means one who has charge of the bridges. According to Varro, the highest class of the Roman priesthood had to superintend the construction of
the bridges (pontes) (See Ramsay: Roman Antiquities, p. 51.)
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“Well has the name of Pontifex been given
Unto the church’s head, as the chief builder
And architect of the invisible bridge
That leads from earth to heaven.”
⁂ Here Longfellow follows the general notion that “pontiff” is from pons-facio, and refers to the tradition that a Roman priest threw over the Tiber, in the time of Numa, a sublician, or wooden bridge.
Sablicius means made of timber or piles. There were subsequently eight stone bridges, and Æmilius converted the sublician bridge into a stone one. There were fifteen pontiffs in the time of Sylla.
