The archæology of Rome, Part 8

[1] During the first season that I was resident in Rome, it was my habit to go with my friend Mr. William Long, of Balliol College, Oxford, then resident in Rome, into the Catacombs every Monday morning, and along the line of the Aqueducts also once or twice a-week, when the weather permitted. We procured all the best maps of the Campagna that were to be had, but could find none that would enable us to trace the course of the Aqueducts. Moltke’s map is the best as far as it goes; but, being intended as a military map only, he paid no attention to the antiquities. The one known in England by the name of Gell, and in Rome by the name of Nibby, is made especially for the Antiquities; but it is on a small scale, and we found it impossible to trace the Aqueducts upon it. Eventually I have had one made on a large scale, to make it clear, have added the other Antiquities, and then had it reduced by photography to two smaller sizes: one very small, to give the general lines only; the other on a size convenient for the pocket; and, by using the portion near Rome separately, it makes a good and convenient map for the purpose.

[2] Frontinus is usually said to have died A.D. 106.

[3] See notably Plutarch, Vita Anci Marcii; Dionys., Hal. Ant. Rom., lib. iii. c. 679, sect. 9; Strabo, lib. v.; Cassiodorus, lib. vii. cap. 6, &c.

[4] These wells may have included the cisterns for holding rain-water, one of which exists on the Palatine.

[5] In the best text, that of the MS. at Monte Cassino, and in the best printed edition of the text, that of Buecheler (Lipsiæ, 1858), the passage runs “Salubritatem enim ægris corporibus afferre creduntur, sicut Camænarum, et Apollinis, et Juturnæ.” The spring of the Camænæ or Muses referred to, is that which existed in the grove outside the Porta Capena, and beneath the western slope of the Cœlian. There was an Area Apollinis in the same Regio, and possibly there was a spring there; but no writer refers to it. A stream, now subterranean, still exists, and is very copious, running into and through the Cloaca Maxima; it may be seen in the excavations of the Forum Romanum. This subterranean stream comes from three different springs; the source of one is near the Arch of Titus, or more immediately in front of the usual entrance to the Palatine;—a second has its source near the foot of that part of the Quirinal Hill on which the Torre de’ Conti and the Torre delle Milizie are situated; it now emerges in a cellar under a shop behind the church of S. Hadriana;—a third comes from the prison of S. Peter, at the foot of the Capitol. These streams meet near the church of S. Maria Liberatrice and the celebrated three columns of the temple of Castor and Pollux; by their union they formed the lake usually called after Curtius, but by Ovid the Lacus Juturnæ (Ovid. Fasti, l. i. ver. 708). This is not the same as the stream so called on Nolli’s Map. The lake was between that part of the Velabrum of the Palatine on which the church of S. Maria Liberatrice and S. Teodoro are situated, which formed the southern side of the lake, and the Forum Romanum the northern side.

The Aqua Juturnæ, marked 1056 in Nolli’s Map, is the stream that gushes out in great volume from the rock at the foot of the Palatine in the Lupercal of Augustus, which is now in a very ruinous state, the cave being used as a mill-head to a modern mill, between that point and the Cloaca Maxima. This cave is close to the Carceres of the Circus Maximus. The authority for the name of this stream is doubtful; it is now usually called Aqua Argentina, and falls into the Cloaca Maxima, near the church of S. Giorgio in Velabro and the arch erected by the silver-smiths in honour of Septimius Severus.

[6] The Augustan is a name applied also to a branch of the Marcian close to its source, as well as to one supplementary to the Appian within the city.

[7] Frontinus, c. 5.

[8] Ibid.

[9] “Jungitur ei ad Spem [Specum] veterem in confinio hortorum Torquatianorum et Pallantianorum ramus Augustæ, ab Augusto in supplementum ejus additus, ... loco nomen respondenti Gemellarum.” (Ibid.)

[10] “Incipit distribui [Aqua] Appia imo Publicii clivo ad portam Trigeminam.” (Ibid.)

And again: “Rivus Appiæ, sub Cœlio monte et Aventino actus, emergit, ut diximus, infra clivum Publicii.” (Ibid., c. 22.) The cave reservoir which formed the mouth of this stream, where it was distributed, has been found near the Marmorata, or marble-wharf. The Porta Trigemina was between that and the Salaria, or salt-wharf. Both of the wharves are still in use. Some good antiquaries consider that the Porta Trigemina consisted of three double gates, at intervals along the narrow strip of ground between the Aventine and the Tiber, and that the one of which remains have been found near the Sublician bridge was the middle one of the three: if so, this cave would be literally in the Porta Trigemina. In any case, it must have been close to it.

