Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Pons

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

PONS (γέφυρα). A bridge. Vitruvius has not left any account respecting the construction of bridges; but the numerous examples still remaining testify the great skill of the Roman engineers and builders in this branch of art. The following account is consequently derived from observation of existing examples, and not from written authorities. The causeway (via, agger) is uniformly laid down, like the roads, with large masses of polygonal stones, flanked on each side with a raised trottoir (crepido) or pavement for foot-passengers, and enclosed on each side by a low parapet wall (pluteus), but not formed of open balustrades, as is the more common practice at the present day. A gateway (porta), which might be closed by a bar or portcullis (cataracta), is frequently erected at one end of the bridge (see the woodcut s. CATARACTA, 2.), or an ornamental archway (fornix), which might also be converted to the same use, is sometimes situated in the centre, or at each end, as in the annexed example (Pons/1.1), representing the bridge at St. Chamas in its present state. The line of some bridges is nearly horizontal, of others which span a torrent stream, very much hog-backed, with an extremely sharp ascent and declivity. The arches are in all cases nearly semicircular, and sometimes of great span. A single remaining one at Narni is 150 feet wide, springing from a pier at the height of 100 feet from the river below. The bridge built by Augustus at Rimini, which Palladio regarded as the finest model he had seen, contains seven arches, and is horizontal in the centre, but has a slight devergence on each of its ends.

2. (γέφυρα). The original Greek bridge, as the name imports, was nothing more than a dam or mound of earth, forming a raised causeway, such as we use in localities subject to inundations; the smallness of the rivers or streams in that country rendering them for the most part fordable, or easily crossed by a few planks. Hence the art of bridge-building, like that of road-making and drainage, owes its perfection to the Romans, who were the first people to make an extensive use of the arch, and consequently those which are enumerated in that country as regular bridges of any length (Plin. H. N. iv. 1. Ib. 21.) may be fairly believed to have been executed after the Roman conquest.

3. Pons sublicius. A timber bridge, upon piles of wood; frequently constructed for a temporary purpose, such as the passage of an army across a stream. Numerous specimens are in consequence exhibited on the columns of Trajan and Antoninus, from which latter the annexed illustration (Pons/3.1) is taken. The famous sublician bridge at Rome, when rebuilt after its destruction in the war with Porsena, was constructed without nails, in order that the timbers might be taken to pieces, and replaced again whenever occasion required that the communication should be interrupted or re-opened. Liv. i. 33. Plin. H. N. xxxvi. 23.

4. Pons suffragiorum. A temporary bridge of planks erected during the Roman comitia, over which the voters passed one by one as they came out from the septum, to cast their votes (tabellae) into the box (cista) (Cic. Att. i. 14. Ov. Fast. v. 634.). The object was to prevent fraud, tumult, and intimidation, and to secure, as far as possible, freedom of action to the voter, who received his ballot from an officer stationed at one end of the bridge, over which he then crossed to the opposite extremity, where the ballotting box was placed, and having deposited his vote, passed out. These particulars are all expressed in the illustration (Pons/4.1), from a consular coin, which shows part of the railing enclosing the septum, one voter receiving a ballot, and another in the act of depositing one in the box.

5. (ἐπιβάθρα, ἀποβάθρα). A bridge formed by a broad plank laid from the shore to a vessel, over which the crew and passengers embarked or disembarked (Virg. Aen. x. 288.). The illustration (Pons/5.1) represents a bridge of this description, from a painting in the Nasonian sepulchre near Rome, by means of which a horseman is escaping from the pursuit of a tiger, which other persons in the original composition are hunting.

6. The deck of a vessel upon which towers and military engines were erected, as in the annexed example (Pons/6.1) from a marble bas-relief. Tac. Ann. ii. 6.

7. A drawbridge, let down from the upper story of a moveable tower, or any other elevated object, during sieges, over which the attacking party could pass on to the ramparts without the aid of scaling ladders. Tac. Ann. iv. 51. Suet. Aug. 20. Veg. Mil. iv. 21.

8. A viaduct over a ravine, or between any two points of eminence, such as that which Caligula built to make a direct communication between the Palatine and Capitoline hills. Suet. Cal. 22. Xen. Anab. vi. 5. 22.

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  Pons/1.1
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  Pons/3.1
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  Pons/4.1
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  Pons/5.1
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  Pons/6.1