The archæology of Rome, Part 8

by John Henry Parker

“It held the sixth place in height, but would have been sufficient for even the higher parts of the city, if it had been carried across the valleys and the low ground, where requisite, upon substructure, arches, and buttresses[32].”

Passing on to the second aqueduct, namely, the stream taken from the River Anio (and which was called the Anio Vetus to distinguish it from a later diversion from the same river), we find that Frontinus is also very distinct in many of his details; a few only he leaves to conjecture.

The point where a branch was taken from the river Anio can be traced[33]. There was a reservoir by the side of the river, of which some ruins remain; but it was nearly destroyed a few years since by some peasants in their ignorant and too eager search after hidden treasure which they expected to find there. The specus is cut in the rock as a tunnel in the cliff of the valley of the Anio, just below the level of the road; it follows the line of the cliff, of the river, and of the road: for they are all the same, the only opening through the rocky mountains of limestone in this part, obviously made by the river itself. It follows this line as far as the valley called the “Valle degli Arci,” or of the Arches, where three later aqueducts cross the river on arcades about two miles above Tivoli. At this point several aqueducts are visible crossing the valley on arcades, each on a separate arcade, not three on one arcade and two on another, as near Rome. The one nearest to Tivoli is the Marcian, and at the foot of one of the piers of the arch, which here crosses the road, the specus of the Anio Vetus is visible, partly underground, but the upper part above ground, on the right-hand side of the road in going from Tivoli. It then is carried in a tunnel through the hill, but appears again on the other side with a large reservoir, and runs gradually downwards in a winding course round part of the hill.

It is not easy to distinguish to which of the aqueducts belongs any one of the numerous reservoirs, the ruins of which are conspicuous objects on the roads up to Tivoli on the other side towards Rome, especially along both sides of that called the “Promenade of Carciano,” for the distance of about three miles from Tivoli. The specus and reservoir of the Anio Novus are on a natural terrace above that road, and the Marcia below it; these have passed through Tivoli, winding round that end of the hill. The Claudia passed upon a great arcade the valley of the Arci, and another valley in the direction of Gerocomio. The Anio Vetus was carried in a tunnel through the hill, and appears on the other side near Tivoli, at a considerably lower level than the others. The road passes across the specus, and is made upon the surface of the vault, which is visible about four miles and a-half from Tivoli. A little further on there are two large reservoirs belonging to it, near a modern villa called Gerocomio, built by the Cardinal Santacroce in the year 1579, now a farm-house only, but on the site of an ancient villa, of which some remains are built into the walls. One of these reservoirs or piscinæ (?) appears to be unaltered, the buttresses remain and apparently the vault; but it is covered with herbage and shrubs, which conceal it. The other has been turned into a cottage or an out-house of the villa, and this is of later date than the other. The Anio Vetus, the Marcian, the Claudian, and the Anio Novus, all have to be conveyed down this lofty hill from the high ground on which the remains above mentioned are situated, to the valley below. The river Anio itself rushes straight down the celebrated cascades by a fall of about a hundred feet; but the channels of the aqueducts follow a winding course, which allowed of the descent towards Rome being very gradual.

This road or promenade of Carciano is rather high on the side of the hill above the villa of Hadrian, looking towards Rome. The dome of S. Peter’s is distinctly visible from it. The road is on a ledge on the side of the cliff, and the aqueducts run along the steep side of the hill or cliff, until they come to the valley of a small stream winding down to the Anio; along the cliff of this they are then carried. The Anio Vetus being at a considerably lower level, is more difficult to trace than the others; but it seems clear that after the later aqueducts had arrived at the point where the Anio Vetus emerges from the hill, they all followed the same line, winding along with the small stream, and their specus or channels cut in the cliffs as far as they could be made available. The Anio Vetus has been discovered at the left hand of the modern road to Rome, and to the right of the promenade of Carciano. It passed, upon a lofty bridge called the Ponte di S. Antonio, over a torrent, with the Marcia. Afterwards upon another bridge called Ponte delle Mole di S. Giovanni, and over the Ponte Lupo it went with the others. Near Gallicano (or the ancient Pedum) are two cippi of Augustus in two wells of his specus; one is in the country called Le Sette, and another at Obrego[34] dell’ Ermito. The others have all been followed, and an account of them will be found under their respective heads.

In order to avoid the many small valleys occupied by streams which run parallel to each other from the hilly ground on the south, down to the river Anio on the north, (the general course of which river is west and east,) the course was kept along the higher ground, and in fact wound round the heads of those valleys in order to retain a level, gradually becoming more and more depressed, till, by the time it reached Rome, the base of the specus (according to the computation of Piranesi), was 55 ft. above that of the Appian[35]. The whole course is underground, as has been said, except for 221 paces (about 360 yards); for this short distance it was carried on a substructure above ground. It is reasonable to suppose that this exception to the subterranean course was, as in the case of the Appian, within the present boundary of the city.

Before it reached Rome, two circumstances have especially to be noted. Just within the fourth milestone we are told it had a reservoir and piscina or filtering-place, and at the second milestone it parted[36] with some of its water, which was conveyed to Rome in a separate channel.

This fourth milestone was clearly on the Via Latina, as Frontinus in the previous paragraph had referred to some piscinæ at the seventh milestone on the same road; and it appears, although the sentence is exceedingly corrupt, that the course of the Aqueduct left the Via Latina at this point, and crossed towards the Via Labicana “amongst the arches[37]” at the fourth milestone. The specus is here visible, and appears to be perfect; it is very near to the Torre Fiscale[38], between that and the Osteria, called the Tavolato (which itself appears to be made out of another, but a later, reservoir belonging to the aqueducts, as many of the houses in the Campagna have been). The vault of the old castellum aquæ or piscina is now covered with turf, but the side of it forms a sort of cliff like the edge of a quarry.

This place, where the Anio Vetus leaves the Via Latina, is near the great junction and crossing of the aqueducts, over which the tall medieval tower called the Torre Fiscale has been built. Here six aqueducts meet and cross each other. The Marcian arcade, with three of these, makes one of its many angles, and the lofty Claudian arcade, with two more, is carried over it. The expression that it passed amongst the arches is a very natural one, to any person who knows the locality, as there are many arches at this point. It then goes on to another angle and crossing of the great aqueducts, where there is a gate called Porta Furba, about two miles and a-half from the Porta Maggiore. There is a castellum aquæ of the time of Nero, with an ancient piscina under it, and a fountain of Sixtus V. by the side of it. At the second milestone it parted with some of its water into the specus called the Octavian, which enters Rome at the Asinian gardens, following the direction of the new road.

By referring to the maps it will be seen that the original line of the Via Latina united with the Via Appia within the outer wall and before reaching the old southern entrance of the city (the Porta Capena); but, in joining this latter road (the most convenient course to pursue in the then state of the fortifications), the Via Latina swerved rapidly to the south-west. Had it been continued in a direct line, it would have reached the Cœlian Hill, near the Porta Asinaria, as the Via Appia Nova still does, following the line of the old Via Asinaria.