Via Portuensis was an
ancient Roman road, leading to the
Portus
Portus was a large artificial harbour of Ancient Rome. Sited on the north bank of the north mouth of the Tiber, on the Tyrrhenian coast, it was established by Claudius and enlarged by Trajan to supplement the nearby port of Ostia.
The archa ...
constructed by
Claudius
Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54) was the fourth Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Drusus and Antonia Minor ...
on the right bank of the
Tiber
The Tiber ( ; it, Tevere ; la, Tiberis) is the third-longest river in Italy and the longest in Central Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio, where it is joined by th ...
, at its mouth. It started from the
Pons Aemilius, and the first part of its course is identical with that of the
Via Campana. The
Porta Portuensis of the
Aurelian Walls had a double arch, probably owing to the amount of traffic it had to carry, but the divergence occurred a good deal further on, probably a mile from the gate. The Via Portuensis went to the right into hilly country, while the Via Campana kept to the valley of the Tiber. The roads rejoined at the modern
Ponte Galeria.
With the growth of importance of the Via Portuensis from the time of
Constantine onwards, that of the
Via Ostiensis correspondingly decreased.
Procopius, who describes how barges were dragged up the river by teams of oxen moving along it, must be describing the towpath, and not either the Via Portuensis or even the Via Campana, which is in many places at quite a considerable distance from the winding course of the river.
Its large amounts of traffic caused the road to be eventually reconstructed with two parallel roads: one for traffic going one way and the other for traffic going the other. It is considered to have been the world's first
dual carriageway.
Today
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus ( legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
's Via Portuense follows a similar path. The road starts today from the
Porta Portese and, after Ponte Galeria, ends in the ''
comune
The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...
'' of
Fiumicino
Fiumicino () is a town and comune in the Metropolitan City of Rome, Lazio, central Italy, with a population of 80,500 (2019). It is known for being the site of Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport, the busiest airport in Italy and the eleventh-b ...
.
Popilia
Rome Q. XI Portuense
Rome Q. XII Gianicolense
Rome S. VIII Gianicolense
Rome S. VII Portuense
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