On the Capitoline Hill in Rome, in front of the Senate building, is a huge statue that’s an allegorical figure of the River Tiber. He holds, as many aquatic allegories do, a rudder. There’s a pendant to him as well, a similar allegorical figure representing the Nile River, thus they signifyed the great scope of the Roman Empire. But the Tiber figure didn’t always signify the Tiber. Originally, during ancient times, it represented the Tigris River, thus, like the Nile, it alluded to the farthest reaches of the Empire. It was only later that the recumbent figure’s symbolism was changed, when Michelangelo moved the figures to their present location in his refurbishing of the Capitoline Hill structures. By then, the Renaissance, the Tigris didn’t have any particular significance for Romans. It had been absorbed into Muslim lands centuries before. Indeed, it was only then that the She-Wolf and the twins Romulus and Remus were added to the ensemble to make it clear that the figure now symbolized Rome’s famous river (see post above).