Chapter IX: Appendix: Aqueducts (1)

Since this chapter was printed, the great excavations that have been carried on in Rome have brought to light many remains of the old Aqueducts in places where they were not previously known or thought of. These are so numerous that we can do little more than mention them, beginning at the Sessorium, where the principal aqueducts entered Rome. In the Sessorian or Palatian gardens, now those of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, a pit was dug in the reservoir which was used for the Thermæ of S. Helena, which is a large cistern of two narrow chambers, with others similar under them; this was ascertained by digging this pit. Remains of other reservoirs along the line of the north wall of the garden, which is made out of the old aqueduct, were brought to light more clearly. Just outside of this garden is the road from the church of Santa Croce to the Porta Maggiore[211], which is carried on a bank of earth that was the boundary of the Sessorian garden, and on the outer side of it, this bank is supported by a wall of the time of Constantine, no doubt built when his mother, S. Helena, resided there. Just beyond this bank, and in the great foss of the ancient fortress, are two large reservoirs close together, one on either side of the foss. These appear to correspond with the _Gemelli_, or twin reservoirs of Frontinus; an excavation made here was stopped by water, but enough was seen to make it evident that there were other chambers under them, and that they were very deep, but have probably been used for one of the later aqueducts, at a higher level also. It was very usual to carry one aqueduct nearly over another, in order that the older subterranean reservoir might receive the surplus water of the later and higher ones. It is probable that in this instance the Claudia and Anio Novus had each a reservoir here on the higher level, and that the water of the two was here united and carried on along the Cœlian Hill in one _specus_, on the arches of Nero, to the middle of the city.

The inscriptions on the Porta Maggiore record the distances from the sources of the aqueducts to this point, clearly shewing that this was the entrance into Rome in the outer wall, though not into the CITY, until the boundary of the city was extended to this outer wall by Aurelian, in the third century. On the northern side of this great gate remains of the Marcian arcade were found going from this point, where the three aqueducts pass through the outer wall at one of the angles, and go straight on to the high bank on which the wall of Aurelian was afterwards carried, to the Porta Tiburtina (now di S. Lorenzo), and the reservoirs there. The _specus_ passes underground for some distance, about half-way between the two gates, and is carried on arches near the gates. The fine building called Minerva Medica was full of fountains, as was all the great public garden in which it stands, and all the fountains in Rome were supplied by the aqueducts. Between this building, of the third century, and the wall, is another large reservoir, turned into a house, where considerable excavations have been made. The later aqueduct, called Aqua Alexandrina, was carried in the wall over the earlier ones, to a point just opposite, to the remains of the Minerva Medica. The piers of the arches that supported the _specus_ can be seen in the wall, both outside and inside, as far as this, but they go no farther. This point, where they cease, is close to the place where the railway passes through the wall. Beyond these arches other excavations were made by the archæologists near the Porta di S. Lorenzo, and the arches that carried the Marcia, etc., were shewn. There are remains of two reservoirs near this point; the outer wall of one now forms part of the city wall, and is foolishly called “the house of Cicero;” the other is just within the line, but still on the bank, with the wall of Aurelian built close against it on the outer side. There are remains of another reservoir on the other side of the gate, and one branch goes on from thence to the Prætorian Camp, passing by the Porta Chiusa, where the _specus_ was shewn in some other excavations of the archæologists; and near to it, on the south side, is a large reservoir on the bank, cut through the middle by the wall of Aurelian. This proves that the great bank of earth was there, and had the aqueducts carried upon it, before the time that the wall of Aurelian was built. The _specus_ then goes upon the bank round this camp, but is for the most part concealed; it is visible again on the northern side, which is the only perfect part of the fortification of the camp by Tiberius, and his wall stands upon the earlier _specus_ of the aqueduct; the latter is faced with _opus reticulatum_ where perfect; the wall is of fine brickwork.

The branch that goes from the Porta di S. Lorenzo to the other reservoir, under the Trophies of Marius, is carried on a fine arcade of the first century; this has been brought out far more clearly than it had been for many centuries. The remains of the reservoir at this very high level are also made visible. Signor Ernest de Mauro, the surveyor who took the levels, considers this branch so high, that the only water that could reach it was that of the Claudia and Anio Novus united, which we know from Frontinus was carried into all the fourteen Regiones of Rome, but it was considered by Fabretti to have belonged to the Aqua Julia; the difference of level between the two aqueducts is only ten feet. At this high point the water was divided, and carried in different directions; one branch, of which part of the _specus_ is visible, went to the other great reservoir called the Sette Sale, which supplied the Thermæ of Titus and Trajan on the Esquiline, and the surplus water passed on to the Colosseum and to the fountain called the Meta Sudans. From the other great division of the aqueducts, at the corner of the Sessorian gardens, near the Porta Maggiore, the well-known arches of Nero go along the bank to the Lateran, and from thence along the Cœlian Hill to the great central reservoir of Nero, over the Arch of Dolabella. At that point it has been already shewn that several of the aqueducts met, and were divided into three branches, one straight on to the Palatine, on a double arcade across the valley from the Cœlian, of which there are considerable remains of the lower tier of arches, and one arch of the upper tier, which forms a sort of back gate to the palaces of the Cæsars. A second branch passed over the Porta Capena to the Aventine, at different levels; the earliest and lowest, the Aqua Appia, is the one that can now be the most distinctly traced. After passing over the short _agger_ of Servius Tullius it goes underground under the cliff, at the north end of the Pseudo-Aventine, and at the further end under the hill on which S. Sabba now stands; a series of stone-quarries have been made by cutting away one side of the _specus_, leaving the wells to give air to the quarry.

