The archæology of Rome, Part 8
x. Proposed Drain, for turning off the water of this spring from the
Colosseum.
y. Branch of an existing subterranean drain under the Via di S. Gregorio, between the Cœlian and the Palatine.
z. Excavation made in 1876 in the Vigna Rappini, in consequence of a land-slip; but nothing was found beyond an old quarry of tufa, at a great depth, and a branch of an aqueduct at nearly the same depth, the water having come originally from the spring in the cave (?) or quarry (?) called a _vivarium_.
THE AQUEDUCTS.
PLATE XXI.
SECTIONS OF THE SPECUS OF EACH OF THE FIFTEEN AQUEDUCTS OF ROME.
DESCRIPTION OF PLATE XXI.
SECTIONS OF THE SPECUS OF EACH OF THE FIFTEEN AQUEDUCTS OF ROME.
The names of each are given under the section of it, and it will be observed that no two are alike; this was no doubt done in order that the workmen might always know which aqueduct each belonged to, at the points where they cross each other, so that if there was any obstacle in one of them it might be readily removed. Some of those which came from a clay soil, as the Appia and the Virgo, were liable to get choked up by the quantity of deposit left by the water, and it was necessary to have them cleared out from time to time, as is still the case with the Virgo, now called the Aqua di Trevi. One of the small streams that were collected to form the Aqua Hadriana, which comes from near Gabii, was a petrifying spring, which quite choked up the _specus_ in the course of a century. It was restored by Alexander Severus, but the same water seems still to have been used. The Aqua Felice comes from the same sources, but the petrifying spring was carefully excluded, and now runs in a ditch, giving a coat of stone to the sticks and the weeds.
PLAN OF THE AQUEDUCTS. ON THE CŒLIAN.
PLAN OF THE AQUEDUCTS.
ON THE CŒLIAN[237].
Three branches diverge from the great central reservoir at the Arch of Dolabella,—one goes straight on, nearly due north to the Palatine, the second north-east to the Colosseum, and the third west to the Aventine.
AND ON THE ESQUILINE.
From the other great reservoir called the Sette Sale, or the Thermæ, and from thence to the Colosseum.
A.A.A. The drain under the road between the Cœlian and the Palatine, now called Via di S. Gregorio, leading to the Via Appia.
B. Arch of Constantine.
C. Meta Sudans.
D. Thermæ of Titus on the Esquiline, with the great _piscina_ called Sette Sale, and the aqueduct leading from it to the Colosseum.
E. Monastery and Church of S. Gregory.
F. Site of the Porta Capena, with the aqueduct over it, leading to the Piscina Publica under the Aventine: and on to the mouth at the Porta Trigemina, in the bank of the Tiber.
G. Church and monastery of SS. John and Paul.
H. Church and monastery of S. Clement.
I. The great reservoir and Piscina of Nero over the Arch of Dolabella, and reservoir of the Aqua Appia to the left of it; this is underground in the garden of the Villa Celimontana, and from thence the _specus_ goes underground to the cliff of the Cœlian, where another _piscina_ is shewn, near the bottom of the plan, to the left.
Under that part of the Cœlian Hill on which the Claudium stood are seen four _piscinæ_, two on the western side opposite to the Palatine, and two on the northern side opposite to the Colosseum; of these latter the one at the corner is of the time of Nero, that in the middle of the northern front is of the time of Alexander Severus, when the upper storey of the Colosseum was building of stone.
MAP OF THE AQUEDUCTS ON THE EASTERN SIDE OF ROME.
This map is reduced by photography from one made for this work on a very large scale, which was thought necessary in order to shew the line of the course of each aqueduct, which, being to a large extent subterranean, are not shewn in the usual maps of the country. In the immediate neighbourhood of Rome the lines are so complicated that they could only be shewn on this large scale. (At the Tor Fiscale, for instance, they remind English travellers of the railways at Clapham Junction near London. There are many coincidences between the aqueducts and the railways; both are carried at different levels in order to cross each other; both are in some parts in tunnels, and in other parts carried on embankments, or on arches). This map was made by Signor De Mauro, an engineer and surveyor, who took much interest in the work, and is generally very careful and accurate, under the direction chiefly of Dr. Fabio Gori, who is a native of Subiaco, near which the principal aqueducts have their sources. The author of this work went with them from time to time to verify what they had done, but as it was a work of several months, and necessarily done in the summer, it was not practicable for him to do more than to go to the source of each aqueduct and follow it down to its mouth. The large map, which covers one side of a room, being 135 ft. long and 90 ft. wide, has been reduced by photography to three different sizes; the first makes eighteen photographs of the usual size, called the “normal size,” and the whole on this scale is about 15 ft. long and 10 ft. wide; this again has been reduced to two sheets[238], 21 ins. long and 14 ins. wide; and then to the same size as this outline; but on this small scale the lettering requires a powerful magnifying-glass, and therefore the bare outline has been taken from it to shew the general features of the line of the great aqueducts. The reservoir at the source of each is marked by a dark circle, and from each of them the line can be traced into Rome. Within the walls a separate and careful examination was required, as so much of the work is subterranean; this examination has been made, and the line of each of the aqueducts has been traced to its mouth. It will be observed that the _specus_ or conduit of each aqueduct is of a separate form, and this was no doubt necessary to distinguish one from the other, as they frequently intersect and cross one another in a very singular manner, and in case of repair being necessary, it would have been very difficult for the workmen to know which aqueduct was at fault, or how to find the part that wanted repair, without this arrangement.
1. The earliest aqueduct, the APPIA[239] (B.C. 312), being entirely underground at a considerable depth, is marked by a dotted line. It comes from old stone quarries on the bank of the river Anio, just beyond the Caves of Cervaro, about eight miles from Rome, near the ancient Via Collatina, called by Frontinus Prænestina, because in his time the road to Præneste went through Collatia.
2. ANIO VETUS[240] (B.C. 272), comes also from the bank of the river Anio, but at a much higher level than the Appia, between Tivoli and Subiaco, near the village of Agosta, twenty miles from Rome, but the winding course makes the whole length of the aqueduct 42 miles, 779 paces underground, and 221 paces (about 350 yards) above ground on a substructure. It is brought at a considerably higher level than the Appia, but still underground for the most part, though near the surface, and sometimes only half underground. It was not legal to build over an aqueduct anything but another aqueduct, consequently the later aqueducts are all brought on the same line, each on a higher level, so that the line of the Anio Novus, carried on the arches of Nero, shews at the same time the line of the Anio Vetus nearly under it.
3. MARCIA[241] (B.C. 145). This stream also comes from near Subiaco, 39 miles from Rome, 36 on the Via Valeria, and 3 off it on a cross-road, near the village of Arsoli. There is a small lake 38 miles from Rome on the same road (which is another source of this aqueduct), into which the water gushes out from under the limestone rock; it is intensely cold in all weathers, and the water is of a light green colour in the lake. “The length of the course is 61 miles 710 paces, of which 54 miles 247 paces are underground, 7 miles 463 paces above ground, on an arcade for 6 miles 472 paces, on a substructure for 528 paces,” and in several places on bridges across the gorges in the hills. This water was brought into Rome again in 1860-70 by a new line, and was then called Aqua Marcia Pia, from Pius IX.; the name of Pia has since been dropped.
4. VIRGO[242] (B.C. 21), made by Agrippa for his Thermæ, restored to use by the popes in the eighth century, and frequently repaired; now called the Aqua di Trevi, from the fountain so named. The source is on the Via Collatina, 8 miles from Rome and 1 mile beyond the source of the Appia. There are several springs, each with a separate small reservoir, collected in one large reservoir, now under the road. “The length of the course is 14 miles 105 paces.”
5. TEPULA[243] (B.C. 126). The sources of this are 12 miles from Rome, near Grotta Ferrata and Marino, 2 miles from the old Via Latina.
6. JULIA[244] (B.C. 34). This source is on the cross-road from Grotta Ferrata to Marino, on the old Via Latina, 14 miles from Rome, and also 2 from the Via Latina (there are still washing-places at each of these two sources). The two streams, when they arrived on the level ground at the foot of the hill, were carried on the same arcade as the Marcia for 6 miles into Rome.
7. AUGUSTA[245]. This name is a mistake of the artist for Aurelia; it is the aqueduct made by Marcus Aurelius for the Villa de Quintilii on the old Via Appia, and united with the Severiana to supply the Thermæ Aurelianæ et Severianæ in Rome.
8. ANIO NOVUS[246] (A.D. 52). “The source of this is 42 miles from Rome, on the Via Sublacensis; the length of the channel is 58 miles 700 paces, of which 49 miles 300 paces are underground, 9 miles 400 paces above ground, 2 miles 3 paces in the upper part and near the City, 609 paces on substructure, 6 miles 491 paces on an arcade of the highest arches, in some places 109 ft. high.” This stream was part of the river Anio itself; a great dam was made across the river in a rocky part, about 2 miles above Subiaco. A great loch (_lacus_) was formed between this dam and a natural cascade about a hundred yards higher up the river, and a _specus_ was cut in the rock by the side of it at rather a lower level than the top of the dam, so that the water of the river must go into the _specus_ and so into Rome, before any of it could fall over the artificial cascade made by the dam. From this cause the water of this aqueduct never failed in the hottest and driest weather, but it was sometimes muddy after a flood in the upper country, and had many _piscinæ_ or filtering-places for that reason; there is usually one at each half mile in the arcades near Rome, and a _castellum aquæ_, or reservoir along with it, at each of the angles, made to break the force of the water.
9. CLAUDIA[247] (A.D. 38). The source of this is 38 miles on the Via Sublacensis, just above Subiaco, about 2 miles nearer to Rome than the Anio Novus. They are carried in two distinct _specus_ as far as Tivoli and to the foot of the hill, but on the level ground; both _specus_ are carried on a lofty arcade, which turns at an angle at every half-mile, and there has a _piscina_, and at each of these points it was carried across the lower arcade, which served for the Marcia, Tepula, and Julia.
10. HADRIANA or TRAJANA[248] (A.D. 120), and ALEXANDRINA (?). The sources of this are under La Colonna, about three miles from Gabii. The _specus_ is carried on a fine arcade for two or three miles between the two great roads. The same water was afterwards used for the Felice, with the exception of one of the springs, which was found to be of a petrifying quality, and had choked up the _specus_ of the old aqueduct. It seems probable that the stalactite produced by the petrifying spring had choked up the _specus_ of Trajan and Hadrian before the time of Alexander Severus, that he restored it to use, and it was then called by his name. The construction of the Piscina and Castella Aquæ near the source is distinctly of the time of Hadrian, but in some parts the arcade which carries the _specus_ is of the time of Alexander Severus.
11. SEVERIANA[249] (A.D. 190). The sources of this are in a swampy ground on the lower part of one of the Alban Hills, under Marino and Grotta Ferrata, nearly the same as those of the small river Almo, and the Tepula and Julia. The course is at first underground as far as the Torre di Mezza Via di Albano; from thence it is carried on a fine arcade of the third century to the Villa de Quintilii, and from thence into Rome for the Thermæ of Aurelius Commodus and Septimius Severus, near the Porta Latina.
12. ALEXANDRINA (?)[250]. There is some doubt about the source and the line of this aqueduct.
13. ALGENTIANA[251]. This aqueduct went to the Thermæ of Diocletian, where the _specus_ has been found, but it is almost the same as the last. Both were probably branches from the great early aqueducts.
