Tiber - Name

Name

It is probable that the name Tiber is pre-Latin, like the Roman name of Tibur (modern Tivoli). It may be Etruscan or Italic in origin, possibly akin to the Celtic root-word dubr, "water". The same root is believed to be the source of the Latin praenomen Tiberius, and its Etruscan cognate, Thefarie.

The king Tiberinus Silvius the ninth in the king-list of Alba Longa, was said to have weed in the Albula River, which was subsequently renamed in his honour. The myth may have explained a memory of an earlier, perhaps pre-Indo-European name for the river, "white" (alba) with sediment. According to the legend, Jupiter made him a god and guardian spirit of the river (also called Volturnus, "rolling water"). This gave rise to the standard Roman depiction of the river as a powerfully built reclining river god, also named Tiberinus, with streams of water flowing from his hair and beard. The River Tiber was also believed to be the river into which Romulus and Remus (the former founded Rome) were thrown as infants.