At this point excavations have repeatedly been made by the archæologists, and as often filled up again by the workmen in the summer months, until 1876, when an arrangement was made with the proprietor to make a more complete excavation, and put up a door to protect it. In this part, which is just before the _specus_ crosses the last road on its way to the Tiber, seven different branches of other aqueducts cast their surplus water into this earliest and lowest; in many parts this was only a tunnel cut in the bed of tufa, and generally half full of a deposit of clay, left by the water which comes from the clayey fields of Lucullus, but in one part it is built of large blocks of tufa, like the walls of the Kings; it is here six feet high and two feet wide; on each side of it is a terra-cotta water-pipe of very early character, and bringing different water in the same tunnel[212].

Near this point it crossed _over_ the road on a bridge (?), or perhaps from the low level _under_ it, at the site of a gate where the four roads meet, to another old stone-quarry of the same kind nearly under Santa Prisca, where the _specus_ was visible in 1874, but is now concealed by some of the vault having fallen in; and from that it has been traced through another series of old stone-quarries to the mouth on the bank of the Tiber, in the very curious cave called that of Picus and Faunus, and Hercules—having previously passed through another reservoir, with water still in it knee-deep, remaining at a considerable distance under the hill, with a _specus_ from thence to the cave at the mouth, partly a natural channel for the water to escape, and partly cut when the aqueduct was made.

The third great branch from the Arch of Dolabella went direct to the Colosseum, and two subsidiary springs still flow there, one under the garden of the Villa Celi-Montana, the other under the garden of the monastery of SS. John and Paul, near to the Colosseum, the latter a very abundant stream, bubbling up copiously; and there are three small pools supplied by it in that quarry, which was formerly called the _Vivarium_, and supposed to have been the place where the wild beasts were kept, but this was a mistake[213]. From that reservoir another branch went in a _specus_ at a considerable depth under the garden of the Marchese Rappellini, behind the monastery of S. Gregory. In this garden there was a landslip in the spring of 1876, and the Marchese thought it probable that the palace of Scaurus had stood there, as it is close by the sloping road called the Clivus Scauri; I thought it more likely to have been the aqueduct which had fallen in, but agreed that the archæologists should excavate it, which was done in May. It turned out to be an old stone-quarry that had fallen in, at the depth of more than 20 ft., but the _specus_ of the aqueduct had passed through the quarry, and remained visible in the pit coming from the cave called the _Vivarium_, and going over the Porta Capena. There is, however, so little of interest left, that the pit was filled up again, after a plan and sketch had been made by Signor Cicconetti.

Another branch of the three aqueducts (Marcia, Tepula, and Julia) went from the Porta di S. Lorenzo along the side of the road or _via_, so called, partly in the bank, by the side of it; the upper _specus_ is now visible, the other two are under it. The whole were underground until the levels were altered in the arrangements for the new city. This branch led straight to the _Mons Justitiæ_, in the centre of the great _agger_ of Servius Tullius. Near this point the four young princes found in their excavation, in 1870, two _cippi_ near together, with inscriptions upon them, stating that the _three aqueducts_ passed between them, and the _specus_ of the upper one, the Julia, was brought to light; the other two, Tepula and Marcia, remained underground. Not much more than a hundred yards from this, another _cippus_ had previously been found, on the top of a well, recording that it descended into the Anio Vetus, which therefore ran under the others, at a great depth in this part, on account of the different levels of the ground, and was then carried along the inner side of this great bank both right and left. The one to the right, or north, going to the gardens of Sallust, or at least a branch from one of the three, went along the horn-work at that corner of the old city, and had a reservoir under the house (now rebuilt by Mr. Spithœver), and then to the _nymphæum_ at the end, and (to the east) of the _Porticus Milliarius_ of Aurelian. In the opposite direction, the left, or south, it went along the inside of the _agger_, on which a row of houses of the first century had been built. It has been found at intervals in several places, one of which is close to the house of Mæcenas. Another branch of an early aqueduct has been found in the tufa rock behind the houses, near the great church of S. Maria Maggiore, on a high level, at the south end of some great building of the first century, or earlier, which was formerly called the _Porticus Liviæ_ and an account of it was published under that name, but the fragment of the Marble Plan of Rome, with the plan of that building and the name upon it, clearly shews this to have been an error. The _Macellum Livianum_, or meat-market of Livia, was found in these excavations near the arch of Gallienus, but there is no connection between the _Macellum_ and the _porticus_, which is represented as an oblong platform, with steps up to it at one end, and with a grand double colonnade all round it. Nothing like this was found near the _Macellum_, and as the earth was carried away to the depth of several feet, if it had been there it must have been found.

