There is a walk—rather dangerous for carriages—by the river, from hence, to the Ponte Molle. Here Miss Bathurst was drowned by being thrown from her horse into the Tiber.
The river bank presents a series of picturesque views, though the yellow Tiber in no way reminds us of Virgil's description:
"Cæruleus Tybris cœlo gratissimus amnis."
Æn. viii. 64.
Continuing to follow the main road, on the left is the round Church of St. Andrew, with a Doric portico, built by Vignola, in 1527, to commemorate the deliverance of Clement VII. from the Germans.
Further, on the right, is another Chapel in honour of St. Andrew's Head.
"One of the most curious instances of relique worship occurred here in the reign of Æneas Sylvius, Pope Pius II. The head of St. Andrew was brought in stately procession from the fortress of Narni, whither, as the Turks invaded the Morea, it had been brought for safety from Patras. It was intended that the most glorious heads of St. Peter and St. Paul should go forth to meet that of their brother apostle. But the mass of gold which enshrined, the cumbrous iron which protected these reliques, was too heavy to be moved; so, without them, the pope, the cardinals, the whole population of Rome, thronged forth to the meadows near the Milvian Bridge. The pope made an eloquent address to the head, a hymn was sung entreating the saint's aid in the discomfiture of the Turks. It rested that day on the altar of Santa Maria del Popolo, and was then conveyed through the city, decorated with all splendour, to St. Peter's. Cardinal Bessarion preached a sermon, and the head was deposited with those of his brother apostles under the high-altar."—Milman's Latin Christianity.
A mile and a half from the gate, the Tiber is crossed by the Ponte Molle, built by Pius VII. in 1815, on the site and foundations of the Pons Milvius, which was erected B.C. 109 by the Censor M. Æmilius Scaurus. It was here that, on the night of December 3, B.C. 63, Cicero captured the emissaries of the Allobrogi, who were engaged in the conspiracy of Catiline. Hence, on October 27, A.D. 312, Maxentius was thrown into the river and drowned after his defeat by Constantine at the Saxa Rubra. It was on this occasion that the seven-branched candlestick of Jerusalem was dropped into the river, where it has probably ever since been embedded. The statues of Our Saviour and John the Baptist, at the further entrance of the bridge, are by Mochi.
Here are a number of taverns and Trattorie, much frequented by the lower ranks of the Roman people, and for which especial open omnibuses run from the Porta del Popolo. Similar places of public amusement seem to have existed here from imperial times. Ovid describes the people coming out hither in troops by the Via Flaminia to celebrate the fête of Anna Perenna, an old woman who supplied the plebs with cakes during the retreat to the Mons Sacer, but who afterwards, from a similitude of names, was confounded with Anna, sister of Dido.
"Idibus est Annæ festum geniale Perennæ,
Haud procul a ripis, advena Tibri, tuis.
Plebs venit, ac virides passim disjecta per herbas
Potat; et accumbit cum pare quisque sua.
Sub Jove pars durat; pauci tentoria ponunt;
Sunt, quibus e ramo frondea facta casa est:
Pars, ubi pro rigidis calamos statuere columnis,
Desuper extentas imposuere togas.
Sole tamen vinoque calent; annosque precantur,
Quot sumant cyathos, ad numerumque bibunt.
Inventes illic, qui Nestoris ebibat annos:
Quæ sit per calices facta Sibylla suos.
Illic et cantant, quidquid didicere theatris,
Et jactant faciles ad sua verba manus:
Et ducunt posito duras cratere choreas,
Multaque diffusis saltat amica comis.
Quum redeunt, titubant, et sunt spectacula vulgo,
Et fortunatos obvia turba vocat.
Occurri nuper. Visa est mihi digna relatu
Pompa: senem potum pota trahebat anus."
Fast. iii. 523.
Here three roads meet. That on the right is the old Via Flaminia, begun B.C. 220 by C. Flaminius the censor. This was the great northern road of Italy, which, issuing from the city by the Porta Ratumena, which was close to the tomb of Bibulus, followed a line a little east of the modern Corso, and passed the Aurelian wall by the Porta Flaminia, near the present Porta del Popolo. It extended to Ariminum (Rimini), a distance of 210 miles.[373]