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.