14. AQUA FELICE[252], A.D. 1587. Made by the Pope, Felice Peretti, or Sixtus V. Its source is the same as that of the Hadriana, which was mistaken in his time for the celebrated Aqua Marcia.
15. AQUA MARCIA PIA. The real old Marcian water was brought into Rome by a Company in 1860-70. The course as far as Tivoli is in a stone _specus_, like the old aqueduct, but after it reaches the level ground it is carried in cast-iron pipes on the other side of the river Anio, and passes under it by a great syphon. This was to avoid repeating the great circuit made by the old aqueduct, and was also done to escape the necessity of crossing the mouths of the number of small streams that fall into the river Anio and drain the Campagna; these are often flooded in the wet season, and would have been likely to injure the bridges of the aqueducts where they crossed the stream; the iron pipes avoid them by being on the other side of the river.
MAP OF THE AQUEDUCTS ON THE WESTERN SIDE OF ROME[253].
The account given of the map of the eastern side of Rome applies almost equally to this, but the difficulty to be surmounted was here greater. Neither Dr. Gori, nor Signor De Mauro, nor the author knew the ground; we had only Frontinus and Fabretti to help us, and the course is much more subterranean on this side than on the other. There are none of the great arcades to carry the _specus_ for five or six miles; the only portion where they are carried on an arcade for any distance is on the side and upon the wall of the garden of the villa Pamphili-Doria, and there the arcade as seen is the work of Pope Paul V. (Borghese), who restored them to use in the sixteenth century, making use of the old subterranean _specus_ and the ruins of the old arches, which can be seen against the wall of that garden. From this point they are mostly subterranean, we traced them to the three lakes which served as reservoirs for them. The first _specus_ on this side of the Lacus Alsietinus has been kept separate from the one on the other side. In the time of Augustus the water came from the two upper lakes, but it was brought at a very low level, and the water from these being always muddy and bad, Frontinus, under Trajan, rejected it, and brought the water only from the Sabatina; Pope Paul returned to the use of the upper lake, Alsietina.
This map is also reduced by photography from one on a much larger scale, though not so large as the one for the eastern side, as that was found inconveniently large, and on this side there was less complication to examine and explain. Great credit is due to Signor de Mauro for the tact with which he traced the subterranean lines. He found that there are wells and air-holes at intervals, not always regular, but nearly so, and that when they are in grass-land or barren land, shrubs have always grown over the top of each well on account of the moisture that remained in it, and by means of these shrubs he was able to follow the line.
These aqueducts, which supplied the fountains in the Trastevere, all come from the lakes on the hills. The Alsietina of Augustus comes from the lake of that name (now called Martignano), between the Via Claudia and the Via Aurelia, but not very near to either, being 6½ miles from the Via Claudia at the fourteenth milestone, as Frontinus states. This was made to supply the Naumachia of Augustus, which were near the present monastery of S. Cosimato in Trastevere; the water was very abundant, but not fit for drinking. It entered Rome at a lower level than any of the other aqueducts, because the Naumachia were very little above the level of the Tiber. At the small town called the Cariæ (near the present Osteria Nuova), about fifteen miles from Rome, it received an additional supply of water from the Lacus Sabatinus. Trajan restored to use that part which came from the latter lake; this is better water than the Alsietina. Pope Paul III., A.D. 1540, again restored this to use, and it is now called Aqua Paola. His engineers brought the water from three lakes, the two before mentioned, and a smaller one above the Alsietina, called Stracciacappe. The object of bringing the water from this very high level, 500 ft. above Rome, was to supply the splendid fountains in front of S. Peter’s, the water of which rises to a great height. This lake was drained in 1870, and at the same time the water in the Alsietina was also much lowered, by which means the three _specus_ were brought to light on the bank, and the sites are shewn on this map. The Aqueduct of Trajan was carried at a much higher level than that of Augustus, and entered Rome on the top of the Janiculum. Procopius, in the sixth century, admired the profuse supply of water at that point; and the water was then, as it is now, used for a series of mills on the slope of the hill. The engineers of Pope Paul made use of the water of all the three lakes, and a most abundant supply still flows into Rome through the Fountain, above the Church of S. Pietro in Montorio. How far the old _specus_ was used it is difficult to tell, but most probably that of Trajan was used for a large part of the distance; it is almost entirely underground until the last mile into Rome, where it was carried on an arcade of the time of Trajan. The Aqua Paola is there also carried on an arcade, parallel to it and near to it, but not the same.
FOOTNOTES
[1] During the first season that I was resident in Rome, it was my habit to go with my friend Mr. William Long, of Balliol College, Oxford, then resident in Rome, into the Catacombs every Monday morning, and along the line of the Aqueducts also once or twice a-week, when the weather permitted. We procured all the best maps of the Campagna that were to be had, but could find none that would enable us to trace the course of the Aqueducts. Moltke’s map is the best as far as it goes; but, being intended as a military map only, he paid no attention to the antiquities. The one known in England by the name of Gell, and in Rome by the name of Nibby, is made especially for the Antiquities; but it is on a small scale, and we found it impossible to trace the Aqueducts upon it. Eventually I have had one made on a large scale, to make it clear, have added the other Antiquities, and then had it reduced by photography to two smaller sizes: one very small, to give the general lines only; the other on a size convenient for the pocket; and, by using the portion near Rome separately, it makes a good and convenient map for the purpose.
[2] Frontinus is usually said to have died A.D. 106.
[3] See notably Plutarch, Vita Anci Marcii; Dionys., Hal. Ant. Rom., lib. iii. c. 679, sect. 9; Strabo, lib. v.; Cassiodorus, lib. vii. cap. 6, &c.
[4] These wells may have included the cisterns for holding rain-water, one of which exists on the Palatine.
[5] In the best text, that of the MS. at Monte Cassino, and in the best printed edition of the text, that of Buecheler (Lipsiæ, 1858), the passage runs “Salubritatem enim ægris corporibus afferre creduntur, sicut _Camænarum, et Apollinis, et Juturnæ_.” The spring of the Camænæ or Muses referred to, is that which existed in the grove outside the Porta Capena, and beneath the western slope of the Cœlian. There was an Area Apollinis in the same Regio, and possibly there was a spring there; but no writer refers to it. A stream, now subterranean, still exists, and is very copious, running into and through the Cloaca Maxima; it may be seen in the excavations of the Forum Romanum. This subterranean stream comes from three different springs; the source of one is near the Arch of Titus, or more immediately in front of the usual entrance to the Palatine;—a second has its source near the foot of that part of the Quirinal Hill on which the Torre de’ Conti and the Torre delle Milizie are situated; it now emerges in a cellar under a shop behind the church of S. Hadriana;—a third comes from the prison of S. Peter, at the foot of the Capitol. These streams meet near the church of S. Maria Liberatrice and the celebrated three columns of the temple of Castor and Pollux; by their union they formed the lake usually called after Curtius, but by Ovid the Lacus Juturnæ (Ovid. Fasti, l. i. ver. 708). This is not the same as the stream so called on Nolli’s Map. The lake was between that part of the Velabrum of the Palatine on which the church of S. Maria Liberatrice and S. Teodoro are situated, which formed the southern side of the lake, and the Forum Romanum the northern side.
The Aqua Juturnæ, marked 1056 in Nolli’s Map, is the stream that gushes out in great volume from the rock at the foot of the Palatine in the Lupercal of Augustus, which is now in a very ruinous state, the cave being used as a mill-head to a modern mill, between that point and the Cloaca Maxima. This cave is close to the Carceres of the Circus Maximus. The authority for the name of this stream is doubtful; it is now usually called Aqua Argentina, and falls into the Cloaca Maxima, near the church of S. Giorgio in Velabro and the arch erected by the silver-smiths in honour of Septimius Severus.
[6] The Augustan is a name applied also to a branch of the Marcian close to its source, as well as to one supplementary to the Appian within the city.
[7] Frontinus, c. 5.
[8] Ibid.
[9] “Jungitur ei ad Spem [Specum] veterem in confinio hortorum Torquatianorum et Pallantianorum ramus Augustæ, ab Augusto in supplementum ejus additus, ... loco nomen respondenti Gemellarum.” (Ibid.)
[10] “Incipit distribui [Aqua] Appia imo Publicii clivo ad portam Trigeminam.” (Ibid.)
And again: “Rivus Appiæ, sub Cœlio monte et Aventino actus, emergit, ut diximus, infra clivum Publicii.” (Ibid., c. 22.) The cave reservoir which formed the mouth of this stream, where it was distributed, has been found near the Marmorata, or marble-wharf. The Porta Trigemina was between that and the Salaria, or salt-wharf. Both of the wharves are still in use. Some good antiquaries consider that the Porta Trigemina consisted of three double gates, at intervals along the narrow strip of ground between the Aventine and the Tiber, and that the one of which remains have been found near the Sublician bridge was the middle one of the three: if so, this cave would be literally _in_ the Porta Trigemina. In any case, it must have been close to it.
[11] That is, in the reservoir, or _castellum aquæ_, through which the conduit or _specus_ passed. This reservoir exists, or rather considerable remains of it, just within the Porta Maggiore, between that and the church of S. Croce, and just outside the _agger_ of the Sessorium, on which the road from S. Croce to this gate now runs.
[12] “... Cujus aquæ ad caput inveniri mensura non potuit, quoniam ex duobus rivis constat. Ad Gemellos tamen, qui locus est infra Spem (_Specum_) veterem, ubi jungitur cum ramo Augustæ, inveni altitudinem aquæ pedum quinque, latitudinem pedis unius, dodrantis: fiunt areæ pedes octo, dodrans: ... quas esse ex eo adparet quod in plerisque urbis partibus perdita aqua observatur, id est quæ ex ea manat, sed et quasdam fistulas intra urbem illicitas deprehendimus, extra urbem autem propter pressuram libræ, quam vidi infra terram ad caput pedibus quinquaginta, nullam accipit injuriam.” (Frontinus, c. 65.)
[13] There is good reason to believe that such tombs were not _exclusively_ Etruscan, but were also used by the Latins and other nations at the same period, and this one may very well be early Roman.
[14] The modern carriage-road, so called, was called Via Gabina in the time of Frontinus. The old Via Prænestina is now a bridle-road only for the first three miles out of Rome, to the Torre de’ Scavi; it is then a cart-road, called Via Collatina, with a branch road into it from the present carriage-road.
[15] In the Map of Gell and Nibby, along the Via Prænestina will be seen the name _Pupinia_. The spot is just north of this, and not far off from the piece of road marked in the same map as the Via Collatina.
[16] Frontinus, c. 22.
[17] In the _Bullettino dell’ Instituto Archeologico_, and the _Civiltà Cattolica_, for the year 1861, it is stated that for the works of the iron railroad between the Via Labicana and the Via Gabina the _specus_ of the Aqua Appia was found, 450 yards (metres) from the Porta Maggiore. It was constructed of square stone of tufa, and was incrusted with _tartar_, had an acute vault, which was 5 ft. 9 in. high, and 2½ ft. wide.
[18] This is on the line of the wall of Servius Tullius. It appears that Trajan made a reservoir here over the old one. The _specus_ of the Appia passes through the present gardener’s house lengthwise, from east to west. This _specus_ was found again in another excavation to the west of it, by the side of the present road.