[11] That is, in the reservoir, or castellum aquæ, through which the conduit or specus passed. This reservoir exists, or rather considerable remains of it, just within the Porta Maggiore, between that and the church of S. Croce, and just outside the agger of the Sessorium, on which the road from S. Croce to this gate now runs.

[12] “... Cujus aquæ ad caput inveniri mensura non potuit, quoniam ex duobus rivis constat. Ad Gemellos tamen, qui locus est infra Spem (Specum) veterem, ubi jungitur cum ramo Augustæ, inveni altitudinem aquæ pedum quinque, latitudinem pedis unius, dodrantis: fiunt areæ pedes octo, dodrans: ... quas esse ex eo adparet quod in plerisque urbis partibus perdita aqua observatur, id est quæ ex ea manat, sed et quasdam fistulas intra urbem illicitas deprehendimus, extra urbem autem propter pressuram libræ, quam vidi infra terram ad caput pedibus quinquaginta, nullam accipit injuriam.” (Frontinus, c. 65.)

[13] There is good reason to believe that such tombs were not exclusively Etruscan, but were also used by the Latins and other nations at the same period, and this one may very well be early Roman.

[14] The modern carriage-road, so called, was called Via Gabina in the time of Frontinus. The old Via Prænestina is now a bridle-road only for the first three miles out of Rome, to the Torre de’ Scavi; it is then a cart-road, called Via Collatina, with a branch road into it from the present carriage-road.

[15] In the Map of Gell and Nibby, along the Via Prænestina will be seen the name Pupinia. The spot is just north of this, and not far off from the piece of road marked in the same map as the Via Collatina.

[16] Frontinus, c. 22.

[17] In the Bullettino dell’ Instituto Archeologico, and the Civiltà Cattolica, for the year 1861, it is stated that for the works of the iron railroad between the Via Labicana and the Via Gabina the specus of the Aqua Appia was found, 450 yards (metres) from the Porta Maggiore. It was constructed of square stone of tufa, and was incrusted with tartar, had an acute vault, which was 5 ft. 9 in. high, and 2½ ft. wide.

[18] This is on the line of the wall of Servius Tullius. It appears that Trajan made a reservoir here over the old one. The specus of the Appia passes through the present gardener’s house lengthwise, from east to west. This specus was found again in another excavation to the west of it, by the side of the present road.

[19] “Substitit ad veteres arcus madidamque Capenam.” (Juvenal, sat. iii. ver. 11.) “Capena grandi porta qua pluit gutta.” (Martial, lib. iii. epigr. 47.) The distance from the foot of the Cœlian to the Marrana is just a hundred yards along the line of the wall of Servius Tullius, across this part of the valley or great primitive foss. The ground on the side of the wall is all made earth and rubbish, and two aqueducts are carried on arcades against the wall, one on either side. These arcades have not been traced beyond the Marrana, the ground there being higher. At the Piscina Publica, where another pit was dug 20 ft. deep, the wall is built against the tufa rock, and there is a third specus in a tunnel in the rock under the wall.

[20] Or perhaps the road was a deep foss-way, and the specus passed over the arch of the gate at this point, where four roads meet.

[21] In the spring of the year 1870, another excavation was made close to this point, and a way was found into another old subterranean stone-quarry long out of use. Through this cave, or quarry, the specus of five different aqueducts pass on their way to the Tiber. Some of these come down at a steep decline, and the water of the whole seems to have been carried into the lowest one, the Appia, at this point. This specus must have been carried over the deep foss-way upon or under the arch of the gate of the old wall of the city, where four roads meet. It is also visible again in another old subterranean stone-quarry on the other side of the road, nearly under S. Prisca, and from thence it must have gone to the old cave, used as a reservoir near the Marmorata, and the Porta Trigemina, immediately under the monastery of S. Maria del Trinita di Malta, where the specus is again visible, and where the wells of other aqueducts run into the same cave reservoir at the mouth of the aqueducts in this part of Rome. One of these runs down a vertical pipe from the reservoir nearly over this cave, but under S. Sabina on the hill above, excavated in 1865, and described by M. Descemet (Sect. xi.) There is another large reservoir in the interior of the hill, still full of water, supplied by a spring rising there; the water from this still passes through the same passage to the Tiber. This is also said to have been called the cave of Faunus by the poets. It is probably also the same as that of Cacus, being a large natural cave, with a spring of water, and a natural reservoir of considerable size in it about knee-deep, the entrance to which is by a narrow passage made into the specus of the aqueduct. Such a cave might very well have been used to drive cattle into for concealment, and a resolute, well-armed man standing at the entrance might defend it against any number. Solinus (i. 7) says that the cave of Cacus was at the Porta Trigemina, and that he dwelt in the Salinæ, which are close by this spot. “Qui Cacus habitavit locum cui Salinæ nomen est, ubi Trigemina porta.”

