THE PONTE SISTO.
The present bridge was built by Pope Sixtus IV., who laid the foundation stone, April 29, 1473, on the site of an older bridge which was destroyed in the flood of A.D. 792, it having been built by Symmachus, prefect of Rome under Valentinian (A.D. 365), "under whose government the most sacred city enjoyed peace and plenty in an unusual degree; being also adorned with a magnificent and solid bridge which he constructed, and opened amid the great joy of his ungrateful fellow-citizens" (Ammianus Marcellinus, xxvii. iii. 3). In 1878, in making the new embankment for the Tiber, the remains of the left arch were found at the bottom of the river, upon which was part of the inscription, one foot seven inches high—Valentinian. Pedestals which formed part of the decorations were also found, and part of an inscription—Valentiniani au costi. At the Campus Martius end was a triumphal arch dedicated to Valens and Valentiniani—
DEDICANDI . OPERIS . HONORE . DELATO . INDICIO . PRINCIPUM .
MAXIMORUM . LUCIO . AURELIO . AVIANIO . SYMMACHO . VIRO .
CLARISSIMO . EX . PREFECTIS . URBI.
Remains of a bronze statue were also found.
The Via Giulia, on the left, and the Via Mascherone, on the right, lead to