The archæology of Rome, Part 8

by John Henry Parker

[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:—