The archæology of Rome, Part 8

by John Henry Parker

[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.