Editing Tiber (section)

==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 Antica|Ostia]]. [[Tiber Island]], in the center of the river between [[Trastevere]] and the ancient city center, was the site of an important ancient [[Ford (crossing)|ford]] and was later bridged. Legend says Rome's founders, the twin brothers [[Romulus and Remus]], were abandoned on its waters, where they were rescued by the she-wolf, Lupa.<ref>{{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 (newspaper)|Telegraph]] |publisher=[[Telegraph Media Group Limited]]}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

The river marked the boundary between the lands of the [[Etruscans]] to the west, the [[Sabines]] to the east and the [[Latins (Italic tribe)|Latins]] to the south. [[Benito Mussolini]], born in [[Romagna]], adjusted the boundary between [[Tuscany]] and [[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 {{convert|100|km|mi|-1|abbr=on}} upriver; some evidence indicates that it was used to ship grain from the Val Teverina as long ago as the fifth century BC.<ref name="eb"/> It was later used to ship stone, timber, and foodstuffs to Rome.

During the [[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]], [[olive oil]], and [[wine]] were imported from Rome's colonies around the Mediterranean.<ref name="eb"/> Wharves were also built along the riverside in Rome itself, lining the riverbanks around the [[Campus Martius]] area. The Romans connected the river with a sewer system (the ''[[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.<ref>{{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)}}</ref> 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]] and [[Trajan]] to establish a new port on the Fiumicino in the first century AD. They built a new road, the ''[[Via Portuensis]]'', to connect Rome with Fiumicino, leaving the city by [[Porta Portuensis|Porta Portese]] (the port gate). Both ports were eventually abandoned due to silting.

Several [[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.<ref name="eb"/>

The Tiber was once known for its floods — the Campus Martius is a [[flood plain]] and would regularly flood to a depth of {{convert|2|m|abbr=on}}. There were also numerous major floods; for example, on September 15, 1557 the river flooded to a height of 62 feet above sea level and over 1,000 people died.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Long |first=Pamela O. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1028881404 |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}}</ref> 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]]'', 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]]ism.<ref>{{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 }}</ref> A Catholic who converts to Protestantism, in particular Anglicanism, is referred to as "swimming the [[River Thames|Thames]]" or "crossing the Thames".<ref>{{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}}</ref>

In ancient Rome, [[Capital punishment|executed]] criminals were thrown into the Tiber. People executed at the [[Gemonian stairs]] were thrown in the Tiber during the later part of the reign of the emperor [[Tiberius]]. This practice continued over the centuries. For example, the corpse of [[Pope Formosus]] was thrown into the Tiber after the infamous [[Cadaver Synod]] held in 897.