Ponte Milvio

Ponte Milvio (Milvian Bridge) (Pons Milvius)
Ponte Milvio over the Tiber
Crosses	Tiber
Locale	Rome, Italy
Characteristics
Design	Arch bridge
Material	Stone, brick
Total length	136 m
Width	8.75 m
Longest span	18.55 m
No. of spans	6
History
Construction end	115 BC (stone bridge)

The Milvian (or Mulvian) Bridge (Italian: Ponte Molle or Ponte Milvio, Latin: Pons Milvius or Pons Mulvius) is a bridge over the Tiber in northern Rome, Italy. It was an economically and strategically important bridge in the era of the Roman Empire and was the site of the famous Battle of the Milvian Bridge.

A bridge was built by consul Gaius Claudius Nero in 206 BC after he had defeated the Carthaginian army in the Battle of the Metaurus. In 115 BC, consul Marcus Aemilius Scaurus built a new bridge of stone in the same position, demolishing the old one. In 63 BC, letters from the conspirators of the Catiline conspiracy were intercepted here, allowing Cicero to read them to the Roman Senate the next day. In AD 312, Constantine I defeated his stronger rival Maxentius between this bridge and Saxa Rubra, in the famous Battle of the Milvian Bridge.

During the Middle Ages, the bridge was renovated by a monk named Acuzio, and in 1429 Pope Martin V asked a famous architect, Francesco da Genazzano, to repair it because it was collapsing. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the bridge was modified by two architects, Giuseppe Valadier and Domenico Pigiani.