River
Fluvius Tiliabinte
Tigliamento
Listen to the story
A short, winding line runs down from a mountain range to the Adriatic between Concordia and Aquileia: this is the Fluvius Tiliabinte, the Tagliamento in north-eastern Italy. The Roman writer Pliny knew it as two rivers, a Greater and a Lesser Tiliaventum, meaning two branches near the sea that have since merged into one. The map ignores the split and draws a single course, as a route map sensibly might. Timber was floated down the river from the mountains, which has led some to derive its name, possibly, from the Latin word for the lime tree.