The Theatre of Marcellus rises from the ground in layered arches of travertine stone, forming a semicircular frame that towers above the modern street level. Julius Caesar cleared the site for this structure, but Augustus finished the…
Tiber Island and Forum Boarium
This walk traces the oldest foundations of Rome along the Tiber, where mystical legends, ancient marble temples, and a ship-shaped island reveal the city's water-bound origins.
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1. Theatre of Marcellus
2. San Nicola in Carcere
Three distinct ancient temples sit embedded within the walls of San Nicola in Carcere. You can see the fluted stone columns of a Roman temple protruding directly from the church’s exterior masonry, remnants of structures dating back to the…
3. Ponte Fabricio
The Ponte Fabricio connects the Tiber River's left bank to the Isola Tiberina with two wide stone arches and a smaller central opening designed to relieve pressure during floods. Lucius Fabricius, the curator of roads, commissioned this…
4. Tiber Island
Tiber Island sits in the middle of the river, shaped like a long, narrow boat with stone embankments that trace its prow and stern. Ancient Romans believed the island formed when the grain harvest of the expelled King Tarquin the Proud was…
5. Pons Aemilius
A single, jagged stone arch rises from the middle of the Tiber River. This is the last remaining remnant of the Pons Aemilius, Rome's first stone bridge across the river. Construction began in the second century before the common era to…
6. Temple of Portunus
The Temple of Portunus stands out for its remarkably complete preservation, with its four stone columns across the front and ionic capitals still clearly defined after two thousand years. It owes this survival to the ninth century, when…
7. Temple of Hercules Victor
The Temple of Hercules Victor stands out as the oldest surviving marble building in Rome. Its twenty elegant Corinthian columns form a circular ring, a shape that confused early antiquarians who often mistook it for a temple dedicated to…
8. Mouth of Truth
The Bocca della Verita is a heavy, circular marble mask depicting a bearded, grimacing face with hollow eyes and a gaping mouth. It rests against the portico wall of the Basilica of Saint Mary in Cosmedin. Medieval legend held that the…
9. Arch of Janus
The Arch of Janus stands out for its unique four-sided design, a massive structure of brick and marble that once served as a junction point for the Forum Boarium. It dates to the fourth century and likely honoured the Emperor Constantine…