The River Tiber (Italian Tevere), the second longest in Italy (252 miles) after the Po, flows through Rome in its course from Mount Fumaiolo to the Tyrrhenian Sea, which it reaches in two branches that cross the suburbs of Ostia-Isola Sacra (south) and Fiumicino[?] (north).
It is uncertain whether it was named after an early Italian king, Tiberinus, or vice versa.
The Tiber has been an important river in trade and commerce since the days of the Punic Wars, during which the harbor at Ostia became a key naval base. Another harbor was in the city itself, in the area currently called Portuense.
Popularly called "the blonde river", the Tiber receives another important Roman stream, the Anio, and has an island (Isola Tiberina) in the center of Rome, between Trastevere and Vecchia Roma.
Legend says that Rome's first king, Romulus, and his twin brother Remus were abandoned on its waters, where they were rescued by a she-wolf. See founding of Rome.
Ancient Romans connected the river with a sewer system (the Cloaca Maxima) and with an underground net of tunnels and other channels, to bring its water into the middle of the town.