In the third century, when nearly all the temples in the Forum were rebuilt, the great public building which forms the north end of that Forum (by whatever name it may be called), was also very much altered in many ways; the main fabric, at the west end, is still original, as it was in the time of Varro, when it was justly mentioned as one of the oldest buildings in Rome. But in the interior great alterations were made, and amongst these, at the west end of the Ærarium (or bank-vaults as they might have been called), the arrangement was entirely altered; the public treasury was transferred to the imperial offices on the Palatine, in what are called the palaces of the Cæsars, and at the west end of the Ærarium an aqueduct was introduced, with a reservoir and a well. A _specus_ of brickwork of the third century is visible, but to which aqueduct it belonged is not easily ascertained; from its level it would agree with the Marcia; it is not high enough for the Anio Novus carried over the bridge of Caligula, though that must have passed near this point; and it is too high for the Anio Vetus, although remains of this have been found also at a short distance; but on lower ground, under, and at the back of a wine-shop in the Via del Consolazione, but quite at the east end of it, and near the corner of the steps that ascend from it to the door of the Municipio, on the level of the Tabularium, a reservoir that must have belonged to that aqueduct has been found, and the _specus_ traced at the back, parallel to the street, apparently cut out of the tufa rock. Two doors further from the steps the _specus_ is again visible at the back of the shop; and at the same point, but going in an opposite direction, a subterranean passage, which also appears to be cut in the tufa rock, going in the direction of the Piazza del Campidoglio, and said to go as far as the statue of Marcus Aurelius. Whether this had any connection with the aqueduct, or what its object was, is at present not known.

The Plan and Section of the Aqueducts at the Claudium which is also at the end of the arches of Nero, on the Cœlian Hill, the point from which the water was divided into three branches, have been partially shewn in this work, but this could not be done completely until the explorations were made in 1875 and 1876. Subsidiary springs were continually used for the old aqueducts, that no water might be lost that could be used. Of these springs two were found in the space indicated in this Plan, one under part of the garden of Baron Hoffman, near the Navicella, the other under the garden of the monks of SS. John and Paul, in the cave or old stone-quarry which was formerly called a _vivarium_, but which really was a reservoir of the old aqueducts, and this is the most copious spring of the two. It seems almost certain that the water from both these springs found its way into the Colosseum, after the great excavations were made there in 1874-75. To get rid of this water is now (in 1876) a great object. The Government and the Municipality propose, at an enormous expense, to make a new drain from the Colosseum to the Tiber at a great depth. Careful enquiries have been made of the workmen employed in repairing the original drain of the time of Sylla and Scaurus; it was found in a very bad state, and the workmen were afraid to go along it without putting a wooden centering under the old vault, as they were made to fear lest the earth should fall in behind them. This was done for the whole length of the Colosseum, nearly as far as the Arch of Constantine, but the men were then obliged to give up this examination of it for want of air. They state that the main body of the water appeared to come in from under the road from the Navicella, and to run in a continuous stream as if from an aqueduct, and not to bubble up out of the earth as in a spring. This led to the exploration shewn in Plate XXXVI., to ascertain where the water came from[214]. The two springs above mentioned are both on a much higher level than the Colosseum, as will be seen by the Section; and as both are good drinking water, always fresh, it is certain that they must each have some outlet, or they would soon be stagnant and putrid. Every probability seems in favour of these being the springs that supply the inundation of the Colosseum, and if they could be turned off in another direction, as suggested in this Plan, the chief difficulty would be removed. A steam-engine would soon pump the water out, if it did not come in again. The so-called _vivarium_, under the Claudium, is marked on the excellent map of Nolli, in the eighteenth century, as a reservoir for water, which probably had been true; there are three small reservoirs there now which might easily have been united, and the whole be filled by closing the outlet.

Frontinus tells us that the aqueduct of Nero terminated at the temple of Claudius, which was in the centre of the Claudium; this was in fact the sacred enclosure round his temple. A fragment of the Marble Plan of Rome also confirms this, but it is equally clear that soon after the time of Claudius and Nero the water was carried on in three branches, one to the Aventine, another to the Palatine, and the third to the Colosseum, as has been before stated, and there are remains of the arcades of each in all three directions. The _specus_ found in April, 1876, under the garden of the Marchese Rappini, must have come from the reservoir mis-called the _vivarium_, but it had been long out of use.

Many other remains of the aqueducts within the walls of Rome have been found during the great excavations of 1874-1876, in different parts of the city. Some of these have been already mentioned.

Dr. Fabio Gori has sent me an important notice of some excavations recently made between Subiaco and Vico Varo, which throw new light on the line of the _specus_, or channels of the aqueducts, in several places.

On p. 13, note h, it is stated that “the Anio Vetus has its source in the district called _La Connotta_, and passes under the hill of Marano;” but it now appears that the aqueduct in La Connotta belongs to the Anio Novus, because they have discovered at the sources of the Aqua Marcia another aqueduct on a lower level, which must be the Anio Vetus. This is on the opposite side of the river Anio, and passed over the river on the bridge at Vico Varo, of which the great stone piers remain in the bed of the river. He could not find the sources of the Anio Vetus at the fortieth mile, near the bridge of Agosta (twenty miles above Tivoli), because the torrents, in time of flood, have brought down such a quantity of stone in the bed of the river Anio, and the valley through which it flows, that the level of the ground, and of the bottom of the river in this part, is now nearly twenty feet higher than it was when that aqueduct was made.

At p. 60, it is said that Dr. Gori had found the _Piscina Limaria_ of the Anio Novus, made by Claudius, “at the _Prata della Cartiera_ of Subiaco;” that was written when they had found a large aqueduct by the side of the _Emissarium Barberini_; but the recent excavations have shewn that the water for that aqueduct came from the third loch, near the bridge of S. Mauro, where the opening at the entrance to the _specus_ was found, covered with an iron grating. From this it was inferred that there was a special aqueduct with a private _specus_ to supply the baths and thermæ of the _Villa Neronis Sublacensis_. A quantity of marble of very rare kinds, from this villa, on the margin of the river, has been found, and in the bed of the river the foot of a colossal bronze statue.