[19] “Substitit ad veteres arcus _madidamque_ Capenam.” (Juvenal, sat. iii. ver. 11.) “Capena grandi porta qua _pluit gutta_.” (Martial, lib. iii. epigr. 47.) The distance from the foot of the Cœlian to the Marrana is just a hundred yards along the line of the wall of Servius Tullius, across this part of the valley or great primitive foss. The ground on the side of the wall is all made earth and rubbish, and two aqueducts are carried on arcades against the wall, one on either side. These arcades have not been traced beyond the Marrana, the ground there being higher. At the Piscina Publica, where another pit was dug 20 ft. deep, the wall is built against the tufa rock, and there is a third _specus_ in a tunnel in the rock under the wall.
[20] Or perhaps the road was a deep foss-way, and the _specus_ passed over the arch of the gate at this point, where four roads meet.
[21] In the spring of the year 1870, another excavation was made close to this point, and a way was found into another old subterranean stone-quarry long out of use. Through this cave, or quarry, the _specus_ of five different aqueducts pass on their way to the Tiber. Some of these come down at a steep decline, and the water of the whole seems to have been carried into the lowest one, the Appia, at this point. This _specus_ must have been carried over the deep foss-way upon or under the arch of the gate of the old wall of _the city_, where four roads meet. It is also visible again in another old subterranean stone-quarry on the other side of the road, nearly under S. Prisca, and from thence it must have gone to the old cave, used as a reservoir near the Marmorata, and the Porta Trigemina, immediately under the monastery of S. Maria del Trinita di Malta, where the _specus_ is again visible, and where the wells of other aqueducts run into the same cave reservoir at the mouth of the aqueducts in this part of Rome. One of these runs down a vertical pipe from the reservoir nearly over this cave, but under S. Sabina on the hill above, excavated in 1865, and described by M. Descemet (Sect. xi.) There is another large reservoir in the interior of the hill, still full of water, supplied by a spring rising there; the water from this still passes through the same passage to the Tiber. This is also said to have been called the cave of Faunus by the poets. It is probably also the same as that of Cacus, being a large natural cave, with a spring of water, and a natural reservoir of considerable size in it about knee-deep, the entrance to which is by a narrow passage made into the _specus_ of the aqueduct. Such a cave might very well have been used to drive cattle into for concealment, and a resolute, well-armed man standing at the entrance might defend it against any number. Solinus (i. 7) says that the cave of Cacus was at the Porta Trigemina, and that he dwelt in the Salinæ, which are close by this spot. “Qui Cacus habitavit locum cui Salinæ nomen est, ubi Trigemina porta.”
[22] On the wall of the smaller reservoir, the fragment of an inscription, relating to the Thermæ of S. Helena, now in the Vatican Museum, is said to have been found:—
D. N. HELENA ... VEN. ... AVG. MAT. AVIA ... BEATIS ... THERMA ... SI ... ESTRV ...
[23] Frontinus says, c. 5, at the sixth milestone on the Via Prænestina, about nine hundred and eighty paces off to the left, and near the Via Collatina, this stream has its source. The sources both of the Aqua Appia and of the Augusta were traced by Signor Fabio Gori and Mr. J. H. Parker, in March, 1868, and were afterwards shewn to the British Archæological Society of Rome.
[24] The source of the _Appia_ was 780 paces off the road, between the 7th and 8th milestone. That of the _Augustan_ 880 paces off, and by the 6th milestone. The former was measured to its termination, giving 11⅛ miles. The latter went only to the “Specus Vetus” (which is two miles less) and gave 6⅓ miles. Two miles is the distance from the Porta Maggiore to the Porta Trigemina and the Salaria. In all probability the Augustan branch was carried for the six miles into Rome along the bank of the Via Prænestina, here a deep foss-way between two high banks; and at a later period the Aqua Virgo was carried over it at a higher level, till within about half a mile of Rome, where it arrives at the outer bank of the great foss, and is carried at a sharp angle to the north to the Pincian. The Appia, being much deeper, was carried straight on at the bottom of the great foss into Rome, and entered at the extreme eastern corner, under the line afterwards taken by the Claudian arcade, to the two great reservoirs or _gemelli_ before mentioned; the main line running here parallel to it, a little to the south, till it reached the Piscina of S. Helena, the two lines converging at the _gemelli_.
[25] There are considerable remains of two large reservoirs in a garden just outside of the boundary-wall of the Sessorium, which wall is of the time of S. Helena, on its western side. Some excavations made in them in 1869 under my direction shewed that they went to a great depth, the workmen being stopped by water. These two great reservoirs, so close together in the line of the Aqua Appia, seem to have been the Gemelli mentioned by Frontinus. From this point the _specus_ can be traced along the Cœlian, and the reservoirs are below the level of that _specus_ (_infra specum veterem_).—F. ii. 65.
[26] If the “Plautian” be the better reading, they may have been the gardens of Plautius Lateranus, which were near those of the Sessorian Palace.
[27] Frontinus, cap. 19: “Marcia autem partem sui post hortos Pallantianos in rivum qui vocatur Herculaneus, dejicit.” Cap. 20: “Finiuntur arcus earum (Anionis Novi, et Claudiæ), post hortos Pallantianos.” Cap. 69: “Præterea (Julia) accepit prope urbem, post hortos Pallantianos.” In the _Notitia_ and the _Curiosum Urbis_ the “Horti Pallantiani” are given as being in the Regio V. or the “Esquiliæ.”
[28] Remains of these _thermæ_ were accidentally brought to light in 1871, during some excavations made by a building company, who had bought the ground on speculation. They are of great extent, and on both sides of the present road from S. Maria Maggiore to S. Croce in Gerusalemme, which was made in the sixteenth century by Sixtus V.
[29] “Exquiliæ locus in quo sepeliebantur corpora extra portam illam in qua est Sessorium.” (Acron ad Horat., lib. i. Sat. viii.)
“Eodem tempore fecit Constantinus Augustus basilicam in palatio Sessoriano, ubi etiam de ligno S. crucis D. N. Jesu Christi posuit.” (Anastasius in vita S. Silvestri papæ, xxxiv. § 41.)
[30] Frontinus, c. 6. Pyrrhus was king of Epirus, and came to the aid of the Samnites against the Romans; he was conquered _c._ B.C. 272.
[31] The passage is corrupt, as will be explained. The following is the reading, as given by Buecheler, whose text is _an exact copy_ of the best manuscript, that of Monte Cassino:—“Anio Vetus citra quartum milliarium _infra Novum_, _qui_ a via Latina in Lavicanam _inter_ arcus trajicit, et ibi piscinam habet. Inde intra secundum milliarium partem dat in specum, qui vocatur Octavianus, et pervenit in regionem _viæ Novæ_ ad hortos Asinianos, unde per illum tractum distribuitur. Rectus vero ductus, _secundum Spem_ (_Specum_) veniens intra portam Exquilinam, in altos rivos per urbem deducitur.” (Frontin., c. 21.) _Infra Novum_, therefore, signifies within the fourth mile on the Via Nova, the New Road of the time of Frontinus, the Via Appia Nova (?).
[32] Frontin., c. 18.
[33] Signor F. Gori, who is a native of Subiaco, and has followed the line of the aqueducts on foot from Subiaco to Rome, says that he has found the source of the Anio Vetus in the river Anio, at three miles from Subiaco, on the _Via Sublacensis vetus_, twenty miles from the old gate of Tibur or Tivoli, in the district called _Le Connotta_, where he finds two _specus_, the higher one the Anio Novus, the lower one the Anio Vetus. He traces the same _specus_ near Marano, a village thirty-eight miles from Rome, on the Via Sublacensis Neroniana, near _Vico-varo_; and again near Tivoli, on the bank of the _Valle degli Arci_. “Delle vere Sorgenti dell’ Acqua Marcia e delle altre acque allacciate dai Romani presso le Vie Valeria e Sublacense,” per F. Gori. Roma, 1866, 8vo., pp. 53, 54.
[34] The local _patois_ for _Albergo_ or _Auberge_.
IMP. CAESAR DIVI. F. AVGVST. EX . S.C. dclix. P. CCXL.
IMP. CAESAR . DIVI. F. AVGVST. EX . S.C. dclxix. P. CCXL.
[35] By the side of a plan of Rome in the first volume of his magnificent work (pl. xxxviii.), Piranesi gives a section of the relative heights of the Aqueducts, as compared with each other. The figures refer to the base of each _specus_ above that of the Appian, and the following is the result, according to his measurements, reduced to English feet:—
Above Specus of Appian. Palmi. Feet.
Anio Novus 173.8 127 Claudian 163.2 119 Julian 145.1 106 Tepulan 138.7 101½ Marcian 128.7 92½ Anio Vetus 75.4½ 55½ Virgo 9.3 7 Appian — —
At a lower level than Specus of the Appian.
Alsietina in the Trastevere 37.6½ 27½
He gives as the total full range, i.e. from the _specus_ of the Alsietina (the lowest), to that of the Anio Novus (the highest), as 211.2½ _palmi_, or 154½ English feet. The height of the Appian, he shews by his diagram to be about 24 English feet above the Quay of the Tiber. The points at which Piranesi obtained his measurements, and the mode employed, are not recorded. It seems hardly possible that the Appia is 55 ft. under the Anio Vetus in Rome.
[36] See ante. Frontinus, cap. 21.
[37] The passage, as it stands in the Codex Cassinensis, is, “Anio Vetus _citra_ quartum miliarium _infra_ novum _qui_ a Via Latina in Lavicanam _inter_ arcus trajicit, et ipse piscinam habet.” This piscina is visible at the third modern milestone on the Via d’Albano, and at the fourth on the Via Latina. The Codex Vaticanus is an inferior copy of the Codex Cassinensis; but the Codex Urbinas, now also in the Vatican Library, is distinct. No other MS. is of any authority.
[38] Remains of the tombs on the Via Latina are distinctly visible and rather prominent objects, close to the Torre Fiscale. The Marrana, or Almo, the small stream that received the surplus water of the aqueducts, also washes the foot of the tower.
[39] This _castellum aquæ_ is exactly two miles from the Porta Maggiore, another proof that the entrance _to Rome_ (though not to the City) was considered by Frontinus to have been at that gate. All the aqueducts on the eastern side of Rome are measured by him from this gate, and the inscriptions put over that gate as the entrance into Rome indicate the same thing. The level of this _castellum_ above the sea is about 153 ft.; at the Porta Maggiore, where the Anio Vetus enters Rome, it is about 146 ft., allowing a descent of about 3 ft. 4 in. for the two miles, which is natural. The Via Appia Nova, in the part near Rome, was made out of the old Via Asinaria. Frontinus says that this branch “was conveyed to the Asinian gardens,” which were between the Lateran and the Sessorium, and to which the Porta Asinaria (or gate of the Asinii) was the entrance. Between that gate and the Amphitheatrum Castrense are remains of an ancient reservoir or _castellum aquæ_, cut in the rock at the foot of the wall and half underground, as was very usual with the Anio Vetus. The branch that goes along the Via Latina appears to have gone from the same reservoir, but to be distinct from the one mentioned by Frontinus, and to have been made after his time. This last branch seems to be the same as the Aqua Antoniniana of the Regionary Catalogue, having been made in the third century to supply the great Thermæ of the Antonines. In the Middle Ages, this was considered to have been a branch of the Aqua Marcia; but if this had been the case, there must have been some remains of the arcade for it across the valley.
