by Sabina Fiorenzi
Water sports in the Tiber
[…] Rome was born from water, there is no doubt about it: Aeneas, a refugee from Troy, comes from the sea; Rome was founded by Romulus, who together with his twin was saved from the waters of the river in which he was exposed and the city developed over the centuries between the Tiber and the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Nothing more natural then for the Romans than to attribute great value to the fact of knowing how to live in the water – on their river first and later in the sea – as well as on dry land. They learned to swim naturally in the Tiber: the great river was an integral part of their everyday life, young and old alike bathed in it, especially to escape the summer heat. But what were the moments that saw this activity organized into real sporting occasions, as we can understand them today?
The ludi, festivities whose celebrations fulfilled the needs of religion that needed its rites and those of the people who demanded their celebrations. Thus, inserted in the programs of celebrations, in theoretical subordination to complex and long religious ceremonies, the sports exercises were never competitions that were an end in themselves: the example of the Olympics is pleonastic, the life of ancient man was rooted in the sacred and his daily life proceeded in step with that of the gods of Olympus. 
As regards physical activities related to water, it is necessary to underline that these were not structured in a competitive way like the “land” ones: their exercise was mostly instrumental, knowing how to swim or knowing how to row were fundamentally useful activities and only occasionally were these abilities used for sporting competitions, such as naumachie, that is, the spectacles of naval combat, which, in truth, are to aquatic sports what gladiatorial games are to gymnastic or wrestling activities: in fact, in these contests it was not so much important to participate (as the creator of the modern Olympics, Le Coubertin, would affirm many centuries later) as to win, where winning was synonymous with survival. At least until the next occasion.
Even the gladiatorial games, before becoming the almost exclusive prerogative of the State or of powerful private individuals, were born to celebrate some god, replacing, at least in the beginning, the primitive human sacrifices to the divinities.
The protagonists of these highly anticipated events, the gladiators, had thorough athletic training: their masters ran real gymnasiums, where these men, mostly prisoners of war, slaves guilty of some crime, but also free men who had fallen into disgrace and were eager for redemption, lived under a military-style regime.
Their main activity was training for circus fights: it is obvious that their life depended on their physical fitness and the resulting expertise and skill and therefore these unfortunates committed themselves fully to athletic and combat preparation.
But it was also the master’s primary aim that the men were prepared, trained, ferocious and combative, because these characteristics made them sought-after and, so to speak, commercially more interesting.
After Caesar conceived the first reconstruction of a naval battle in Rome in 46 BC, in an artificial lake specially dug in the Campus Martius, the importance of swimming probably grew within the preparatory disciplines of the gladiatorial games.
In that case, the Tyrian and Egyptian fleets faced each other: 6,000 men were embarked to fight and it is reasonable to imagine that many of them fell into the water covered in wounds and weighed down by their armor. One hopes (out of a very modern sense of pity that makes us hope for at least a chance of survival for these people) that they had been given the teachings that Vegetius, in the treatise De re militari (of which we report a passage from a 1551 edition) passes down to us as mandatory in the training of Roman soldiers:
“All young soldiers must learn to note in the summer, because rivers are not always crossed by bridges, but often, both the army that goes ahead and the one that follows are forced to note. And very often a small stream is wont to swell because of a sudden rain and not knowing how to note not only causes one to run into danger from the enemy, but also from the waters, whereupon the ancient Romans, who had been trained in all military armies, because of the many wars and continuous dangers, in which they had found themselves so often, had appointed the Campio Marzio, near the Tiber, where the young soldiers, having tired themselves in arms, washed off the sweat and dust that they had on them, and having become tired and fatigued from running, they rested by noting. It is not only a very useful thing for foot soldiers to learn to note, but also for cavalry and for the horses themselves and for boys, whom they call Galliani, so that if anything should happen through ignorance (… )” (Libro I, p. 15).
Caesar himself, a soldier par excellence, was an excellent swimmer: 
during the siege of Alexandria, he fell into the sea, seriously risking his life. He was hampered by his long robe, whose purple color attracted the arrows of the Egyptians, who recognized in it the great enemy; with his left hand he held his precious diaries out of the water, to ensure they would not get lost in the water. Nevertheless, he freed himself of the robe, held it tightly between his teeth so as not to lose it and, helping himself only with his right hand, managed to get to safety on the rescue ship.
