- Via Portuensis
Via Portuensis was an ancient Roman road, leading to the
Portus constructed byClaudius on the right bank of theTiber , at its mouth. It started from thePons Aemilius , and the first part of its course is identical with that of theVia Campana . ThePorta Portuensis of theAurelian 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 modernPonte Galeria .With the growth of importance of the Via Portuensis from the time of Constantine onwards, that of the
Via Ostiensis correspondingly decreased. It is to be noted thatProcopius , who tells us 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.Due to its large amounts of traffic, the road was eventually reconstructed with two parallel roads -- one for traffic going one direction, and the other for traffic going the other. This was considered to be the world's first
dual carriageway .Today
Rome 's Via Portuense follows a similar path. The road starts today from thePorta Portese and, after Ponte Galeria, ends in the "comune " ofFiumicino .
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