The archæology of Rome, Part 8

by John Henry Parker

In the earlier part of its course the specus is underground; but on arriving at the valley called the Valley of the Arches, about two miles above Tivoli, it emerges upon the fine arches which give the name to the valley, and is here carried across the river Anio. These arches are in two series, and are among the most picturesque objects in the neighbourhood of Rome; the effect is improved by a medieval tower built upon the first pier of the bridge. This is shewn in Nos. 1053, 1054.

It then appears again on the other side of Tivoli, on the road called the Promenade of Garciano, which is on the edge of the hill looking towards Rome, and above the winding road up the hill; S. Peter’s is visible from this point. On this platform there are a number of fine remains of the specus and of the castella of the Aqueducts, some of the finest of which are of the Marcia. The Plan and Section of a very fine Reservoir and Piscina here is given in No. 535*.

Another very fine one has a wall on the edge of the cliff of the character called Cyclopean (Nos. 1513 and 1528). Chambers of this remarkable early reservoir are shewn in Nos. 1520 and 1521.

A considerable part of this aqueduct was rebuilt by Augustus[224] (B.C. 11), and again about a century afterwards by Trajan[225], and of the specus of that time we have examples in 1524 and 1525, shewing a very peculiar kind of the ornamental construction called Opus Reticulatum. Another reservoir of this time is shewn in 1526, and an earlier one belonging to the original construction of the kind called Opus Incertum, which probably belongs to the earlier period, is shewn in 1527.

From Tivoli the Aqueducts again pass underground for some miles, gradually winding down the hill from the high level to that of Rome on the Campagna, at about seven miles distance. They were carried upon bridges, some of which are very fine and picturesque, across the gorges of the hills and the mountain streams. At the place where they arrive at the lower ground, there are large reservoirs and filtering-places for them, and the locality is called from them the Piscinæ.

From thence they are carried on the fine and celebrated arcades across the Campagna, presenting some of the finest pictures in the neighbourhood of Rome.

At the Piscinæ, the Tepula and Julia, from the Alban Hills near Marino, were added to the Marcia, and carried on the same arcade. The greater part of them was destroyed, and used for building materials by the engineers of the Aqua Felice in the sixteenth century; but there are some very remarkable and picturesque remains of the arcade at intervals, the more interesting because so little is left of it. One fine piece remains at a locality called Sette Bassi and Roma Vecchia, five miles from Rome (1435), where a small portion of each of the three Aqueducts on an arcade can be seen in Nos. 1006 and 536, and the Piscinæ near to it, 534, 1434, 1438.

This arcade is seen again at the Torre Fiscale, a medieval tower built upon the aqueducts at one of the points of junction, and at one of the angles, which they made at every half mile. Here the more lofty arcade of the Claudia and Anio Novus is carried over that of the Marcia, Tepula, and Julia; while the Anio Vetus runs underground at the foot of it, and the Felice is built up against it; so that at this point seven aqueducts cross each other, and have a tall medieval tower built on the top of them[226]. The Torre Fiscale, with this remarkable junction, is shewn in Nos. 528, 529, 530, 531, 532. A plan and section of it are given in 689*.

There is another angle and crossing at the Porta Furba, half-a-mile nearer to Rome, which makes another very picturesque point of view (shewn in Nos. 551, 552). A small portion of it remains built into a gardener’s cottage at another angle, about a mile from Rome, and a fine large reservoir near to it. The ground then rises, and the arcade is buried for some distance; the upper part of the arches of brick, as rebuilt by Trajan, are then visible by the side of the old road that runs close to the northern side of the great Claudian arcade, on the line of the Marcian, which was parallel to the Claudian for some miles into Rome.

It then occurs again very conspicuously at the last angle, close to the Porta Maggiore, where the Claudia was again carried over it, and afterwards incorporated in the City Wall of Aurelian. Here the last pier of the arcade remains with the three specus of the Marcia, Tepula, and Julia passing through the wall at a right angle (31, 59). Inside the wall a part of the first arch remains with the specus upon it (60); on the other side of the road, the pier of the same arch remains built into the wall of the garden; and a little further on in the garden or vineyard, a gardener’s house is made out of another reservoir or castellum aquæ (538; section, 700*).