VIA TECTA (1)
a street in the campus Martius, mentioned three times in the literature of the first century (Seneca, Apoc. 13: descendunt per viam Sacram .. inicit illi manum Talthybius. ..et trahit. . . per campum Martium; et inter Tiberim et viam Tectam descendit ad inferos; Mart. iii. 5. 5; viii. 75. I, 2 : dum repetit sera conductos nocte penates / Lingonus a tecta Flaminiaque recens), which seems to have connected the region of the via Flaminia and forum with the Tarentum. The pavement of an ancient street leading in this general direction has been found at various points in the Vie di Pescheria, del Pianto, de' Giubbonari, de' Cappellari, and del Banco di S. Spirito, and on the same line as the fragments of the PORTICUS MAXIMAE (q.v.). It is possible that this was the via Tecta, so called because it was protected by some sort of a colonnade before the porticus Maximae were built (HJ 485; KH iii.).1 The name VIA RECTA, which some authorities apply to the road going east from the pons Aelius to the via Flaminia (LF 14), is due to a wrong reading of the first passage (HJ 503, n. 78).