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The
Floating Mills of the River Tiber by
Sergio Caggia and Paul Gwynne - © Nerone The Insider's Guide to Rome 
INTRODUCTION
Since ancient times bread (and flour) has been the staple diet for mankind; its production at the foundation of civilization
itself. Milling and grinding wheat is one of the cleverest adaptions of the
wheel, while water has been a source of energy for millenia. Wherever possible large
mills, built to serve growing communities, were powered by water. It has been calculated that in ancient times the larger mills could grind 7 kgs of grain per hour if slave powered but as much as 150 kgs per hour if water
powered.
HISTORY
At the archaeological sites of both Pompeii and Ostia Antica there are examples of animal powered
mills. The first water mills in ancient Rome were on the slopes of the Janiculum
hill, powered by the waters falling from an acqueduct built by the emperor
Trajan. These mills produced flour up until 537 AD when the invading general of the Goths Totila smashed the aqueducts to deprive the besieged city of water. According to the contemporary historian Procopius the ever resouceful Romans moved millstones and paddles onto boats down the
river, establishing the first floating mills on the Tiber. These floating mills were lined up between the ancient bridge of Agrippa
(today the Ponte Sisto) and Tiber Island, i.e., where the river was protected by the city
walls. From then up until the beginning of the nineteenth century water mills were to be found crowded on the
river.
OTHER LOCATIONS
In the Middle Ages other mills were built on a small tributary of the Tiber, the Marrana
(its name is derived from Acqua Mariana, the Marian Water). This river which at the end of last century was channeled into underground
canals, flows from the Alban hills along the Via Tuscolana and Appia Nuova to Porta San Giovanni; it then follows the city walls enters the city at Porta
Metronia, passes the baths of Caracalla, crosses the Circus Maximus, flows by the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin to finally end in the
Tiber. When Pope Paul V (1605-21) restored Trajan's aqueduct mills were once again built on the Janiculum and powered by the restored waters of the Acqua Paola.
THE MILLS
While the mills on the Janiculum and on the small Marrana were stone-built, the floating mills on the Tiber were made of
wood. They were simply contructed by placing two house-boats together with a wheel
inbetween. The main house-boat (always on the bank side) would house the
millstones, the gears and the grain to be ground. The mill would be moored on the river bank to a tower or, in some
cases, an ancient column. A stone footbridge and gangway would connect the mill to the neighbouring
bank. Donkeys would be used to transport the grain across the bridges and take the flour to the
bakeries. The smaller mills would be run by a staff of as little as four: this would consist of two caricatori
(those who load and unload the heavy bags of grain and flour); one servitore (who would actually work on the boat) and one aiutante
(assistant). In the larger mills like those on the Janiculum there would also be a director and a more labourers
employed.
DANGERS
The mills floating on the Tiber were at the mercy of the unpredictable river
currents. A heavy rainfall in Umbria or northen Lazio would swell the river and rise the water level in
Rome, while periods of continuous rain would cause disastrous floods. Often the moorings were insufficient to resist the violence of the waters and the mills would be carried off by the swift tides often with people still inside. Examples of mills crashing against bridges
(causing further damage to both bridge and mill); or wedging in the arch of a bridge damming the river and thus causing the waters to rise higher have also been
recorded. Moreover, the artificial barriers used to direct the water onto the wheels would make the situation worse in the case of flood by impeding the
flow. Floating mills were also a hazard for rowing boats and bathers. Indeed the tradition of children diving after watermelons thrown into the Tiber on Saint
Bartholomew's day was later banned because of the number of accidents.
Despite the dangers, the floating mills continued to crowd the river with the Millers' Guild (the Romana
Molendinariorum) becoming one of the most important and influential within the city.
DECLINE
At the beginning of the nineteenth century there were about 20 mills active on the
river, serving a population of c.158,000. Those under the "custody" of Tiber Island were the mills of SS. Annunziata, S. Bartolomeo, S. Francesco, Giuditta and S. Maria (the last lost in the flood of February 1855). By the end of the
century, however, these had for various reasons all but disappeared.
With the establishment of the Roman Republic in 1798 the economic life of the mills was thrown into
crisis. Wages fluctuated; the price of grain rose fuelling discontent between millers and
bakers. Mill owners could not find people interested in hiring the mills and rents
dropped. A further blow for the floating mills came on 1 September 1847 when the Presidenza dell'Annona forbade the transportation of grain and flour by pack
animal, imposing instaed the use of carts. Whereas the mainland mills were of easy access, it was impossible to drive a cart across the gangways to the mills on the
river. The task of managing a floating mill thus became even more precarious. In 1870 three mills on the Tiber were lost in the terrible floods and never
rebuilt. The surviving mills were gradually abandoned and had disappeared altogether by the 1880s when the modern embankment was
built. |
