The Via Salaria is said to have been so named from the supplies of salt conveyed along it to the Sabine district at the time when the Romans and Sabines were confederates. It is first mentioned in history as the scene of the single combat between Manlius and the gigantic Gaul. The ancient road passed out at the Collina gate, and followed very nearly the same line as the present road along the left bank of the Tiber, as may be seen by the ruins near Serpentara, and by the position of the ancient bridge, the Ponte Salaro, which carries it over the Anio close to Antemnæ. Beyond this, Fidenæ and the Allia are the most remarkable points of interest upon the road in the neighbourhood of Rome. Beyond Malpasso, the ancient road, according to Nibby, diverges to the right, crossing the railway to Ancona.
The Via Flaminia, after passing through the Porta Ratumena at the Tomb of Bibulus, left the Aurelian fortifications at the Porta Flaminia, which stood a little nearer the slope of Monte Pincio than the present Porta del Popolo. It ran to the right of the present street, and then crossed the Tiber at the well-known Milvian bridge, and then diverged to the right along the Tiber valley, while the Via Cassia ascended to the left among the Etruscan hills towards Veii, which lay to the right at the twelfth milestone. The old Flaminian Road lay closer to the river than the modern, which is carried through a cutting in the hills and rejoins it at Tor di Quinto. There are a few rock tombs on the left hand, between the fifth and sixth milestones. One of them has been connected with the poet Ovid by a mistaken inference drawn from the inscription found upon it which bears the name of Q. Nasonius Ambrosius.
Ponte Nomentano.
The Ponte Molle, which derives its name from an unknown Roman Mulvius, or from the neighbouring hills, carries the Flaminian Road over the Tiber at a distance of two miles from the Porta del Popolo. Some of the foundations of the bridge, and parts of the peperino and travertine stonework in the smaller arches, are ancient. The victory of Constantine over Maxentius, which is usually called the battle of the Pons Mulvius, was gained six miles further along the road.
An inscription cut in a block of travertine has been fixed in the right-hand parapet of the bridge. This inscription records the inspection of the banks of the Tiber by the Censors of M. Valerius and Publius Serveilius, who were Censors in the year B.C. 55.
Villa of Livia at Prima Porta.
One of the imperial villas of an early date was placed on the right bank of the Tiber at the ninth milestone on the Via Flaminia in the Veientine territory.
The Via Flaminia is here bordered for a long distance on the left-hand side by tufa rocks of a reddish hue, whence the district had obtained, in Livy’s time, the name of Saxa Rubra. The Cremera, now the Valca, is one of the streams which enter the Tiber in this district, and beyond it, where the road turns to the left, and, leaving the valley of the Tiber, ascends the hill through a cutting, is the stream and hamlet of Prima Porta. On the right of the road here, and between it and the Tiber, lie the ruins of a large villa, the various terraces of which, raised one above the other, occupy the whole of the top of the hill, and command magnificent views of the Sabine and Æquian highlands. There can be no doubt that these ruins are the remains of the villa of Livia called ad Gallinas, mentioned by Pliny and by Suetonius as situated at the ninth milestone on the Via Flaminia. The style of construction in the walls which remain corresponds to that of the Mausoleum of Augustus in the Campus Martius. The reticulated work has that peculiar irregularity about it which indicates the transition from the opus incertum to the more regularly formed opus reticulatum. Nibby had pointed out this spot in 1837 as one in which a rich harvest might be reaped from excavating, but it was not till 1863 that the splendid Statue of Augustus, now in the Braccio Nuovo of the Vatican with other interesting sculptures, was dug up here.[161]
At the same time some rooms were excavated at a depth of ten feet, under the level of the ancient villa. They had apparently been closed at a very early time and filled with earth, in order to erect a building over them. The largest of these was apparently intended as a cool retreat during the summer heats, and the walls are painted with trees and birds, in imitation of a rustic bower. These paintings have attracted great attention as being some of the most ancient now in existence, and also on account of their intrinsic beauty, and the wonderful way in which they have preserved their freshness of colour. The pavement of this painted room was of marble, which was, however, removed when the earth was thrown in at the time of building the rooms above.