[40] This branch is believed to have been called AQUA ANTONINIANA, as it conveyed water to supply the great Thermæ of the Antonines, called after Antoninus Caracalla. But it seems doubtful whether it may not be the SEVERIANA, which conveyed water to the Thermæ of Septimius Severus. There appear to have been two aqueducts along this point of the Via Latina at different levels, and the higher one, passing over the Arch of Drusus, is said to have been a branch from the Marcia.
[41] Frontinus, c. 21. On the subject of the word _Spes_ (?) or _Specus_ (?), see the Appendix to this Chapter.
[42]
ANI_o_ IMP . CAESAR DIVI . F . AVGVST . EX . SC VII PCCXL
_i_MP . CAESAR DIVI . F . AVGVST . EX . SC VI_i_ PCCXL C
[43] “Descrizione del luogo denominato anticamente Speranza Vecchia, del monumento delle Acque Claudia ed Aniene Nuova, e del Sepolcro di Marco Virgilio Eurisace, dell’ architetto cav. Luigi Canina.” 8vo., Roma, 1839, with six Plates; extracted from the Annali dell’ Instituto Archeologico.
[44] There are two other temples known to have been dedicated to Spes, and the one near the Porta Carmentalis is thus entered in the _Notitia_ and _Curiosum Urbis_: “Fortunæ et Spei Templa _Nova_.” We know that there had been a great fire here, and that these temples were rebuilt, and therefore the _Nova_ has reference only to the new structure. Besides, to be analogous, it should have been “Spes Nova,” or “Templum Spei Novæ.” According to Dionysius, another Temple of Spes was a mile or eight _stadia from the City_. (Dion. Hal., ix. 24.) “Having in the first battle, which was fought at the distance of eight stadia from _the City_, near the temple of Hope, overcome the enemy and beaten them out of the field, and after that fought them again near the gate called Collina,” &c. The Porta Maggiore, in the outer wall of _enceinte_, is just a mile from the Porta Esquilina, in the inner wall of _the City_, and the Arch of Gallienus. On the other hand, the line of the _specus_, with the foss-way by the side of it, must have been important ground for a battle. The modern theory that the whole of the eastern side of Rome was called after Spes, has no ancient authority. Another instance is on all accounts very puzzling. It is a passage in Lampridius, in the life of Heliogabalus: “Ipse secessit ad hortos Spei Veteris, quasi contra novum juvenem.” (Lampridius, Antoninus Heliogabalus, 13.) It would almost appear that there were some gardens called by the name of Spes, unless indeed in transcribing some such error should have been made as in the case of the transcriber of Frontinus, and “Spei” written for “Specus,” by a scribe to whom the former word was familiar but the latter not, who had mistaken _Spc̄_ for _Spē_. It is a strong passage in favour of the temple theory; but still there is strong evidence on the other side. This garden was that of the Sessorium, one side of which was enclosed by the arcade carrying the _specus_ of the Claudian aqueduct.
[45] The seven places where the abbreviation of _spem_ or _specum_ occurs in Frontinus are given in another page, with tracings of these passages from the best manuscript.
[46] Polenus and Buecheler have demonstrated that the Codex Cassinensis is the earliest and best. It was discovered at Monte Cassino by Poggio in the fourteenth century. The Codex Vaticanus is a copy of the above; but the Codex Urbinas, though of later date, is not a copy from that manuscript. Probably both are copies from an earlier one, not now extant. Some of the various readings in the Codex Urbinas are better than those of the Codex Cassinensis. See the edition of Frontinus by Polenus, Prolegomena, p. 20. Patavii, 1722, 4to.
[47] Other excavations, made in 1871 in the large vineyard near the Porta Maggiore, near the building called Minerva Medica, shewed the aqueducts very distinctly passing through the higher ground and going along the line of the wall towards the Porta di S. Lorenzo.
[48] Frontinus, c. 87.
[49] Piranesi, Le Antichità Romane, vol. i. pl. x.
[50] I am indebted to the kindness of the abbot of the monastery at Monte Cassino, for the tracings of these passages here reproduced by the process of photo-engraving.
[51] The manuscript called _Codex Urbinas_ reads, _jungitur ei ad anionem veterem_. In the present instance, the true reading is evidently _specum_. Frontinus is describing the Aqua Appia, the oldest of the aqueducts, and the junction of the Augusta with the old _specus_. This could have nothing to do with the Anio Vetus.
[52] _ascus_ (?): Buecheler reads this _ad spem_.
[53] The Torquatian Gardens were near the Porta Maggiore, and probably the same as those of the Sessorium, now those of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme.
[54] Canina published a volume on what he considered to be the Temple of Spes, by the side of the Porta Maggiore (as before mentioned); but a few years afterwards those ruins were pulled down to make room for a modern guard-house. In doing so, the inscription of the dedication to HERCULES was found by the architect, Felice Cicconetti, and sent to the Vatican Museum. This statement was made to me some years since by Signor Cicconetti himself, and was confirmed by his friend, Signor Simelli, the photographer, who said he had seen it.
The fact is now denied by the Roman archæologists, and when challenged by the Cavaliere Visconti to shew him the inscription in the Vatican Museum, they say they cannot now remember anything about it; and the stone with the inscription upon it has not been found. It is printed by Dr. Henzen in his collection of Inscriptions as _then_ in the warehouse of the Vatican Museum; but he considers it to have belonged to a wayside altar only, not to a temple.
The twin reservoirs are very near the same spot; but the place where the Aqua Appia enters Rome is in the gardens of the Sessorium, some distance from the gate, to the east of it. An old _specus_ certainly runs along the Cœlian Hill, nearly under the Neronian Arcade, and part of it is now used for the Aqua Felice. I have been along it for more than a quarter of a mile, from near the Porta Maggiore to the Lateran. The Aqua Felice is carried down a sharp incline into that old _specus_, and the metal pipes on the slope are still supported on brickwork of the first century, probably part of the Marcian Arcade, when rebuilt in that part by Frontinus. The old _specus_ runs on (or ran on, it is said to be now interrupted,) to the reservoir on the Cœlian Hill, at the Arch of Dolabella.
That a part of the eastern side of Rome went by the name of _Spes Vetus_, is said to be proved by a curious graffito upon the bottom of an amphora, found in 1871 in the excavations in the Exquiliæ, near the Porta Maggiore, of a cobbler’s stall, in that district:—
TYCHICI SVTORIS A. SPEM VE TERE.
This piece of _terra-cotta_ is of the first century of the Roman Empire; but _at what period_ the name and address of the cobbler was scratched upon it, is a question not so easily answered.
[55] The Aqua Claudia and Anio Novus enter Rome at the extreme eastern point on a lofty arcade, which formed the northern boundary of the Sessorian gardens, and was incorporated in the Wall of Aurelian. This extends for about a quarter of a mile; it then turns at a sharp angle to the north, and passes over the Porta Maggiore, to its final reservoir in a tower at an angle to the north of that gate. But part of the water of the Claudia and the Anio Novus united, was carried straight on along the bank on which the arches of Nero stand, to the Cœlian Hill and the reservoirs at the west end of it. The temple, called by Canina _Spes_, stood near the angle where the water was divided into two distinct channels, between that point and the Porta Maggiore.
[56] The name of _Porta Esquilina_ is here given to the Porta Maggiore, the outer gate on the road to the Esquiline. The same name was also given to the inner gate in the _agger_ of Servius Tullius; but there must always have been an outer gate also in the outer _mœnia_, or bank and wall for enclosure, which was a necessary part of every fortified city. (The same name, _Porta Angelica_, is still given to both the inner and the outer gate of the Leonine City, near the Vatican.) The high streams were carried on this bank to the Porta Viminalis of Frontinus, now called the _Porta di S. Lorenzo_. The remains of these three aqueducts can be plainly seen on entering through the city wall close to the Porta Maggiore, on the north side, and going along on this bank to the Porta di S. Lorenzo. The _specus_ is visible at both ends, carried on arches. In the middle the ground is higher, and the _specus_ pass through it underground, and then emerge and are carried again upon arches, exactly as described by Frontinus. The Aqua Felice is carried _over_ the three aqueducts of the Marcian arcade; it is on arches twenty feet from the ground at each end, and in the middle, where these three are underground. The lower part of the _specus_ of the Aqua Felice almost touches the ground, while the other three are underground.
[57] The _gemelli_ are, in all probability, the large twin reservoirs just outside the western wall of the Sessorium, now in a large vineyard near the Porta Maggiore, through which the Neronian arches pass. These reservoirs are below the level of the _specus_ of the Anio Vetus, as was shewn by some excavations made in them under my direction in 1869.
[58] Some of the water had been thrown into the old _specus_ at the junction of the Claudian with the Neronian arches.
[59] There are remains of more than one _specus_ crossing the valley from the Cœlian to the Aventine upon the _agger_ of Servius Tullius, and passing over the Porta Capena at the foot of the Cœlian. One of these was the Marcia, from the reservoir over the Arch of Dolabella, which is near the site of the Claudium and Temple of Claudius. There were great reservoirs for the aqueducts at this point on different levels; one of them underground is still in use, the remains of the others are among the most picturesque objects in Rome. This passage cannot apply to the temple of Hope, which is full a mile away from the Aventine.
[60] “Quum hæc accepta clades esset, jam C. Horatius et T. Menenius consules erant. Menenius adversus Tuscos, victoria elatos, confestim missus. Tum quoque male pugnatum est, et Janiculum hostes occupavere: obsessaque urbs foret, super bellum annona premente, (transierant enim Etrusci Tiberim) ni Horatius consul e Volscis esset revocatus: adeoque id bellum ipsis institit mœnibus, ut primo pugnatum ad Spei sit æquo Marte, iterum ad Portam Collinam. Ibi quanquam parvo momento superior Romana res fuit, meliorem tamen militem, recepto pristino animo, in futura prœlia id certamen fecit.” (Livii Hist., lib. ii. c. 51.)
[61] “Romæ fœdum incendium per duas noctes ac diem unum tenuit: solo æquata omnia inter Salinas ac Portam Carmentalem cum Æquimælio Jugarioque vico. In templo Fortunæ ac matris Matutæ et Spei extra portam late vagans ignis, sacra profanaque multa absumpsit.” (Ibid., lib. xxiv. c. 47.)
[62] “Comitia deinde a prætore urbano de senatus sententia plebisque scito sunt habita: quibus creati sunt quinqueviri muris turribusque reficiendis: et triumviri bini; uni sacris conquirendis donisque persignandis; alteri reficiendis ædibus Fortunæ et matris Matutæ intra Portam Carmentalem, sed et Spei extra portam, quæ priore anno incendio consumptæ fuerant.” (Livii Hist., lib. xxv. c. 7.)
