Sad bugger that I am, I have tried looking this up and I'm not sure about the aspect of the twisting you are referring to and I suspect you might be unable to clarify it without breaking the no politics rule. I would say I read that the quote was out of context because it's not a Roman who wrote it, but it is mostly likely a Roman who would have witnessed the Tiber ( if we're talking about the same thing!). Oh and the reference I was reading had it down as 'Vergil', so I'm not sure how much credence we should give it.