The question of the true site of the _Piscina Limaria_, of Frontinus, still remains to be settled, and with it the beginning or source of the great Aqueduct of Claudius, called the _Aqua Claudia_. After carefully examining the bank of the river at a quay at the forty-second ancient mile of the Via Sublacensis, that is to say, between three and four modern miles below Subiaco (which is forty-five miles from Rome), they found the remains of an aqueduct called the _Muraccio_, almost always washed by the water of the river, which enters into it, and then turns at an angle.

On entering into the _Muraccio_, Dr. Gori became convinced that it was the Piscina Limaria of Claudius, as described by Frontinus, c. 15, because the water enters freely into the lower chamber, and to the right the _specus_ of the Anio Novus is seen. The water, according to Frontinus, between the entrance from the river and the _specus_ (_inter amnem et specum_), was stopped and purified in the same chamber, before it entered into the conduit. Considering also that between the three lochs, where the water is now pure, and this piscina, there is a considerable distance. In the rainy season the floods bring down a considerable quantity of earth from the neighbouring fields, which makes the water of the Anio Novus muddy; for which reason the Emperor Trajan began, as Frontinus states, to lengthen that aqueduct to the second upper loch, above the Villa Neroniana Sublacensis. Dr. Gori has found that this work of Trajan was completed, by tracing the whole line of it along the left bank of the river Anio.

ANOTHER AQUA AUGUSTA.

At a meeting of the “Institut de Correspondance Archéologique,” in 1873, the Commendatore G. B. D. Rossi gave an account[215] of another Aqua Augusta, the springs and source of which have been found with that inscription, in the district called _Le Macchie di Rocca di Papa_. This aqueduct appears not to have gone to Rome, but descending into the meadow called the Camp of Hannibal, it went on to the imperial villa at Tusculum, where the magnificent piscina of the time of Trajan or Hadrian is miscalled the House of Cicero.

ERRATA ET CORRIGENDA.

THE AQUEDUCTS.

=Transcriber’s Note:= The errata have not been corrected. Since all notes were reindexed as part of producing this e-text, the note references below have been updated to match the new numbers.

_Errata._ _Corrigenda._

_p._ x. Julia (v.) Sources on Mons The Sources are near Grotta
Algidus (near Tusculum), Frascati, Ferrata, not Tusculum:
and Grotta Ferrata. see p. 42.

_p._ x. _col._ 1. (vii.) Lacus Lacus Alsietinus.
Alsietina.

_col._ 2. Lacus Sabatina. Lacus Sabatinus.
At the Cariæ. At the Careiæ.
Casale Bianca. Casale Bianco.

_p._ xi. _col._ 1. (x.) Lacus Lacus Sabatinus.
Sabatina.

_col._ 2. (xi.) Torre de’ Scavi. Torre de’ Schiavi.

_Ibid._ (xii., xiii.) Villa de Villa de’ Quintilii.
Quintilii.

_p._ xii. (xvi.) (Algentiana). The That opinion is not correct (?).
water is said to have been brought The name of _Algentiana_ given
by a branch from the Marcia at the to the water is from the Mons
Porta di S. Lorenzo. Algidus, near Tusculum. This
water now supplies the Villa
Aldobrandini at Frascati.

_p._ 3, _note_ 9. loco nomen Gemellorum.
respondenti Gemellarum.

_p._ 5, _note_ 14. Torre de’ Scavi. Torre de’ Schiavi.

_p._ 10, _note_ 21. under the _for_ Monastery _read_ S. Maria di
monastery of S. Maria del Trinita Malta. Aventinense, or il Priorato
di Malta.

_p._ 27. (i.) et ... novum ramus ... novum, i. 5 ... hac tres ...
Augustæ, hac tres. fluentes ad Viminalem usque
portam. i. 19.

_Ibid._ (iii.) que vocantur ... qui vocantur ... hi directi.
hi directe.

_Ibid._ (iv.) intra portam intra portam exquilinam.
exquelinam.

_Ibid._ (v.) que locus infra. qui locus est infra.

_p._ 35, _note_ 79. Delle varie Delle vere Sorgenti.
Sorgenti.

_p._ 41, _line_ 32. Squaricarelli. Squarciarelli.

_p._ 42, _line_ 8. Canina cleared That _specus_ was of the Aqua
out the ancient _specus_ of the Algentiana, and not of the Julia.
Julia. The source of the Angelosa is not
that of the Julia but of the Aqua
Crabra.

_p._ 43, _line_ 8. Near Rocca di This arcade was of the _Aqua
Papa an arcade, ... probably a Algentiana_. See Canina, tom. v.
part of the Julia. This arcade
is called _Arcioni_.

_p._ 50, _line_ 20. _Cariæ._ _Careiæ._

_Ibid._, _line_ 22. _Lacus Lacus Alsietinus.
Alsietina._

_Ibid._, _line_ 30. Strachia Capra. Stracciacappe.

_Ibid._, _line_ 32. Lacus Alsietina. Lacus Alsietinus.

_p._ 51, _line_ 5. from the from the lake Alsietinus.
Alsietina Lake.

_Ibid._, _line_ 8. Lacus Sabatina. Lacus Sabatinus.

_Ibid._, _note_ 109. This lake, This lake is called Sabatinus ...
called Sabatina ... from the from the names of those villages,
names of the proprietors. _Anguillara_ and _Bracciano_.

_Ibid._, _note_ 110. ALSEATINA. ALSIETINA.

_p._ 52, _line_ 1. Cariæ. Careiæ.

_p._ 53, _line_ 5. Lacus Sabatina. Lacus Sabatinus.

_Ibid._, _line_ 8. Cariæ. Careiæ.