[63] “Theatrum et proscenium ad Apollinis, ædem Jovis in Capitolio, columnasque circa poliendas albo locavit: et ab his columnis, quæ incommode opposita videbantur, signa amovit: clipeaque de columnis, et signa militaria affixa omnis generis dempsit. M. Fulvius plura et majoris locavit usus: portum et pilas pontis in Tiberim; quibus pilis fornices post aliquot annos P. Scipio Africanus et L. Mummius censores locaverunt imponendos; basilicam post argentarias novas et forum piscatorium, circumdatis tabernis, quas vendidit in privatum; et forum, et porticum extra Portam Trigeminam, et aliam post navalia, et ad fanum Herculis, et post Spei ad Tiberim ædem Apollinis Medici.” (Ibid., lib. xl. c. 51.)
[64] “Sive autem medii montes erunt inter mœnia et caput fontis, sic erit faciendum, uti specus fodiantur sub terra librenturque ad fastigium,” &c. (Vitruv., _De Architectura_, lib. viii. c. 6. § 3.)
[65] “Alexandria est fere tota suffossa, specusque habet ad Nilum pertinentes, quibus aqua in privatas domos inducitur.” (Aulus Hirtius, _De Bello Cæsaris Alexandrino_, cap. 4.)
[66] Frontinus, lib. i. c. 7. He also quotes from Fenestella concerning the delays which occurred, and speaks of the Decemvirs consulting the Sybilline books, and being supposed to have found that it was not the Marcian but rather the Anio which should be brought into the Capitol: (“Invenisse dicuntur, non esse aquam Marciam, sed potius Anionem in Capitolium perducendam.”) Eventually, however, Marcius prevailed, and his plan was carried out.
Pliny also refers to the work of Marcius: “Sed dicantur vera æstimatione invicta miracula; Q. Marcius Rex jussus a senatu aquarum Appiæ, Anienis, Tepulæ _ductus reficere_, novam a nomine suo appellatam cuniculis per montes actis intra præturæ suæ tempus adduxit.” (Nat. Hist., lib. xxxvi. c. 121; see also further details in Plin., xxxi. 41, and ibid.)
[67] “Qui lapide quadrato ampliores ductus excitavit, perque illos aquam quam acquisiverit rei publicæ commodo, trium millium opera fabrorum duxit cui ab auctore,” &c. These words are wanting in the best manuscript, that of Monte Cassino. In place of them we have “( ... priores ductus restituit et tertiam illam aquarum in urbem perduxit) cui ab auctore,” &c. This does not agree with the opinion of the learned, that the Urbinas Manuscript is a copy of the one at Monte Cassino, unless great liberties were taken with it. The fact that the arcade with the _specus_ of the aqueduct is always built of large squared stones, is strongly in favour of the Codex Urbinas. It is also certain from the nature of the work, that a large number of men must have been employed upon it. This passage seems to have been omitted in the Codex Cassinensis, which is a proof that the Codex Urbinas is not a _copy_ from it. Dederich, p. 15, suggests after “commodo,” the words “trium millium opera fabrorum.”
[68] Frontinus, lib. i. c. 7.
Frontinus states in another chapter (c. 12) that Augustus brought underground another stream, which should be supplementary to the Marcian whenever the dryness of the season rendered extra supply necessary. It was called from the name of the contriver, Augusta, and had its rise above the spring of the Marcian. This additional _ductus_, or Specus Augusta, was 800 paces long.
[69] Frontinus, c. 18.
[70] “Salientibus aquis instruxit urbem.” Ibid., c. 9.
[71] Ibid., c. 87.
[72] Ibid., c. 8.
[73] Ibid.
[74] Ibid., c. 9.
[75] Ibid.
[76] Frontinus, c. 19.
[77] ‘The three aqueducts’ in this passage may mean either the Anio Vetus, the Marcia, and the Claudia, all of which come from the neighbourhood of Subiaco, and follow the same line on the bank of the river Anio, and the cliffs above it as far as Tivoli, but diverge considerably between Tivoli and the Piscinæ; or it may mean that the Tepula and the Julia coming from near Marino, and the Marcia coming from Tivoli, meet at this point—both are true. The _piscinæ_ of the Claudia, the Anio Novus, the Marcia, the Tepula, the Julia, are all within half-a-mile of each other.
[78] Dr. F. Gori says that the lake of S. Lucia, in the territory of Arsoli, near Subiaco, is _not_ the source of the Aqua Marcia, but of the Aqua Claudia only, and that the sources of the Aqua Marcia are nearer to Subiaco, and are called by the people _Acque Serene_. He also considers that the branch of the Aqua Augusta added to the Marcian by Augustus, now called _Le Rosoline_, comes from near the village of Agosta, and that the spring, now called _La Fonte_ (_Fons novus Antoninianus_), added to the Marcian by Antoninus Caracalla, is under the same village of Agosta. One of the inscriptions on the Porta S. Lorenzo records this. See Delle varie Sorgenti dell’ Acqua Marcia, &c., pp. 56, 57.
[79] The new company had at first proposed to draw their chief supply of water from the small lake called the Lago di S. Lucia, which is nearer to Rome, and which they had been misinformed was the Aqua Marcia. Dr. Fabio Gori, from his great local knowledge and his archæological researches, was able to shew that this was a mistake, and wrote to that effect a letter in the Roman newspaper called the _Osservatore Romano_. This letter at first gave great offence, and a very warm controversy was carried on for some time on that subject. Eventually, however, a new engineer of the company thought it better to examine the ground himself, and the result was to establish that Gori’s views were perfectly correct. He then became a warm advocate for the company, which he thinks entitled to great praise for the admirable manner in which its works in the valley of the Anio have been carried out as far as Tivoli. Their works almost equal those of the time of the Empire, and are carried out on the same principles; but from Tivoli to Rome the water is carried in metal pipes, and not in a stone _specus_ as it is above Tivoli. This enables the company to carry it in a more direct line.
[80] See the Appendix to this Section.
[81] A great deal too much importance has been attached to this Cyclopean Masonry, _Opus Cyclopæum_. See the Chapter on the Construction of Walls.
[82] It is probably the case that part of this supply was brought in metal pipes only, from the evidence of this inscription. A stone _specus_ passes under the wall on the bank round three sides of the camp on the exterior of the walls, and is plainly visible at the north-east corner; but this agrees with the general character of the Anio Vetus, and was probably a branch from that aqueduct.
The inscription is as follows:—
IMP. CAES. M. OPELLI . SEVERI . MACRINI . AVG M. OPELLI . SEVERI . DIADVMENIANI . CAES. PRINC. IV CASTRIS . PRAETORI TERENTIVS . CASSANDER . FECIT
[83] “[Honorius, Papa III.] Ecclesiam Sanctæ Bibianæ juxta formas aquæ Martiæ cum Monasterio Monialium restituit.” (Ciaconi, Vitæ Pontif. Roman., &c., vol. ii. col. 46, C.)
[84] An inscription recording repairs by Agrippa is said by Ligorio to have been found on a _cippus_ of travertine at the third mile on the Via Latina. The genuineness of this is doubted by Fabretti, because the number of miles does not agree; but it seems more probable that this was an error in transcribing, than that the inscription should be forged without any motive for doing so:—
AQVAE . IVLIAE . TEPVLAE. IMP. CAES. DIVI . IVLI . F. AVGVSTVS . PONTIF. MAX. COS. X̅I̅I̅. TRIB. POT. X̅I̅X̅. IMP. X̅I̅I̅I̅. CVRANTE M. VIPSAN . AGRIPPA . AEDIL . CVRVL . L. C. C. P. MILL. X.
Another inscription, also recording repairs of the time of Augustus, was found by Fabretti himself, in the Vinea Bartholomæi Virginii, two miles from the Porta Maggiore, between the ruins of the arcades of the Marcian and Claudian, and was preserved in a private museum:
IVL. TEP. MAR. IMP. CAESAR. DIVI . F. AVGVSTVS. EX. S. C. LXIII. P. CCXI.
[85] _Marrana_ is a general name for a running stream in the Campagna round Rome, probably a provincial word; but it is also the special name of this particular stream coming from Marino.
[86] “Tepula concipitur via Latina ad decimum milliarium, diverticulo euntibus ab Roma dextrorsus millium passuum duum ... inde suo rivo in urbem perducebatur.” (Frontinus, c. 8.)
[87] It is the building pointed out in guide-books as “The House of Cicero,” although there does not appear to be any historical ground for this name.
[88] “... ad milliarium ab urbe duo-decimum via Latina, _diverticulo_ euntibus ab Roma dextrorsus millium passuum duum alterius aquæ proprias vires collegit et Tepulæ rivum intercepit. Acquisitæ aquæ ab inventore nomen Juliæ datum est, ita tamen divisa erogatione, ut maneret Tepulæ appellatio.”—(Frontinus, c. 9.)
[89] “Præter caput Juliæ transfluit aqua quæ vocatur Crabra. Hanc Agrippa omisit.”—(Frontinus, c. 9.)
[90] Pag. clxxxii. 8, “In tubulo plumbeo reperto ad portam S. Laurentii,”—
P. CORNELIO . DOLABELLA . C . IVN . SILANO . COS—AQVA . MAR
[91] Gruter, pag. clxxxiii. 4,—
Q. AQVILLIO . SABINO . II. SEX . AVR . ANVLLINO CASTR . PRÆT . L. VRBIS . OFF . PED . COS . CCCLXXXIII. AQVA . MARC
[92]
HAC RIVI AQVAR TRIVM EVNT CIPPI POSITI IVSSV A. DIDI. GALLI T. RVBRI. NEPOTIS M. CORNELI FIRMI CVRATORVM AQVAR
[93] Frontinus, c. 10.
[94] “Concipitur Virgo via Collatia ad milliarium octavum palustribus locis, _signino circumjecto_ continendarum scaturiginum causâ.” _Signinum_ is the particular kind of cement to hold water, always used to line the walls of the Aqueducts. It was not used after the time of the Empire, and the art of making it is said to be lost. It is the usual characteristic of the remains of an aqueduct.
[95] Frontinus, c. 10.
[96] Ibid., c. 22.
[97] This water is now usually called Acqua di Trevi, because its terminus is at the great fountain of Trevi. The sources are in the estate of Salone, as above described. It is still in use, and was long considered as the best water brought into Rome. The line now used is the one repaired and restored by the Popes; but, near Rome, it has been altered, probably after it had been damaged by the Goths or the Lombards. The old _specus_ passed through the Catacomb of S. Priscilla, in the Via Salaria, where it may be seen. This is demonstrated by the _cippus_ of the aqueduct of Virgo, discovered in the Via Salaria, and so recorded by Muratori, Thes. Vet. Inscr., ccccxlii. 7, “Romæ in Via Salaria:”—
VIRG. TI . CÆSAR . AVG. PONTIF . MAXIM. TRIB. POT. XXXVIII. COS . V̅. IMP. V̅I̅I̅I̅. I. P. CXL.
This inscription is A.D. 36.
It was then brought to the bank or _mœnia_ on which the wall of Aurelian was afterwards built near the Porta Salaria, and may be traced upon or in that bank under the present wall of Rome for about a mile. For a short distance, where this ground is low, it was carried on an arcade, of which there are remains under the wall built upon it. After this it goes on as far as the garden of the Villa Borghese and the French Academy, under which it now passes through the Pincian Hill.
[98]
TI . CLAVDIVS . DRVSI . F. AVG. GERMAN. PONT. MAX. TRIBVNIC. POT. V. IMP. IX. P.P. COS. III. DESIG. IIII. ARCVS . DVCTVS . AQVÆ . VIRGI NIS . DISTVRBATOS . PER . C. CÆSAREM . A. FVN DAMENTIS . NOVOS . FECIT . AC . RESTITVIT
This inscription was erected A.D. 46.
