between high stone embankments, which were begun in 1876. Within the city, the riverbanks are lined by boulevards known as ''[lungoteveri](/source/lungoteveri)'', streets "along the Tiber". Because the river is identified with Rome, the terms "swimming the Tiber" or "crossing the Tiber" have come to be the shorthand term for converting to [Roman Catholic](/source/Roman_Catholic)ism.{{Cite journal |last=Madigam |first=Kevin |year=2010 |title=Pope Benedict, Disaffected Anglicans, and Holocaust-Denying Bishops |url=https://bulletin-archive.hds.harvard.edu/articles/winterspring2010/pope-benedict-disaffected-anglicans-and-holocaust-denying-bishops |journal=Harvard Divinity Bulletin |volume=38 |issue=1 & 2 |access-date=16 June 2022 |archive-date=28 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201028201717/https://bulletin-archive.hds.harvard.edu/articles/winterspring2010/pope-benedict-disaffected-anglicans-and-holocaust-denying-bishops |url-status=dead }} A Catholic who converts to Protestantism, in particular Anglicanism, is referred to as "swimming the [Thames](/source/River_Thames)" or "crossing the Thames".{{cite book |last1=Olderr |first1=Steven |title=Symbolism : a comprehensive dictionary |date=2012 |publisher=McFarland & Co |location=Jefferson, N.C. |isbn=978-0-7864-6955-0 |page=202 |edition=2nd}} In ancient Rome, [executed](/source/Capital_punishment) criminals were thrown into the Tiber. People executed at the [Gemonian stairs](/source/Gemonian_stairs) were thrown in the Tiber during the later part of the reign of the emperor [Tiberius](/source/Tiberius). This practice continued over the centuries. For example, the corpse of [Pope Formosus](/source/Pope_Formosus) was thrown into the Tiber after the infamous [Cadaver Synod](/source/Cadaver_Synod) held in 897. ==Bridges== In addition to the numerous modern [bridge](/source/bridge)s over the Tiber in Rome, there remain a few [ancient](/source/Ancient_Rome) bridges (now mostly pedestrian-only) that have survived in part (e.g., the [Ponte Milvio](/source/Ponte_Milvio) and the [Ponte Sant'Angelo](/source/Ponte_Sant'Angelo)), or in whole ([Pons Fabricius](/source/Pons_Fabricius)). In addition to bridges, the Metro trains use tunnels. [[File:Roman sculpture.jpg|right|thumb|Roman representation of Tiber as a [god](/source/god) ([Tiberinus](/source/Tiberinus_(god))) with [cornucopia](/source/cornucopia) at the [Campidoglio](/source/Campidoglio), Rome]] ==Representations== Following the standard Roman depiction of rivers as powerfully built reclining male gods, the Tiber, also interpreted as a god named [Tiberinus](/source/Tiberinus_(god)), is shown with streams of water flowing from his hair and beard.Tiber. ''Bloomsbury Dictionary of Myth'' (1996) ==See also== * [Hollywood on the Tiber](/source/Hollywood_on_the_Tiber) * [Naumachia of Augustus](/source/Naumachia_of_Augustus) ==References== {{reflist|33em}} ==Further reading== *{{cite book |last1=Schönau |first1=Birgit |title=Die Geheimnisse des Tibers: Rom und sein ewiger Fluss |date=2023 |publisher=C.H. Beck |location=München |isbn=9783406808371}} ==External links== {{Commons category|position=left}} {{clr}} [[File:Comune di Fiumicino and the Tiber River, near Rome.jpg|thumb|center|900px|{{center|The [river mouth](/source/river_mouth) of the Tiber and city of [Fiumicino](/source/Fiumicino) on the [Tyrrhenian Sea](/source/Tyrrhenian_Sea)}}]] {{Clear}} {{Emilia-Romagna}} {{Lazio}} {{Tuscany}} {{Umbria}} {{Authority control}} {{coord|41.7405|N|12.2334|E|source:wikidata|display=title}} Category:Tiber Category:Rivers of Italy Category:Rivers of the Apennines Category:Drainage basins of the Tyrrhenian Sea Category:Waterways of Italy Category:Rivers of Emilia-Romagna Category:Rivers of Lazio Category:Rivers of Tuscany Category:Rivers of Umbria Category:Geography of Rome Category:Metropolitan City of Rome Capital Category:Topography of the ancient city of Rome Category:Rivers of the Province of Perugia Category:Rivers of the Province of Rieti Category:Rivers of the Province of Terni Category:Rivers of the Province of Viterbo Category:Rivers of the Province of Arezzo Category:Rivers of the Province of Forlì-Cesena Category:Rivers of the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital Category:Geography of Perugia --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Tiber](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiber) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiber?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.