_Ibid._, _note_ 116. Lacus Lacus Alsietinus.
Alsietina.

_p._ 89, _note_ 178. _Torre de _Torre de’ Schiavi._
Scavi._

_p._ 90, _note_ 179. Aquarum Aquarum ductus etiam infinitos.
ductus etiam infinitas.

_p._ 100, _line_ 2. from the Aqua The Aqua Algentiana really comes
Marcia. from Mons Algidus, near Tusculum.

_p._ 106, _line_ 19. _fistula the fistula Urbana is of lead, not
Urbana_, made in a piece of marble.
marble.

_p._ 110. (xi.) Alseatina. Alsietina.

_p._ 118, _line_ 33. Garciano. Carciano.

_p._ 121, _line_ 33, _col._ 2. Torre de’ Schiavi.
Torre d’ Scavi.

_p._ 122. (vii.) ALSEATINA. ALSIETINA.

_Ibid._ Cariæ. Careiæ.

_p._ 132, _line_ 6. Alseatina. Alsietina.

_Ibid._ Pantana. Pantano.

LEVELS OF THE AQUEDUCTS, TAKEN BY ERNEST DE MAURO, 1871.

THE SEVEN SPECUS AT THE PORTA MAGGIORE, ARRANGED ACCORDING TO THE LEVELS ABOVE THE SEA.

I. Anio Novus, 65.000.

II. Claudia, 62.336.

The _specus_ at the Trophies of Marius, 59.936.

III. Felice, 59.560.

_Specus_ on the high ground, between the Porta Maggiore and S.
Lorenzo, 59.100.

Reservoir at the fountain of Termini, 58.600.

IV. Julia, 58.192.

Reservoir behind the wall near the Porta S. Lorenzo, 53.000.

V. Tepula, 56.712.

Reservoir in the wall near the Porta S. Lorenzo, 49.525.

VI. Marcia, 54.788.

_Specus_ at the Porta S. Lorenzo, 54.405.

VII. Anio Vetus, 45.688.

Reservoir near Porta Furba, two miles from the Porta Maggiore,
47.193.

Reservoir in the Vigna Berardi, 41.731[216].

Reservoir between the Porta Asinaria and the Amphitheatrum
Castrense, 34.030.

Reservoir in the Vigna Mangani, near the Minerva Medica, 47.735.

Two small _specus_ in the Via Labicana, 43.857[217].

Antoniana—_Specus_ in the City wall and over the Arch of Drusus, 40.374.

Aurelia—Reservoir on the south side of the Porta Latina, 36.000.

Severiana (?)—Reservoir on the north side of the Porta Latina, 33.400.

Aqua Marcia Pia[218], 60.088, at the Porta Pia.

HISTORICAL PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE AQUEDUCTS.

[_The numbers refer to Mr. Parker’s Catalogue._]

_Those marked with * are from drawings, valuable for historical purposes_, but not as photographs.

In his admirable treatise on the Aqueducts, Frontinus mentions in his first book, as an introduction, that before they were made, the Roman people, for the space of 441 years after the foundation of the City, were content with the water from the Tiber and from certain natural springs which from their salubrity were supposed to be sanctified.

One of the springs, called Aqua Argentina, deserves special attention; it comes out of the rock in a considerable body, and with much force, under the north-west corner of the Palatine Hill, at a great depth, in the cave called the Lupercal, which from its situation may very well have been a wolf’s cave at the time of the foundation of Rome. (702* is the plan and section of this). It falls into the larger stream that comes from the Quirinal and Capitoline Hills, and now runs in the Cloaca Maxima (690*). The point of junction of these two streams can be seen in an opening where the vault has been destroyed (158), near the arch of Janus and the church of S. Georgio in Velabro, which was the silversmiths’ quarter in Rome, as is shewn by the arch they erected in honour of Septimius Severus near this spot, the inscription on which remains.

The stream that comes from the foot of the Quirinal, and now runs through the Cloaca Maxima, emerges in a cellar under a house at the back of the church of S. Hadrian, and a great body of water rises with considerable force. Such a spring is no doubt in its original place. Another spring that runs into this stream is the one that rises in the crypt under the church of the Crucifixion, at the foot of the Capitoline Hill, called the Prison of S. Peter, which is another natural source.

Of the wells or reservoirs of rain-water, we have one remarkable example still preserved; it is on the Palatine Hill, at the north-west corner, just behind the most perfect part of the Wall of Romulus, and at one corner of his _arx_ or citadel, called Roma Quadrata, and there are certain peculiarities about it. It has _specus_, or subterranean conduits, to carry water to it from different parts of the hill. The cistern itself is seven feet high, of about the same width, and of considerable length. Into this reservoir descend certain wells of a peculiar and unusual form, like a hollow cone with the wide mouth downwards. This form of well is said to be common in the east; but the only examples known in this part of Italy are this one on the Palatine under the _arx_ of Romulus, and one at Alba Longa, under the corner of the _arx_ or citadel of that ancient city, from which the Romans are said to have been originally a colony. This is certainly a remarkable coincidence, if it is nothing more. One of these wells is shewn in 764 and 765 from nature, and in 366*, 384*, from a drawing. 1630 is a view of the reservoir at Alba Longa (mis-called the Prison). 1940* is from a drawing of the two compared.

The remains of the aqueduct and reservoir at Tusculum (shewn in 1903) are of _opus quadratum_, of very early character, and seem to shew that the inhabitants there had aqueducts before the Romans. Frontinus, indeed, makes no claim to invention, nor were the Romans generally inventors, they rather turned to useful account the inventions of other people whom they had conquered.