[99] There are remains of the Septa in the cellars under the houses on the west side of the Corso, in its lower part. These remains of the arcade are now chiefly underground, owing to the filling up of the great foss, called in this part Via Lata, because the wide foss under part of the Quirinal and of the Capitol had at one time been made into a wide street or place, on the eastern side of which is situated the Church of the “SS. Apostoli in Via Lata” and that of S. Maria in Via Lata on the western side, at the north-west corner. The great public building called the Septa went down the western side of this wide place from S. Maria to the Venetian Palace, with an arcade towards the street or place, of which many of the arches remain in the cellars. These arches under the church of S. Maria are absurdly called the house of S. Paul. They are visible also under the Palazzo Doria to the south of that church, and in other cellars.
[100] “Idem et Virginem adduxit ab octavi lapidis diverticulo duobus millibus pass. Prænestina Via.
“Juxta est Herculaneus rivus quem refugiens Virginis nomen obtinuit.” (Plinii Nat. Hist., lib. xxxi. c. iii. § 25.)
[101] Of this stream and its introduction into Rome in the twelfth century, an account will be found in the second part of this chapter.
Frontinus, c. 15 and 19.
[102] Frontinus, c. 11.
[103] Ibid., c. 18.
[104] Ibid., c. 71.
[105] The draining of the lakes in the hills round Rome is a great mistake, and very injurious to the health of the city. Such lakes are a wise provision of nature for collecting some of the surplus water in the rainy season, and preserving it for use in the hot and dry season, when the evaporation from the lakes helps to cool the air. The water also drawn from these lakes was most useful for the irrigation of the country round Rome, and watering the gardens in Rome itself, thereby promoting vegetation, which is essential for health in a hot and dry climate. It is well known that the leaves of plants and trees (more especially of deciduous trees) absorb _nitrogen_, which is the part injurious to human life, and give out _oxygen_, that portion which is beneficial to, and necessary for, human life. Where there is no vegetation, therefore, the climate cannot be healthy, and without water there can be no vegetation; for water is the necessary food of plants.
[106] The line of this subterranean aqueduct can also be traced by the wells descending into the _specus_, in the same manner as the Aqua Appia was traced in 1870, that is, by the bushes growing at the top of each of the wells, and generally enclosed by a wooden railing to prevent animals from falling into them.
[107] The rock in which the tunnel is cut is a sort of peperino, hard and rough, covered with a bed of clay.
[108] This lake, called Sabatina in the time of Frontinus, was called Anguillara in the Middle Ages, and is now called Bracciano, in both cases from the names of the proprietors. The great family of Anguillara had their origin from this village, of which they were the proprietors, and where they had a castle on the bank of the lake. The present proprietors are the Dukes of Bracciano. The lake produces a great abundance of fish, especially a small fish much resembling the white-bait of London, at least when cooked.
[109] There is a small construction over this flood-gate, and at the back of it is this inscription:—
ACQVA PAOLA ALLA PRESA DELL’ ACQVA ALSEATINA
[110] There are interesting remains of the Necropolis of this ancient city close to the fountain before mentioned, on each side of a deep ravine. On one side, there are nine chambers cut out of the rock on the edge of the cliff, the entrance being in the central chamber, with four others on either side of it. All are full of small square _columbaria_, of very early character. On the opposite side of the ravine, is a similar series of tombs, but in a less perfect state.
[111] There is _Opus Reticulatum_ of rude and early character (more like the _Opus Incertum_ of the Emporium than the mausoleum of Augustus) at the entrance of this passage, which is mentioned by Nibby. There is a stone-quarry also at the entrance, of the hard, dark-coloured stone used for making roads, and excellent for that purpose. This is the same stone that is called _selce_ or _silex_ in Rome, and seems to be similar to the hard lava under which Herculaneum is buried, and of which there are quarries near the tomb of Cecilia Metella.
[112] The persons employed by Mr. Parker went down to the bottom of this steep tunnel-passage to ascertain this.
[113] Nibby, Analisi storico-topografico-antiquaria della carta de’ Dintorni di Roma, tom. i. Roma, 1837, 8vo. art. _Alsietina_.
[114] Cassio, Corso delle Acque, vol. i. p. 147.
[115] Nibby considers this a mistake, and is of opinion that the water was the Sabatina, not the Alsietina; but the mistake is made by Nibby himself, not by the engineers of Pope Paul, who certainly brought the water from the Lacus Alsietina and the other small lake above it (as mentioned on p. 50). By the draining of these lakes, the aqueduct is _now_ made to depend on the Lacus Alsietina only. The sources of the Alsietina are very different from those of the Sabatina. The former was taken by Augustus from the lake Alsietinus, now called Lago di Martignano, and the latter by Trajan from the sources between the lake Sabatinus and the villages of Vicarello, Bassano, and Oriolo. The Alsietina was at the lowest level of all the aqueducts, and the Sabatina at the highest. The first _specus_ was for the most part subterranean, and the other was carried upon arcades for part of its course.
[116] By the more usually received computation, the second year of Caligula would be A.U.C. 791; and the year of the consulship of Sulla and Titian, A.U.C. 805.
[117] It surpassed all the others _in quantity_, and being the highest, was used to supply the others when the water fell short; but the water was not so good for drinking.
[118] Frontinus, c. 13.
[119] That is, higher than any other aqueduct.
[120] Frontinus, c. 20.
[121] The road to Subiaco.
[122] Frontinus, c. 14.
[123] Ibid.
[124] Ibid.
[125] Ibid., c. 18.
[126] _In Subruino_ is the reading given in the text by Dederich. _In suo rivo_ is the reading adopted by Polenus, Jocundus, and other editors. A third reading has been suggested, “In Simbrivio,” or in Simbruino, that is, referring to the Simbruine hills. This is the reading of Buecheler (1868), who follows verbatim the manuscript of Monte Cassino. The reading, however, bears little upon the evidence.
[127] _Herculaneus Rivus._ This is not the same _Herculaneus Rivus_ as the one mentioned by Frontinus in connection with the Anio Vetus, in ch. 19. The same name is given in these places to different streams, all strong and rapid.
[128] Frontinus, c. 15.
[129] Ibid., c. 93.
[130] Ibid., c. 91.
[131] Frontinus, c. 76.
[132] “At ex alia parte Anio in monte Trebanorum ortus lacus tres amœnitate nobiles, qui nomen dedere Sublaqueo defert in Tiberim.” (Plinii Nat. Hist., iii. 109.)
[133] The inhabitants of Filettino probably belonged to the tribe of the Trebani, or of Trebula, who were located in the neighbourhood of Trevi, where was a Roman colony and principality. Inscriptions giving the names and titles of Augustus, Septimius Severus, and Commodus, were found here, and are published by Signor Gori in his Trattato dell’ Acqua Marcia, &c., 12mo., 1866, p. 37. Another inscription at Anagni, on the front of the Governor’s palace, gives the name of Publius Vecellius, curator of the Republic of the Trebani.
Martial mentions the Treba Augusta of Frontinus, under the name of Trebula:
“Trebula nos genuit, commendat gratia duplex Sive levi flamma, sive domamur aqua.” (Lib. v. epigr. 65, and lib. xiii. epigr. 33.)
Livy also mentions it: “Eodem anno Arpinatibus Trebulanisque civitas data.” (Livii Hist., x. 1.)
[134] IMP CAESARIS NERVAE TRAIA(_ni_) ... OP(T)IMI AVG GERMANIC DACICI.
[135] “Lacus monasterii ad nihilum redactus, quia duo monachi levaverunt duo lapides, qui fuerunt firmati cum aliis petris; et sic aqua destruxit.” (Chronicon Sublacense, apud Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script., tom. xxiv. col. 962, D.) The author of this Chronicle was living in the year 1390.
[136] Gruter, Inscriptiones, p. clv. 4.
[137] Probably the text of Frontinus here is corrupt, because the Piscina Limaria and the _specus_ of Claudius are at the forty-sixth mile on the Via Sublacensis, “ad milliarium quadragesimum _secundum_,” for “Ad milliarium quadragesimum _sextum_.”
[138] Dr. Fabio Gori, who is a native of Subiaco, claims the credit of being the first person to point out what this great work of Trajan really was. He also states that the Rivus Herculaneus, rising at thirty-eight miles on the Via Sublacensis, must have been a clear stream, which he finds on the left side of the river, opposite to the lake of S. Lucia and to this source of the aqueduct of the Claudia, called Acqua dell’ Arco, or water of the aqueduct.
[139] Frontinus, c. 72.
[140] The _piscina_ made in one of the towers in the wall at the point where it enters Rome, has the four chambers visible, the inner wall of the tower having been destroyed.
[141] Inscriptions on the Porta Maggiore:—
TI . CLAVDIVS DRVSI F. CAISAR AVGVSTVS GERMANICVS PONTIF MAXIM TRIBVNICIA POTESTATE X̅I̅I̅. COS. V. IMPERATOR X̅X̅V̅I̅I̅. PATER PATRIÆ AQVAS . CLAVDIAM EX FONTIBVS . QVI VOCABANTVR CAERVLEVS ET CVRTIVS . A MILLIARIO X̅X̅X̅X̅V̅.
ITEM ANIENEM NOVAM A. MILLIARIO L̅X̅I̅I̅. SVA IMPENSA IN VRBEM PERDVCENDAS CVRAVIT.
IMP . CAESAR . VESPASIANVS AVGVST . PONTIF . MAX . TRIB. POT. I̅I̅. IMP. V̅I̅. COS. I̅I̅I̅. DESIG. I̅I̅I̅I̅. P.P
AQVAS CVRTIAM ET CAERVLEAM PERDVCTAS A DIVO CLAVDIO . ET POSTEA INTERMISSAS DILAPSASQVE
PER ANNOS NOVEM . SVA IMPENSA VRBI RESTITVIT.
IMP . T. CAESAR DIVI F. VESPASIANVS AVGVSTVS PONTIFEX MAXIMVS . TRIBVNIC
POTESTATE X. IMPERATOR X̅V̅I̅I̅. PATER PATRIAE . CENSOR . COS . V̅I̅I̅I̅.
AQVAS CVRTIAM ET CAERVLEAM PERDVCTAS A DIVO CLAVDIO ET POSTEA
A DIVO VESPASIANO PATRE SVO VRBI RESTITVTAS . CVM A CAPITE AQVARVM A SOLO VETVSTATE DILAPSAE ESSENT . NOVA FORMA REDVCENDAS SVA IMPENSA CVARVIT. (Orelli, vol. i. p. 77, Nos. 54-56.)
These inscriptions shew that considerable repairs were made by Vespasian and Titus to the Claudian aqueducts; and these repairs were continued by their successors, Nerva, Trajan, and Hadrian. Many parts and branches belong to the time of these Emperors.
[142] Vide “Delle vere Sorgenti dell’ Acqua Marcia,” &c., “trattato di Fabio Gori.” Roma, 1866. An admirable map shewing the sources and the line of each of the Aqueducts, has been made for me under the direction of the author.
[143] Frontinus (c. 15) gives the length of the _specus_ of the Anio Novus as 58 miles and 700 _passus_; add to this the length of the Piscina Limaria and of the three lakes, and we have the distance of 62 miles from Rome for this aqueduct.
