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The Sangarius Bridge or Bridge of Justinian (Turkish: ''Justinianos Köprüsü'' or ''Beşköprü'') is a late Roman bridge over the river Sakarya ((ラテン語:Sangarius)) in Anatolia, in modern-day Turkey. It was built by the East Roman Emperor Justinian I (527-565 AD) to improve communications between the capital Constantinople and the eastern provinces of his empire. With a remarkable length of 430 m, the bridge was mentioned by several contemporary writers, and has been associated with a supposed project, first proposed by Pliny the Younger to Emperor Trajan,〔Pliny 10.41-42, 61-62〕 to construct a navigable canal that would bypass the Bosporus.〔 〕 == Location and history == The Sangarius Bridge is located in northwestern Anatolia, in the ancient region of Bithynia, ca. 5 km from the town of Adapazarı. Today, the bridge spans the small Çark Deresi stream (called Melas in Antiquity), which flows from the nearby Sapanca Lake; the modern course of the far wider Sakarya lies 3 km to the East.〔 In Antiquity and the Middle Ages, the bridge served an important purpose: it was the crossing-point of the strategically important military road from the Bosporus to the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire, which were threatened by the Sassanid Empire. Before the stone bridge was constructed, a wooden pontoon bridge existed, which, according to Procopius, was frequently washed away when the river flooded, costing many men their lives.〔Procopius, ''(De Aedificiis, 5.3.8-11 )''〕 The date of construction for the stone bridge can be accurately determined from contemporary sources: two laudatory poems of Paul the Silentiary and Agathias, dating to the year 562, celebrate its completion, and the chronicler Theophanes records that the work began in ''Anno Mundi'' 6052, which corresponds to 559–560. Conversely, since Procopius states that the bridge was still under construction when he wrote his work on Justinian's building projects (''De Aedificiis''), this would mean that it was written in the years 560–561, five to six years later than earlier presumed. However, given that Theophanes' dating is somewhat inaccurate, it may well be that the bridge's construction had originally started in ca. 554.〔PLRE, Vol. III, pp. 1064-1065〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sangarius Bridge」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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