I. THE APPIA—was made by the Censor, Appius Claudius Crassus (Cæcus[219]), in the year of Rome 441, B.C. 312, and has its origin in and near to the Latomiæ or Stone Quarries of the time of the Kings of Rome, on the bank of the river Anio, in which one of the sources of this aqueduct is found.

865, 866, 867

The Caves of Cervaro are a continuation of these Quarries, shewn in 1557.

1155* and 1968* are plans of the sources of the Aqua Appia and Aqua Virgo, in the Meadows of Lucullus, near Collatia.

These meadows are now known by the medieval towers called La Rustica, Sapienza (1551), and Cervaro (1552), and the lines of the aqueduct, crossing them from different springs and meeting in a central reservoir, can be traced by the clumps of shrubs over each well. The aqueduct itself being at a great depth, but still having water in it for the greater part of the year, and moisture always, the line of these wells is thus distinguished. From the central reservoir, in which the water was collected, the _Specus_ or Conduit was carried into Rome, always at a great depth.

The spring of the Augustan branch (added A.D. 10) is found under a cottage (1550), near the town or castle of Cervelletta.

The _Specus_, or Conduit of each of the aqueducts, is distinguished by a slight change of form, and often of size also. Sections of fifteen of these are given in the map, and shewn in the photographs of it, 1982*. That of the Appia being the lowest, and always at a great depth, has been the most difficult to distinguish; but within the walls of Rome it passed along the Cœlian Hill[220] (691*, 890*), and then across the short space between the Cœlian and the Aventine, upon the bank or Agger of Servius Tullius (1100, 1136, 1164, 1165, 1289, 1288, 1166), and very near to (_proxima_) the Porta Capena (1138*). After passing the Piscina Publica, and serving as a drain for the surplus water, it is continued at the foot of the cliff of the Pseudo-Aventine, under S. Balbina and S. Sabba, to the mouth of it (84*) on the bank of the Tiber, under the Priorato near the Marmorata and the Porta Trigemina. The _specus_ is here distinctly visible, filled up with the clay deposit to one-third of its height (1116); the view in the stone quarry and a section of one of the wells is shewn in 889*. A Plan of the stone quarry under S. Sabba shews several aqueducts meeting in it, and throwing their surplus water into the Appia, as the lowest (this is given in 834*, 1941*).

The Reservoirs of this most ancient and very deep aqueduct were first in the quarries before mentioned, and even in Rome were chiefly also in quarries, as at the mouth; but just within the Porta Maggiore, and close to the gardens of S. Croce, formerly the Sessorian Palace, are two large reservoirs very near together, supposed to have been the Gemelli or twin reservoirs mentioned by Frontinus, and these are so deep that they appear to have belonged to the Aqua Appia. Some excavations attempted in them in 1867 were stopped by water (410, 411, 695*). This aqueduct is believed to have entered Rome on the northern side of these gardens, and to have been first received in the reservoir afterwards called after S. Helena, which is very deep, and in this situation (546).

II. ANIO VETUS, MADE IN THE YEAR OF ROME 481, B.C. 272.[221]

The Anio Vetus and the Anio Novus are in fact branches of the river Anio, which falls into the Tiber a short distance above Rome. The water is there seen to be much more pure than that of the Tiber, and after it falls into the muddy Tiber its clear water can be distinguished for a long distance. Several of the aqueducts, as the Appia and the Virgo, are springs, that fell into that river; but part of the water was intercepted and brought into Rome, each in its own distinct _specus_. This was the case with the Anio Vetus, at a much higher level above Tivoli, but below Subiaco. The river itself may be considered to belong to the system of the Aqueducts, and the series of magnificent cascades by which it falls from its high level, are partly artificial, are connected with them, and illustrate their history. Those in Tivoli (1545, 1546, 1547, 1548), the engineers had great difficulty in avoiding. The one near Vico-Varo (1544), above Tivoli, is near the point from which the aqueduct was taken, which is near the valley called Arsoli (1549). It can be seen in the valley of the Arches, two miles above Tivoli, at the foot of one of the piers of the Marcian Arcade (1054), and the one seems to have followed the other all the way into Rome. It passes along with it over the Ponte di S. Antonio, which is one of the finest bridges on the whole line of the Aqueducts, eight miles below Tivoli, across the valley and mountain stream called S. Antonio (1530). This aqueduct can generally be distinguished by being half-underground, or very near the surface. It was repaired or restored by Augustus and Trajan[222], and most of the remains now visible are of their time, and both the _specus_ and the _castella_ can generally be known by being faced with _opus reticulatum_, so much used at that time. There is a fine reservoir or _castellum_ for it near Tivoli, with very peculiar work of this description, and extremely picturesque (950). Another is against a bank, and half underground, near the Torre Fiscale, three miles from Rome, and close to the foot of the Claudian Arcade (896, 1028, 1029). Remains of others may still be seen at the foot of the Wall of Rome in several places, they were distinctly visible in 1870, when these photographs were taken; but have been almost obliterated since in the _restoration_ (?) of the wall by the municipal architect. One is near the Porta Metronia (983), and another at the Porta Latina (985). Remains of other _piscinæ_ are visible near the Amphitheatrum Castrense, on the rock at the foot of the wall (868, 969, 970); at this point one branch of it seems to have been brought into Rome along the line of the Via Appia Nova, which runs near the spot, and entered Rome just beyond, by the Porta Asinaria. It can also be seen at the foot of a wall by the side of the Via Labicana, near the Porta Maggiore, and readily distinguished by the usual reticulated work (1337). One branch enters Rome at the foot of the Marcian Arcade, close to the Porta Maggiore (59), and the _specus_ was visible at that gate, until it was concealed by a brick wall by the modern builders. It passes through the City Wall there, and is visible on the other side in the inner road, in the wall of the garden still under the level of the Marcian Arcade (1876). Here it forked off, one branch went to the left, along the line of the wall of the garden, to a great reservoir for it at an angle close to the junction of two roads, one called the Via Labicana the other the Via di Porta Maggiore, coming from the church of S. Maria Maggiore. At this spot there is a very large and fine reservoir in several chambers at a considerable depth, corresponding to the level of the Anio Vetus; 538 is a view of it, and 700* is a section of it. From this great reservoir two small _specus_ in this part appear to have gone into the _specus_ of the Appia in the Cœlian, under the Arches of Nero, and are visible going into the bank on which this fine arcade stands (854).

