[75] The stones laid at full length.
[76] There is conflicting evidence on the date of this monument. Pliny attributed the Marcian Aqueduct to Ancus Marcius, whereas Strabo and Frontinus conjecture that the building got its name from Marcius Rex, a pretor, who in the year B.C. 145, or thereabouts, restored some ancient aqueducts whose first construction did not go back beyond the year 272 B.C. Sextus Julius Frontinus, governor of Britain (A.D. 75-78), was the author of two monographs that are still extant—one on the Roman aqueducts, and another on the art of war. He was nominated Curator Aquarum, or Superintendent of the Aqueducts, in 97, nine years before his death. Sir William Smith tells us that the earliest aqueduct was not older than the year B.C. 313. In earlier times the Romans had recourse to the Tiber and to wells sunk in the city. During the sixth century of the Christian era there were fourteen aqueducts at Rome.
[77] Mr. R. Phené Spiers has written admirably on these technical matters.
[78] I take it that the Pons Palatinus, or Senatorius, mentioned by Palladio, was the bridge called by ancient writers the Pons Aemilius, whose piers were founded in the censorship of M. Aemilius Lepidus and M. Fulvius Nobilior, B.C. 179; the arches were finished some years later, when P. Scipio Africanus and L. Mummius were censors. Becker and Canina assume that the Pons Aemilius became the Ponte Rotto, and Degrand and others identify the Palatine bridge of Palladio with the Ponte Rotto.
[79] Degrand says 10m.56 and 8m.1. R. Phené Spiers gives 27 ft. for the spans of the three central arches, and the side ones about 20 ft.
[80] Gauthey says four, Degrand says five.
[81] Sir A. Houtum-Schindler, C.I.E., “Encyclopædia Brit.,” 1911, article “Shushter.”
DURHAM