The particular type of swimming that Caesar adopted on that occasion was codified under the name of “Caesar’s swimming” and illustrated in modern swimming manuals, as the most suitable for proceeding in the water, holding with one hand something that you do not want to get wet.
At the end of the 18th century Oronzio De Bernardi in L’uomo flottante gave an accurate description of it, undoubtedly endorsing the Suetonian tradition, indeed recommending the teaching of this technique to the swimming instructor.
After Caesar, almost all emperors organized naval battles, often using the large circuses built for gladiatorial combat for this purpose.
On the occasion of the celebrations for the great undertaking of draining Lake Fucino, commissioned by Claudius, in the summer of 52 BC, before proceeding with the operation, a grandiose battle was staged there between the Rhodian and Sicilian fleets, in which 100 ships with 16,000 men on board took part (it really is hard to believe!!).
A curious and comical episode characterized that memorable day: the dying men – as per the script – having greeted Caesar and he having responded “Hail to you!”, the brave men, but understandably not too enthusiastic about dying, believed that the emperor’s greeting would save them and therefore refused to fight.
It seems that Claudius, at least so Suetonius tells us, remained speechless and for a long time hesitant whether to cut everyone to pieces and set fire to the ships. Then common sense prevailed, or perhaps only regret at having to miss such a great spectacle: the emperor agreed to go personally to convince the men, threatening and cajoling, with the result that everyone fought “with a courage worthy of brave soldiers” (Tacitus, Annals, XII) and those who did not find death were given the gift of freedom.
In the summer months, the need to find relief from the unbearable heat in the water and the need to celebrate the feasts of the gods were combined in the fishing games. To honor the god Tiber, the goddess Fortuna and Neptune, the river and its banks were crowded with small boats and huts made of branches decorated with flowers and the young people ( quirites, as Ovid calls them in Fasti, in which he gives us brief descriptions in verse of these celebrations) went up and down the current, engaging in small competitions, but above all, eating and pouring libations at will […]
During the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, the rowing races and swimming competitions were held, albeit with mixed success, and over time they also took on a secular connotation, as these events were often included in the celebrations organised for the births of royal children, the entrances of crowned heads into the city, and the celebrations of war victories.
The chronicles of these centuries report such events, naturally including them among the spectacles that could be witnessed during the summer, along that bank of the Tiber, commonly called Ripetta or around the island of S. Bartolomeo, the Tiber Island. […]
But outside of festive and “sporting” occasions, the Roman habit of bathing in the Tiber was so inveterate, widespread and freely practiced that every year the Papal Government had to issue edicts explicitly regulating the modalities. But there were certainly never edicts, nor how many other provisions the police could devise to discourage the many river enthusiasts. Those who, with a very Roman name, were called fiumaroli, as soon as the season allowed it, went down to the river, on whose banks they found since the mid-1800s unlikely changing rooms, commonly called huts. There they could leave their clothes and personal effects, before happily diving in and starting to swim, if they were able to do so; or start splashing around in the water and cooling off, firmly attached to ropes, stretched for this purpose, even between one bank and the other. There were also those who, eager to learn, tied themselves, like floats, the famous cocuzze, that is, hollowed-out pumpkins, which worked perfectly as life jackets: thanks to them, even the most inexperienced could venture out to sea, very often amidst the quips and jokes of the true rivermen. Famous huts were those that arose in front of the port of Ripetta, at Renella, at S. Anna de’ Bresciani. 
As the years went by, already at the end of the 19th century and the dawn of the 20th, real establishments arose, organised not only as a base for undressing, but also as refreshment points, albeit rustic and basic, and as swimming schools.
The Rari Nantes and the Roman Swimming School count among their athletic champions young men from the humblest strata of the population. The Tiber is democratic, it makes no social distinctions: there is water and sun for everyone, within reach, you don’t need noble quarters or fat wallets to take advantage of it.
Swimming competitions are organized very frequently during the summer months, but even in winter the true fiumaroli do not disdain to get wet.