[144] “Qui colles, (mons Cœlius et Aventinus,) priusquam Claudia perduceretur, utebantur Marcia et Julia. Sed postquam Nero Imperator Claudiam, opere arcuato altius exceptam, usque ad templum Divi Claudii perduxit, ut inde distribueretur, priores non ampliatæ, sed omissæ sunt: nulla enim castella adjecit, sed iisdem usus est, quorum, quamvis mutata aqua, vetus appellatio permansit.” (Frontinus, c. 76)
[145] The large square part of the Cœlian Hill, with scarped cliffs round three sides of it and part of the fourth, which had probably been originally the _arx_ or citadel of the Cœlian when that was a separate fortress, and on which Claudius erected some great public building with a temple, is marked on the modern maps of Rome as a _castellum aquæ_: this is an exaggeration. A _specus_ runs along the western side opposite to the Palatine in the wall, and goes straight towards the Colosseum, and there are remains of a piscina of the first century at the north-west corner of the Claudium, near the Colosseum, and the Meta Sudans; but this is at a low level, and does not agree with there being a large reservoir under the whole of that space.
[146] Frontinus did not live to see this completed.
[147] Cap. 86, 91, 92, and 105.
[148] These are at present almost hid by modern houses built up against them, but it is expected that these modern erections will shortly be removed. The remains of the bridge project at a right angle from the palace of Domitian. It had the aqueduct at the top at a very high level, and a road for horses by the side of it at a lower level, as at the Ponte Lupo, Ponte S. Antonio, and other bridges of the aqueducts.
[149] These imperial “Edicts” or “Decrees,” or Laws and Constitutions, have been published in various works. The later ones relating to this subject are published by Polenus, in the Appendix to his edition of Frontinus, 4to. Pataviæ, 1722; and by Rondelet, as a supplement to Frontinus, who had published those issued up to his time. See Commentaire de Frontin sur les aqueducs de Rome, 2 parts, 4to. and atlas folio, Paris, 1802; and Rondelet, Opere, 6 vols. 4to. Mantova, 1841, tom. vi. p. 117, &c.
[150] This water was celebrated for its coolness, as mentioned in the life of Alexander Severus by Lampridius, c. 30.
[151] The new company for bringing these springs into Rome again, under the name of the Aqua Marcia-Pia, has been obliged to make compensation to the town of Tivoli for the possible injury to the manufactories established there, which depend upon the force of the water, although the damage was in a great degree imaginary. This new aqueduct brings the water of the Marcia only. The water is nearly of the same quality as that of the Claudia, and is still found as cool as it was in the time of the early Empire, notwithstanding that it is brought into Rome in metal pipes for the last ten miles. A number of shops for the sale of this cool water have been opened in different parts of Rome. Nature never changes, and the same qualities of particular springs which prevailed two thousand years ago, prevail still. It is said by persons who have witnessed the experiment tried, that in the hot summer weather of Italy, when the thermometer of Fahrenheit stands above 100, the contrast between the heat of the air and the coldness of the water is so great that if a glass tumbler is suddenly put into the water near its source, the glass will break in the same manner as a glass tumbler will break in England if boiling water is poured into it in frosty weather.
[152]
In the above the _m_ = to the Roman mile = 1,000 Roman passus. _p_ = to the Roman passus = 5 Roman feet. The Roman mile (_mille passus_) = 1,618 English yards. The Roman passus = 4 English feet 10·428 inches. The Roman foot = 11·6496 English inches.
[153] The Roman foot was nearly as long as our own, being, according to the most accurate estimate, about 11½ English inches (11.6496).
[154] Frontinus, c. 24.
[155] Dederich reads “unciæ in popularibus rationibus adhuc observantur,” which seems better. The _uncia_ was an Italian, the _digitus_ a Greek measure.
[156] It is evident from his making the square of the diameter ³⁄₁₄ greater than the area of the circle drawn upon the same diameter, that he takes the ratio of the area to the diameter as ¹¹⁄₁₄ to diameter 1. This is very near to the truth. The converse as given by him also agrees, as is seen by ¹¹⁄₁₄ + ³⁄₁₁ of ¹¹⁄₁₄ = 1.
[157] Frontinus, c. 65.
[158] It is of little consequence, but perhaps it may be interesting to know more accurately the result of the calculation. If we take 1.25 as the diameter of the quinary, and multiply the square of this by 0.7854 (the corrected ratio), we obtain the result in square digits, 1.22718. This multiplied by the 1825 gives 2239.6, that is, the result within one digit as given by Frontinus.
[159] An Anglo-Roman company has now (1872) brought the Aqua Marcia (III.) again into Rome at so high a level, that it will supply cisterns at the tops of the houses. At present a number of ingenious contrivances are in use for sliding small buckets of water from the well or reservoir in the courtyard, to the upper windows and galleries round the central courts of the old houses or palaces. These reservoirs, whether large or small, are called _lacus_ by Frontinus and in the Regionary Catalogue.
[160] The expression _reddita_ would imply that originally the Marcian had supplied the Aventine, and that, it having been superseded by the Claudian, it was now restored and used in addition to the other. See the extract—Frontinus, c. 76.
[161] Frontinus, c. 89.
[162] Ibid., c. 90, 91.
[163] The division of the surface water from the sewerage, in the question of the drainage of large towns, is meeting with much favour, as it appeals to reason that what is good for the purposes of manure, is destructive to the healthy condition of the river, while the surface water, which finds its proper place in the river, interferes with the proper distribution of sewage. In Rome, there is frequently a small _specus_ or channel for pure water, contrived in the vault or upper part of the great _cloacæ_ or drains for the refuse water. Could not the same plan be adopted in London with advantage? But while this is canvassed, it seems singular that we hear little of the division of the _supply_, which, on the same principle, should certainly be divided. There are several towns so situated, that a fair supply of pure water might be brought very acceptable for drinking, but not in sufficient quantities to be applicable to other offices. The words of Frontinus are very concise and pointed:—
“Marciam ut ipsam, splendore et frigore gratissimam, balneis ac fullonibus et relatu quoque fœdis ministeriis deprehenderimus servientem. Omnes ergo discerni placuit, tum singulas ita ordinari, ut in primis Marcia potui tota serviret, et deinceps reliquæ secundum suam quæque qualitatem aptis usibus assignarentur, sicut Anio Vetus pluribus ex causis, quo inferior excipitur minus salubris, in hortorum rigationem atque in ipsius urbis sordidiora exiret ministeria.” (Frontinus, c. 91, 92.)
[164] See C. C. J. Bunsen’s _Beschreibung der Stadt Rom._ Stuttgart und Tübingen, 1830, 8vo.
[165] The mother of Cola di Rienzi was one of those who gained a livelihood by selling water in the streets.
[166] The ruined _castellum_ at the Porta Furba, two miles from Rome, (previously mentioned,) seems to have been of this description; it rises considerably above the level of the conduits, vertically, as if either for water or air to rush up it.
[167] Cassiodori Var., lib. vii. 6, and iv. 31.
[168] Procopius, de Bello Gothico, lib. i. c. 19.
[169] This is shewn by the large corbels in the wall on the bank of the river at this point, opposite to the Cloaca Maxima, which are pierced with holes through them, in which a pole was placed to attach the chain. These corbels remain perfect on the western side; on the eastern side, they have been destroyed, or covered over by medieval houses. Those which remain are carved into the form of gigantic lions’ heads, of the character called Etruscan, but are of the time when the Port of Rome was made in the Tiber, B.C. 180.
[170]
IMP. CAESAR DIVI NERVAE F. NERVA TRAIANVS AVG GERM. DACICVS PONT. MAX. TR. POT. XIII IMP. VI. COS. V. P.P AQVAM TRAIANAM PECVNIA. SVA IN VRBEM PERDVXIT EMPTIS LOCIS PER LATITVD. P. XXX
[171]
PAVLVS V. PONT. OPT. MAX FORMIS AQVAE ALSIETINAE OLIM AB AVG. CAES. EXSTRVCTIS MOX COLLAPSIS. AB. ADRIANO I. P.M INSTAVRATIS IISDEM RVRSVS OB VETVSTATEM DIRVTIS. OPERE SVBTERRANEO. ET ARCVATO AQVAM EX AGRO BRACHIANENSI DITIONIS VRSINORVM SALVBRIORIBVS FONTIBVS DERIVATAM IN VRBEM PERDVXIT ANN. SAL. MDCXI. PONT. SVI VII.
[172] In the life of Hadrian by Spartianus (c. 20), we are told that a number of aqueducts were made in his time and called after him. But his name is not retained in the Regionary Catalogue.
[173] Frontinus, c. 88.
[174] We have seen before that Eadmer mentions the malaria in Rome as early as the twelfth century. (Historiæ Novor., lib. ii. ad calcem S. Anselmi operum, p. 51, D. Lut. Par. 1675, fol.) In the following century, the author of “Sir Bevis of Southampton” gives a strange account of the fevers arising from the Pontine Marshes into the Campagna di Roma. There were, says he, two dragons there; one having fled to Toscan [Tusculum?],—
“That other dragoun ’is flight nome (took) To Seinte Peter ’is brige of Rome: Thar he schel leggen ai (lay for ever) Til hit come domesdai; And everi seve yer ones, Whan the dragoun moweth (moves) ’is bones, Thanne cometh a roke (reke, smoke) & a stink Out of the water, under the brink, Than men therof taketh the fevere, That never after mai he kever (recover); And who that n’el nought leve (believe) me, Wite (know, inquire) al pilgrimes that ther hath be; For thai can tell yow, I wis, Of that dragoun how it is.”
(Weber, “Metrical Romances,” &c., vol. iii. p. 315. Edinburgh, 1810, 12mo.)
[175] The fragment of an inscription relating to this aqueduct was found near Gabii, and is described by E. Q. Visconti in his _Monumenti Gabini_, Roma, 1797, 8vo. maj., p. 14.
IMP. CAESAR DIVI TRAiani (Parthici filius Trajanus Hadrianus) AVG. PONTIF[ex Maximus] AQVAE DVCTVM GABINIS . . . QVAM . . . . .
The second line appears to be an interpolation of the editor, but this is not material. The aqueduct begun by Nerva was not finished till the time of Hadrian. The aqueduct of Gregory XIII. and Sixtus V. (Felice) (A.D. 1572-1590) receives the water of this aqueduct, but at Colonna other springs are collected and added to it; this was the work of Fontana.
[176] The Torre Pignattara is so called from the earthenware pots (_pignatte_) of which the vault was built. Other remains of buildings of importance have been found near the Mausoleum of S. Helena, and there is some reason to believe that another imperial villa was situated there during the first three centuries.
[177] Some say the popular name is _Torre de Scavi_, or of the excavations from some great works of excavation made there in the twelfth century.
[178] Note f, p. 88. “Aquarum ductus etiam infinitas hoc nomine (Hadriani) nuncupavit.” (Spartianus in Hadriano, c. 20.)
[179] It is immediately opposite to the Palatine, and there is a remarkably fine view from the portion of the _specus_ that remains, the vault of which has been removed, and it is used as a terrace.
[180] Mémoire sur les fouilles exécutées à Santa Sabina. Paris, Imprimerie Impériale, 1868, 4to.
