Adjacent, upstream,. is the solitary remaining pier of the ancient
Pons Æmilius, built in 181 B.C., the position of which exposed it
to frequent injury from inundations. The two arches next the left
bank were carried away by the great flood of 1598, after which it
was called Ponte Rotto. Below the new bridge is the mouth of
the Cloaca Maxima (p. 322), the vault of which, preserved below an
arch on the new quay, may be seen from the bridge when the river
is not too high.
To the right of the bridge is a second small and well-preserved
Temple (converted in 880 into the church of Santa Maria
Egiziaca; Pl. II, 16), dating, as its style seems to indicate, from
the close of the Republic. It is an Ionic pseudoperipteros, with
four columns at each end and seven on each side; but those of the
portico, which is now built up, were alone detached, the others being
merely decorative half-columns. The edifice is built of tufa, with
the projecting and sculptured parts of travertine, the whole overlaid
with stucco. There is no authority for assigning it (as is commonly
done) to Fortuna Virilis; more probably it is the temple of the
Mater Matuta. The interior is uninteresting.
Directly opposite the entrance to this church is the picturesque
House of Creseentius (Pl. II, 16), commonly called Casa di
Rienzi (Pl. II, 16), or di Pilato, constructed of brick with a sin-
gular admixture of antique fragments. On the E. side, Via del
Ricovero, a long metrical Latin inscription records that 'this lofty
house was erected by Nicholas, son of Crescens, foremost and de-
scended from the foremost, not from motives of ambition, but to
revive the ancient glory of Rome'. The Crescentii were the most
powerful noble family in Rome at the close of the 10th cent., but
no scion of the name of Nicholas can be traced, and the house, the
oldest existing specimen of mediæval domestic architecture in
Rome, is perhaps not earlier than the Ilth or 12th cent. (comp.
p. lxiv). The building was originally much larger, and was intended
to command the bridge over the Tiber. It has nothing to do with
Cola di Rienzo, 'the last of the tribunes', who was born in the Rione
Regola.
To the N., following the bank of the Tiber, we may reach
the Theatre of Marcellus (p. 267), or taking the Via Bocca della
Verità (p. 322), proceed to the Piazza Montanara (p. 268).
f. The Aventine. Monte Testaccio. Pyramid of Cestius.
Electric Tramway from the Piazza Venezia by the Via Arenula
and along the Tiber to the Quartiere Testaccio and thence by the Porta
San Paolo to San Paolo Fuori, see Nos. X and 5 in the Appendix,
The Aventine (150 ft.), anciently the principal seat of the Ro-
man Plebs, and also afterwards densely peopled, is now occupied