Heroic navigators of all nationalities make exceptional river crossings and journeys, like Captain Boyton, who, setting out from Orte, reached Ripagrande on January 21, 1877.
The public authorities did not cease to issue ordinances to regulate the practice of bathing in the river. In the summer of 1877, for example, the huts authorized to manage this bathing activity were precisely indicated: those intended for men were strictly separated from those for women.
For the former, on the right bank of the Tiber, in the center of the port of Ripetta, at Ponte Sant’Angelo, at Acqua fresca, outside Porta del Popolo; on the left bank of the river behind S. Giovanni dei Fiorentini and under the public slaughterhouse.
For women, on the other hand, the baths were assigned to the right bank of the Tiber upstream of Ponte Milvio and near the Ripetta bridge, under the iron bridge. Everyone was forbidden to leave the huts not properly dressed, both on the banks and in boats. Boys and girls under 15 could circulate and bathe only if accompanied by adults. It was strictly forbidden to let animals bathe near the huts and for them there were designated spaces and recommended clothing […].
Meanwhile, awareness of the importance of learning to swim for everyone is growing: its extraordinary effectiveness for the harmonious development of the body is theorized and therefore the indispensable need for its teaching, also in consideration of the great number of drowning deaths that the Tiber collects every year, with macabre seriality.
In fact, in Roman and national newspapers, news of the feats accomplished by various Roman and non-Roman swimming champions during the competitions organised on the river are accompanied by short articles reporting the sad stories of the many who have drowned in it.
The almost daily succession of these chronicles is impressive, mainly in summer, almost as if to demonstrate that, despite the popularity of the practice of bathing, there were many who, even though they frequented the river, fell victim to it, either through inexperience in swimming or through imprudence: children or adults who fell into the water, captured by the swirling current, whose bodies the river did not return until the following days.
Not to mention the many suicides who chose the Tiber to end a life of hardship, or because of unrequited or otherwise troubled love: summer is the worst time.
Alongside the development and structuring of swimming activities, we can observe the birth and growth of rowing, understood as a true competitive sporting activity: at the end of the 19th century, the Società Tevere Remo, the Club del Remo, and the Circolo Aniene were founded, all clubs to which mostly members of the aristocracy and upper middle class belonged, given the need to have boats and therefore face considerable expenses.
The newly united kingdom saw an increase in swimming and rowing competitions on the waters of the Tiber: they were open to competitors from all over the country and achieved resounding success with the public.
Fascism attributes to sport the great importance that everyone knows, both from a hygienic point of view – for the improvement of the race – and for the moral and civic education of young people who, accustomed to the rigor and discipline of sport – which in any case require commitment, sacrifice, obedience to achieve results that make the Fatherland great – will be able to adapt more easily to military education.
Swimming and rowing in Rome thus moved away from the amateurism typical of the 19th and early 20th centuries to take on a strongly competitive connotation, perhaps more in intent than in the methodologies followed.
To achieve results that are comparable with those of other major nations, we try to give impetus to these two disciplines, strengthening the organization of the National Sports Federations.
As for swimming, one realizes that to train properly one cannot wait for the good weather, which allows one to bathe both in the sea and in the river, and then remain inactive for months and months. The antidote for this inconvenience, which limits the great possibilities of Italian swimmers in general and Romans in particular, is to build swimming pools, both open and covered, as has been done for years in all European countries, not to mention the United States.
The regime’s aspiration to break free from Italian provincialism to compete with foreign champions and possibly win the competition is one of the reasons (not the only one, of course) why sports facilities equipped with swimming pools with diving boards were built in Rome, the latter being essential to also increase the discipline of acrobatic diving.
Among the most complete facilities is the former Foro Mussolini, now Foro Olimpico, inaugurated by the Duce in 1932. […]
The editorial is an extract from the article Tevere e sport by Sabina Fiorenzi, published in the catalogue of the exhibition Roma, la città dell’acqua set up in Casanatense in 1994.
The images illustrating the editorial are taken from O. De Bernardi, The Floating Man or The Reasoned Art of Swimming. Naples, 1794 2 v.
Rari 1046
To learn more:
CATALOGUE – Rome, the city of water. Rome, De Luca, 1994