Another important branch turns to the north upon the high bank of the Kings, on which the Wall of Aurelian was afterwards built. There are remains of _castella_ for it near the Porta S. Lorenzo (869), and further to the south near the Porta Nomentana (871), after passing the Prætorian Camp. It had previously gone under the Porta Chiusa, which was shewn in the excavation of 1868, and in the photograph 1057. The _specus_ runs under the wall of the Camp all round. It is still visible on the north side, faced with the reticulated work under the fine brickwork of Tiberius (870). There was an opening into it at the north-east corner of the camp, into which a dog or a boy might be sent (981, 982), until it was closed in the recent _restoration_. Remains of it may still be seen at the foot of the wall in several places by experienced eyes. The general plan of this aqueduct is shewn in Nos. 1970*, 1971*, 1976*, 1977*, and 1967*.

III. MARCIA, MADE IN THE YEAR OF ROME, 608, B.C. 145.[223]

This aqueduct was made in the year B.C. 145, and has its source a few miles below Subiaco; the springs are collected in a small lake called Aqua Serena (1537), the water from which flows into the river Anio; but a portion of it was intercepted for this aqueduct, and is now again taken from the same spot and brought into Rome. It has always been celebrated for its extreme coldness and great purity. The old _specus_ or viaduct was found in 1870 in this lake, having long been concealed by being under water; but by drawing off some of the water it was brought to light, and the engineer of the new company decided on carrying his new _specus_ up to this point. The previous plan had been to draw the water from another lake nearer to Rome, which is nearly equally good water, but not the real Aqua Marcia so much prized, and this is now again brought into Rome. The source of the old aqueduct is celebrated for its extremely picturesque character, as well as for the fine construction of the arcade of large square stones, and the scientific arrangement of the reservoirs (_castella aquarum_) and filtering-places (_piscinæ_). The sources in the Aqua Serena are shewn in Nos. 1538, 1539. Another source for an additional supply was on the lake of the Mole d’Agosta, 1543.

In the earlier part of its course the _specus_ is underground; but on arriving at the valley called the Valley of the Arches, about two miles above Tivoli, it emerges upon the fine arches which give the name to the valley, and is here carried across the river Anio. These arches are in two series, and are among the most picturesque objects in the neighbourhood of Rome; the effect is improved by a medieval tower built upon the first pier of the bridge. This is shewn in Nos. 1053, 1054.

It then appears again on the other side of Tivoli, on the road called the Promenade of Garciano, which is on the edge of the hill looking towards Rome, and above the winding road up the hill; S. Peter’s is visible from this point. On this platform there are a number of fine remains of the _specus_ and of the _castella_ of the Aqueducts, some of the finest of which are of the Marcia. The Plan and Section of a very fine Reservoir and Piscina here is given in No. 535*.

Another very fine one has a wall on the edge of the cliff of the character called Cyclopean (Nos. 1513 and 1528). Chambers of this remarkable early reservoir are shewn in Nos. 1520 and 1521.

A considerable part of this aqueduct was rebuilt by Augustus[224] (B.C. 11), and again about a century afterwards by Trajan[225], and of the _specus_ of that time we have examples in 1524 and 1525, shewing a very peculiar kind of the ornamental construction called _Opus Reticulatum_. Another reservoir of this time is shewn in 1526, and an earlier one belonging to the original construction of the kind called _Opus Incertum_, which probably belongs to the earlier period, is shewn in 1527.

From Tivoli the Aqueducts again pass underground for some miles, gradually winding down the hill from the high level to that of Rome on the Campagna, at about seven miles distance. They were carried upon bridges, some of which are very fine and picturesque, across the gorges of the hills and the mountain streams. At the place where they arrive at the lower ground, there are large reservoirs and filtering-places for them, and the locality is called from them the Piscinæ.

From thence they are carried on the fine and celebrated arcades across the Campagna, presenting some of the finest pictures in the neighbourhood of Rome.

At the Piscinæ, the Tepula and Julia, from the Alban Hills near Marino, were added to the Marcia, and carried on the same arcade. The greater part of them was destroyed, and used for building materials by the engineers of the Aqua Felice in the sixteenth century; but there are some very remarkable and picturesque remains of the arcade at intervals, the more interesting because so little is left of it. One fine piece remains at a locality called Sette Bassi and Roma Vecchia, five miles from Rome (1435), where a small portion of each of the three Aqueducts on an arcade can be seen in Nos. 1006 and 536, and the Piscinæ near to it, 534, 1434, 1438.