[181] EX . FIG . . . . AEAM . . AUGVS . RUST . IT . ET . AQVI . . (Ap. Fea, Fasti Consul., p. cxviii. No. 62.) Junius Rusticus et Aquilinus were Consuls, temp. Marci Aurelii, A.D. 162.
[182] Commodus was emperor from 180 to 192, but was slain at the early age of 31; and it is probable that this great work was left unfinished, and was completed by his successor, Septimius Severus. In the Regionary Catalogue they are mentioned together, and there was probably no division between them.
[183] It was usual to take advantage of the _castella aquæ_ of the great aqueducts to construct bath-chambers of various kinds, both for hot and cold and swimming baths.
[184] This is also mentioned in our account of the Anio Vetus (II.), as the branch at the second mile from Rome according to Frontinus. From the low level, it is more probable that this branch came from the Anio Vetus than from the Marcia, and an itinerant pilgrim of the eighth or ninth century may have been mistaken on this point.
[185] This was probably the branch that now runs under the Via dei Condotti. The main line to supply the Thermæ of Agrippa has been traced beyond the fountain of Trevi to the Piazza di S. Ignazio, very near the Pantheon, which was the entrance-hall to these _thermæ_. Those of Nero and Alexander Severus were more to the north.
[186] See Aqueduct XI. Trajana.
[187]
HERCVLI . CONSERVATORI INVICTO . COMITI D. N. SEVERI . ALEXANDRI PII . VICTORIS . SEMPER AVG. AC. OPTIMI . PRINCIPIS M. AVRELIVS . PRISCILLIANVS V. C. CVRATOR . NYMPHAEI DEVOT . NVM . M. Q. E.
[188] The great Thermæ of the third century in the Esquiliæ, where the building known as the Minerva Medica stands, and to which the other building, called after the Trophies of Marius, is supposed to have been the entrance; this has been identified as a Nymphæum of Alexander Severus, by the representation of it on one of his coins.
[189] SOPRA TREBIA (TREVI) VICINO ARCINAZZO (upon Trevi, near Arcinazzo).
[190]
MINERVAE . MEMORI COELIA . IVLIANA INDVLGENTIA . MEDICI NARVM . INFIRMITATE . EIVS GRAVI . SANATA . D. P
[191] There is a subterranean reservoir under it, and there are several other subterranean reservoirs in this ground.
[192] This great Pantheum was a temple of all divinities, and also a hall for the men, being connected by a large vaulted passage at the back with the _thermæ_, of both of which there are visible remains.
[193] This spring is considered by some authors as the one source of the river Almo; but it is only one of many, and it falls into the deep bed of the river, coming from some miles beyond that point.
[194] In the valley of the Caffarella, a stone _specus_ has been made by the side of the natural bed of this branch; it is open at the top, has lochs in it, and is on a higher level than the natural stream. The object of this was obviously to keep a supply of water from the springs in dry weather.
[195] The two arches of the Porta Metronia remain, both built of brick of the time of Aurelian. The outer arch is visible in the city wall; the inner one is concealed by a medieval tower built up against it. In the year 1871, Signor Rosa made a new gate on the east side of the Porta Metronia for his carts to pass through, in which the earth, excavated from the Palatine, is carried out into the meadow beyond, outside of the walls. This is certainly better than continuing to fill up the valley between the Aventine and the Pseudo-Aventine, and thereby concealing more of the Wall of the Kings under S. Balbina and burying more of the Aqua Appia, than has already been done under his orders.
[196] Cicero, Epist. ad Q. Fratrem, lib. iii. ep. 7.
[197] “Hic etiam derivavit aquam de antiquis Formis, et ad Portam Lateranensem conduxit, ibique lacum pro adaquandis equis fieri fecit. Plurima quoque molendina in eadem aqua construxit, et multas vineas cum fructiferis arboribus secus ipsum lacum plantari studiosissimè fecit.” (Muratori, Rerum Italic. Script., tom. iii. p. 420, col. 2, E.)
[198] “Aquam ad Urbem reduxit, molendina cum vineis juxta lacum aptavit,” &c. (Pandolphus Pisanus, ibid., p. 419, col. 1, E.)
[199]
SIXT. V. PONT. MAX. PICENVS. AQVAM . EX . AGRO . COLVMNAE. VIA . PRAENEST . SINISTRORSVM. MVLTARVM . COLLECTIONE . VENARVM. DVCTV . SINVOSO . A. RECEPTACVLO . MIL. XX. A. CAPITE XXII. ADDVXIT. FELICEMQVE . DE . NOMINE. ANTE PONT. DIXIT. COEPIT . ANNO. PRIMO. ABSOLVIT III. M.D. L. XXXVII.
[200] See Aqueduct XI.
[201] The Pope insisted on the work being completed at the time originally fixed, notwithstanding that the blunder of his engineer made it necessary to rebuild the whole arcade for seven miles.
[202] “Nunc autem in urbem influunt: 1. Aqua Appia, 2. Anio Vetus, 3. Marcia, 4. Tepula, 5. Julia, 6. Virgo, 7. Alsietina (quæ eadem vocatur Augusta), 8. Claudia, 9. Anio Novus.” (Frontinus, 4.)
[203] Id., c. 19.
[204] See Aqueduct III.
[205] Frontinus, c. 15, in both cases called by him, Herculaneus.
[206] Frontinus, c. 12.
[207] Id., c. 5.
[208]
“Quid loquar aërio pendentes fornice rivos, Qua vix imbriferas tolleret Iris aquas? Hos potius dicas crevisse in sidera montes, Tale giganteum Græcia laudat opus. Intercepta tuis conduntur flumina muris; Consumunt totos celsa lavacra lacus.”
(Cl. Rutilii Itiner., l. 1, v. 97. and following.)
[209] “In formis autem Romanis utrumque præcipuum est ut fabrica sit mirabilis et aquarum salubritas singularis. Quod enim illuc flumina quasi constructis montibus perducuntur, naturales credas alveos soliditates saxorum, quando tantus impetus fluminis tot sæculis firmiter potuit sustineri. Cavati montes plerunque subruunt, meatus torrentium dissipantur, et opus illud veterum non destruitur, si industria suffragante servetur.”—(Cassiodori Variar., l. vii. c. 6.)
[210] It is possible that the number of nineteen was made up by adding the different branches that supplied the Thermæ of the later Emperors, (Septimius) Severus, Antoninus, Alexander (Severus), (Aurelius) Commodus, Constantinus.
To these must now be added the two modern aqueducts, the Marrana and Aqua Crabra [XVII.], united and brought through Rome in the twelfth century in the bed of that branch of the river Almo, and the Aqua Felice [XVIII.], made in the sixteenth; also the Aqua Marcia-Pia, made between 1860 and 1870, which now brings the water of the Aqua Marcia into Rome by a different line.
[211] This was also the principal gate of the Sessorian Palace, and was sometimes called the Porta Sessoriana.
[212] See Diagrams III. and XIX.
[213] See the Plans and Sections of this, Plate XXI.
[214] The water pumped out by the steam-engine employed by Signor Rosa was always good clear drinking water, and had all the appearance of coming from an aqueduct; it was sent along an open channel the whole length of the Colosseum, and made a great swamp round the arch of Constantine for several months in the spring of 1875, the outlet for it being made on the outer side of the drain under that arch, which had been constructed by the Municipality about 1866. At last it was observed that an aperture into that drain might easily be made on the inner side, and so avoid the swamp in the road, and washing the foot of the arch. Soon after this the steam-engine was stopped on account of the enormous expense of it, after it had gone on for more than a year, always pumping out good drinking water, and sending it to waste.
[215] This article will be found in the _Annales de l’Institut de Correspondance Archéologique_, 1873.
[216] Near the Porta Maggiore, and under the arches of Nero. There are two large reservoirs close together in this vineyard, probably the Gemelli of Frontinus.
[217] _Descending_ from the reservoir into the old _specus_ under the arches of Nero.
[218] The Aqua Marcia was brought again into Rome by a new water company in the year 1870, after several years of very arduous work, and overcoming many difficulties. The company who made this great aqueduct consisted chiefly of English shareholders, with a mixture of French and Italian. It was long under the direction of the late Mr. Shepherd, an Englishman, whose loss was much regretted in Rome, and latterly under a Belgian engineer.
[219] See Frontinus de Aqueductibus, c. 5.
[220] There is a large and deep reservoir for it near the arch of Dolabella, under the garden of the Villa Mattei, now called the Villa Cœlimontana, and from thence it passed, still underground, to the cliff of the Cœlian, opposite to the Aventine. A short tunnel was made from this deep reservoir to a Nymphæum under the Cœlian, now S. Stefano Rotondo, called of Septimius Severus. The ruins of it are shewn in 895; a _specus_ has been traced from one to the other.
[221] See Frontinus de Aqueductibus, c. 6.
[222] Ibid., c. 125, and 93.
[223] Frontinus de Aqueductibus, c. 6.
[224] Frontinus, c. 125.
[225] Ibid., c. 93.
[226] They remind English people of the Clapham Junction of the railways near London, where trains crossing each other at different levels can be seen.
[227] Supra Portam Capenam, F. i. 19.
[228] See Frontinus de Aqueductibus, caps. 11, 18, 22, and 71.
[229] Frontinus de Aqueductibus, cap. 13, 14, 18, 20.
[230] Cohen. Méd. Imp. Alex. Sev., (Nos. 239, 334).
[231] This water is not mentioned in the Regionary Catalogue, and its whole history appears doubtful. Some think the name is a corruption of Argentina, the short stream that rises in the Lupercal or Wolf’s Cave, under the north-west corner of the Palatine, as before mentioned.
[232] These sources are on the cliffs above the river Anio, at from five seven miles from Rome, and two miles from Ponte Nono, in swampy meadows called “the meadows of Lucullus,” and some in old stone quarries.
[233] See also the Photo-engravings, Plates I. and II.; and Historical Photographs, Nos. 865, 866, 867.
[234] See page 3, and Historical Photographs, Nos. 632, 710, 1138, 1139, 1140, 1141, 1142, 1253; and Plates X. and XI. of the Supplement to Part I.
[235] See Photos., Nos. 1116 and 889.
[236] This is now, in 1876, taken possession of by the British and American Archæological Society, with the consent of the owner of the ground, who has allowed a door to be put up at the entrance.
[237] See also Plate XX.
[238] This map is to be had on either of these two larger scales, for those who require more minute information.
[239] See p. 3.
[240] See p. 13.
[241] See p. 32.
[242] See p. 46.
[243] See p. 39.
[244] See p. 41.
[245] See p. 92.
[246] See p. 55.
[247] See p. 54.
[248] See p. 86.
[249] See p. 92.
[250] See p. 97.
[251] See p. 100.
[252] See p. 106.
[253] See No. VII., p. 50.
THE AQUEDUCTS OF ANCIENT ROME, TRACED FROM THEIR SOURCES TO THEIR MOUTHS, CHIEFLY BY THE WORK OF FRONTINUS; VERIFIED BY A SURVEY OF THE GROUND.
BY JOHN HENRY PARKER, C.B. HON. M.A. OXON., F.S.A. LOND., &c. AND ASSISTANTS.
=OXFORD:= JAMES PARKER AND CO. =LONDON:= JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET. 1876.