The archæology of Rome, Part 8

by John Henry Parker

“He (the Pope) also brought water from the ancient arches, and conducted it to the Porta Lateranensis, where he formed a lake to receive it, for watering horses. He also built several mills on the line of the same stream of water, and planted many vines and fruit-trees round the borders of this lake with great care[197].”

Another writer of the same period, called Pandolph of Pisa, relates the same thing:—

“He reconducted a stream of water into the city, and made mills, with vines near a lake[198].”

The ancient aqueduct which was made use of for the purpose was the Julia (V.), (which see,) and the ancient arches mentioned probably mean the tunnel through which the water of the Aqua Crabra and the Marrana united is brought. Its course has been already described, the great reservoir or lake (lacus) opposite to the Porta Lateranensis is very distinctly visible in the vineyard by the side of the stream, between that and the Aurelian wall. It is still swampy ground, and is planted with canes; when these are cut at the end of the month of January, it can be clearly seen, and the remains of the lake intercept the path on the bank of the stream. This reservoir might be restored to use with great advantage to the neighbourhood, and at little expense.

There are two mills on bridges across the stream on the side of this lake, and several other mills on the line of the stream, as has been mentioned. The water must always have flowed out of the lake in the old deep bed of the small river Almo, and passed under the bridge on which the Porta Metronia is built, into Regio I., and then under the foot of the Aventine by the side of the Circus Maximus into the Tiber, as before described. The tower built in the twelfth century, against the inside of the gate and the bridge, conceals this from view.

XVIII. Aqua Felice, A.D. 1587.

This aqueduct is named after the Pope, Felice Peretti, whose title was Sixtus V.; he brought it from a place near La Colonna, the ancient Labicum, about twelve miles from the city, to the fountain of Moses (now so called from a statue) at the Termini on the Esquiline, as recorded on an inscription[199]. It is still in use, supplying the fountains at the Termini, near the Thermæ of Diocletian, of Monte Cavallo, near those of Constantine, and the whole of the upper town. The waters of the Aqua Hadriana were united with some others in the territory called Pantano, at about twelve miles from Rome, where they emerged from the mountains. All these sources or springs of water were collected during the pontificate of Gregory XIII., A.D. 1572-1585, in an immense reservoir, repaired in 1869, with several other smaller ones subservient to it for purification. The aqueduct was built in the time of Sixtus V. (A.D. 1585-1590), but the reservoirs were not completed until the time of Urban VII. or VIII. [1623-44]. From this point the water is carried into the canal or channel through an opening called the fistula Urbana, made in a piece of marble. According to Fontana, this water was brought to the Porta Maggiore on a new arcade made out of the materials of the old aqueducts in a very clumsy manner. It was the intention of the Pope to have made use of the canal or conduit of the Aqua Marcia, but that was found to be at too high a level, and his clumsy engineers were obliged to make a new arcade at immense expense. He availed himself, however, of the old arcades as far as he could, by building his new conduit up against the side of the piers of the old ones, sometimes on the Marcian, as may be seen at the place called Sette Bassi, and near the Porta Furba, sometimes against the Claudian as near Rome. After bringing it into the city in this canal of rough stone, the water was carried in leaden pipes into the old subterranean channels, as may still be seen in the deep specus on the Cœlian, and the metal pipes pass through the tall brick piers of the arcade of Nero, and are supported on flat arches across from one pier to the other, with a rapid descent over the first or ancient road from S. Croce to the Porta Maggiore, and into the Specus Vetus underground, before arriving at the second or modern one from S. Croce to S. Maria Maggiore. The point of descent is marked by a respirator.

Pantano is about two miles from Gabii, and this reservoir is still in use. It is very near to the ancient castellum aquæ, which was made originally by Hadrian[200] for his aqueduct, as is shewn by an inscription found there. The other streams coming from Tivoli are said to have emerged also near this point, and the first engineer of the Felice, Matteo da Castello, considering the Claudian and Marcian lines as the best, followed those to the piscinæ; but having made a mistake in the levels, instead of using the Marcian specus and arcade from the piscinæ into Rome, and merely repairing it as the Pope had intended, Fontana was obliged to rebuild it entirely of the materials of the old Marcian arcade, with the help also of those of the Claudian, all the way to Rome. This was done in great haste and in a very clumsy manner[201].