This is the Ponte Sublicio today, which connects the Porta Portese area (right bank of the Tiber), with the Testaccio area (left bank). But what we see today is only the modern reconstruction of something that has really and decisively made the history of Rome, since its origins. In fact, let us never forget that the Eternal City owes a great deal to the presence of the Tiber, its mythological river, a source of misfortunes (as you can learn more about here) but also of prosperity and wealth. Sometimes it happens to me, during my tour, to pass through the Ponte Sublicio. And I immediately remarked how much such a structure, a bridge, was fundamental for the development of the city.

Ancient sources tell us, such as Tito Livio for example, that the Ponte Sublicio was even built by Anco Marzio, fourth King of Rome (we are in the seventh century BC) or even by his predecessor, Tullio Hostilius. According to others, this first completely wooden bridge was built by the populations who lived on the right bank of the Tiber, where the Trastevere district stands today. Peoples and tribes that had nothing to do with Rome whose pomerium and nerve center was stationed on the left bank, where today there is the area of the Forum Boarium and the Palatine and Campidoglio hill. What really suggests is the symbol that the Ponte Sublicio represents: it is a passage, a connection and an opening of Rome to the outside world, to what lies beyond the sacred center dedicated to Jupiter from which the Romans felt protected. The Tiber was a physical and sacred border, a boundary between urbs and rus, between city and countryside, between civilization and incivility. Building a bridge, when Rome was still a simple village, meant opening new trade routes, meeting new populations, bearers of new ideas and cultures. Tito Livio himself, in fact, informs us that king Anco Marzio decided "to extend control (...) for convenience, he built a wooden bridge, then the first built over the Tiber" . Obviously then, the Ponte Sublicio also represents the first viaticum to wage war against those who stood next to the Urbe. It was from here that the Romans defended themselves against the Etruscans, and then attacked them. It was on this bridge that the hero Horace Coclite fought alone on this bridge , preventing the enemies (Etruscans led by Porsenna, friend of Tarquinio the Superb, the last King of Rome who, after his expulsion, wanted to reconquer the city and throne) from advancing and, meanwhile, commanding his fellow soldiers and companions to destroy the bridge, so as to prevent the taking of Rome. A sacrifice , that of Horace Coclite, which will remain in the annals and in the thoughts of the ancient Romans, who saw him as a shining example of loyalty, virtus and courage .

It should be noted that the term sublicio derives from sublica, an archaic term in the Volscan language which stands for wooden planks. So nothing too abstruse or complicated: simple wood to act as a link between Rome and the surrounding world. A world that Rome was able to make its own thanks to a simple, small bridge. The first of many, some still standing today, such as the Ponte Milvio, others built later but reusing ancient bridges (such as Ponte Sisto , as you can read here). But they all have a common denominator: the first bridge, the Ponte Sublicio.