This arcade is seen again at the Torre Fiscale, a medieval tower built upon the aqueducts at one of the points of junction, and at one of the angles, which they made at every half mile. Here the more lofty arcade of the Claudia and Anio Novus is carried over that of the Marcia, Tepula, and Julia; while the Anio Vetus runs underground at the foot of it, and the Felice is built up against it; so that at this point seven aqueducts cross each other, and have a tall medieval tower built on the top of them[226]. The Torre Fiscale, with this remarkable junction, is shewn in Nos. 528, 529, 530, 531, 532. A plan and section of it are given in 689*.

There is another angle and crossing at the Porta Furba, half-a-mile nearer to Rome, which makes another very picturesque point of view (shewn in Nos. 551, 552). A small portion of it remains built into a gardener’s cottage at another angle, about a mile from Rome, and a fine large reservoir near to it. The ground then rises, and the arcade is buried for some distance; the upper part of the arches of brick, as rebuilt by Trajan, are then visible by the side of the old road that runs close to the northern side of the great Claudian arcade, on the line of the Marcian, which was parallel to the Claudian for some miles into Rome.

It then occurs again very conspicuously at the last angle, close to the Porta Maggiore, where the Claudia was again carried over it, and afterwards incorporated in the City Wall of Aurelian. Here the last pier of the arcade remains with the three _specus_ of the Marcia, Tepula, and Julia passing through the wall at a right angle (31, 59). Inside the wall a part of the first arch remains with the _specus_ upon it (60); on the other side of the road, the pier of the same arch remains built into the wall of the garden; and a little further on in the garden or vineyard, a gardener’s house is made out of another reservoir or _castellum aquæ_ (538; section, 700*).

It then passes again underground parallel to the city wall for a short distance, and near the Minerva Medica it runs into the bank on which that great wall is carried. A portion of this underground arcade was brought to light in some excavations in 1871, but is now covered up again (2320). After passing underground in the bank on which the wall stands for some distance, it emerges near the Porta Tiburtina, now called Porta di S. Lorenzo (see a plan and section of this in No. 1938*). As the ground here is lower it is on an arcade, one arch of which is made into the gate (21, 1870), and a portion of the _specus_ is very distinctly visible on the southern side of the gate, with an opening into it by which persons can go inside of it (shewn in Nos. 69, 572*, and 1487).

After passing the Porta Tiburtina, it went on upon the bank or outer _mœnia_ of Rome to the Prætorian Camp, and there was a large reservoir for it near the Porta Chiusa, remains of which were visible in the excavations of 1868, with the wall of Rome built across it (shewn in 1059). From this reservoir the three aqueducts, Marcia, Tepula, and Julia, were carried along the side of the old road to the inner gate in the great _agger_ of Servius Tullius on the Viminal, where the railway station has now been made, and where the three Roman princes carried on excavations in 1869, in which they found the upper _specus_; that of the Julia, which was left open for a time, passing between the _cippi_ or boundary-stones, with inscriptions upon them, recording that _the three aqueducts_ passed there between them.

Another division of the Marcia went along the same line as the Arches of Nero to the Cœlian, and along that hill as far as the great reservoir over the arch of Dolabella; then turning to the left or south, it came to an end above or over the Porta Capena[227]. These words may mean—either, in the reservoir on the cliff of the Cœlian Hill just _above_ the gate, rebuilt in the time of Trajan, of which the remains are shewn in 1147*;—or, in the reservoir in the valley close to the west side of that gate (also rebuilt in the time of Trajan, and now a gardener’s house, as before mentioned). In that case it must have passed over the gate, and the _specus_ that is cut in the wall of the western tower belonged to it (710*).

The general plan of the Aqua Marcia near its source is shewn in 1972*, and the line of its course in 1981*, 1982*; the bridge for it in 1983*.

In the early part of its course, above Tivoli, the new aqueduct for this water, called the Aqua Marcia Pia, is carried on a stone _specus_ upon an arcade, after the same fashion as the old one (a portion of this new arcade is shewn in No. 1553).

IV. THE TEPULA, and V. THE JULIA, being carried on the same arcade as the Marcia for the seven miles into Rome, have left remains visible in some places, especially at the Gates of Rome, the Porta Maggiore (31), and the Porta Tiburtina (21, 572*); in other places, they have generally been destroyed. Near the Sette Bassi, there is a portion of the _specus_ of the Julia visible just at the surface of the ground, the other two being then subterranean, as the level is rather higher in this part than usual. This portion has been examined by Signor Moraldi, at a junction whence a branch was carried to supply a reservoir at the great villa called Sette Bassi, and there are remains of the loch in the channel to turn off the water, shewing the same arrangement as in a modern canal. (A plan and section of this is given in 696*.) The _specus_ near this point, built of concrete faced with brick, is also shewn in 1006. The _specus_ of the Marcia is always of squared stone, so that one is readily distinguished from the other. There are remains of a _castellum aquæ_ or reservoir for the Tepula, near the Porta Tiburtina, or Porta Viminalis of Frontinus, now called Porta di S. Lorenzo. This is shewn in the Plan of that Gate, Nos. 1111* and 1238*, and a view of it in No. 25. It is a remarkable building of brick of the first century, and has on a level with the _specus_ a series of small corbels projecting from it, evidently intended to carry a _hourd_, or wooden balcony as a passage for the Aquarii, and perhaps for defence also. It is incorporated in the great Wall of Aurelian. It projects slightly from the line of that wall, and the end of the _specus_, with its triangular head, is visible in the angle.

V. JULIA.