The archæology of Rome, Part 8

by John Henry Parker

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.