River
Fluvius Saternum
Santerno
Listen to the story
The Santerno, which flows down from the Apennines past Imola, is the river the map labels Fluvius Saternum. The Roman writer Pliny called it the Vatrenus, and the poet Martial mocked idle boys as lazier than this slow, canal-like stream. Yet the Tabula draws it in quite the wrong place, far too far west near Parma, winding from the mountains into the Po where the Enza really runs. Scholars agree the placement is a serious error, probably a confusion among the many rivers that join the Po from the right.