[22] On the wall of the smaller reservoir, the fragment of an inscription, relating to the Thermæ of S. Helena, now in the Vatican Museum, is said to have been found:—

D. N. HELENA ... VEN. ... AVG. MAT.
AVIA ... BEATIS ...
THERMA ... SI ... ESTRV ...

[23] Frontinus says, c. 5, at the sixth milestone on the Via Prænestina, about nine hundred and eighty paces off to the left, and near the Via Collatina, this stream has its source. The sources both of the Aqua Appia and of the Augusta were traced by Signor Fabio Gori and Mr. J. H. Parker, in March, 1868, and were afterwards shewn to the British Archæological Society of Rome.

[24] The source of the Appia was 780 paces off the road, between the 7th and 8th milestone. That of the Augustan 880 paces off, and by the 6th milestone. The former was measured to its termination, giving 11⅛ miles. The latter went only to the “Specus Vetus” (which is two miles less) and gave 6⅓ miles. Two miles is the distance from the Porta Maggiore to the Porta Trigemina and the Salaria. In all probability the Augustan branch was carried for the six miles into Rome along the bank of the Via Prænestina, here a deep foss-way between two high banks; and at a later period the Aqua Virgo was carried over it at a higher level, till within about half a mile of Rome, where it arrives at the outer bank of the great foss, and is carried at a sharp angle to the north to the Pincian. The Appia, being much deeper, was carried straight on at the bottom of the great foss into Rome, and entered at the extreme eastern corner, under the line afterwards taken by the Claudian arcade, to the two great reservoirs or gemelli before mentioned; the main line running here parallel to it, a little to the south, till it reached the Piscina of S. Helena, the two lines converging at the gemelli.

[25] There are considerable remains of two large reservoirs in a garden just outside of the boundary-wall of the Sessorium, which wall is of the time of S. Helena, on its western side. Some excavations made in them in 1869 under my direction shewed that they went to a great depth, the workmen being stopped by water. These two great reservoirs, so close together in the line of the Aqua Appia, seem to have been the Gemelli mentioned by Frontinus. From this point the specus can be traced along the Cœlian, and the reservoirs are below the level of that specus (infra specum veterem).—F. ii. 65.

[26] If the “Plautian” be the better reading, they may have been the gardens of Plautius Lateranus, which were near those of the Sessorian Palace.

[27] Frontinus, cap. 19: “Marcia autem partem sui post hortos Pallantianos in rivum qui vocatur Herculaneus, dejicit.” Cap. 20: “Finiuntur arcus earum (Anionis Novi, et Claudiæ), post hortos Pallantianos.” Cap. 69: “Præterea (Julia) accepit prope urbem, post hortos Pallantianos.” In the Notitia and the Curiosum Urbis the “Horti Pallantiani” are given as being in the Regio V. or the “Esquiliæ.”

[28] Remains of these thermæ were accidentally brought to light in 1871, during some excavations made by a building company, who had bought the ground on speculation. They are of great extent, and on both sides of the present road from S. Maria Maggiore to S. Croce in Gerusalemme, which was made in the sixteenth century by Sixtus V.

[29] “Exquiliæ locus in quo sepeliebantur corpora extra portam illam in qua est Sessorium.” (Acron ad Horat., lib. i. Sat. viii.)

“Eodem tempore fecit Constantinus Augustus basilicam in palatio Sessoriano, ubi etiam de ligno S. crucis D. N. Jesu Christi posuit.” (Anastasius in vita S. Silvestri papæ, xxxiv. § 41.)

[30] Frontinus, c. 6. Pyrrhus was king of Epirus, and came to the aid of the Samnites against the Romans; he was conquered c. B.C. 272.

[31] The passage is corrupt, as will be explained. The following is the reading, as given by Buecheler, whose text is an exact copy of the best manuscript, that of Monte Cassino:—“Anio Vetus citra quartum milliarium infra Novum, qui a via Latina in Lavicanam inter arcus trajicit, et ibi piscinam habet. Inde intra secundum milliarium partem dat in specum, qui vocatur Octavianus, et pervenit in regionem viæ Novæ ad hortos Asinianos, unde per illum tractum distribuitur. Rectus vero ductus, secundum Spem (Specum) veniens intra portam Exquilinam, in altos rivos per urbem deducitur.” (Frontin., c. 21.) Infra Novum, therefore, signifies within the fourth mile on the Via Nova, the New Road of the time of Frontinus, the Via Appia Nova (?).

[32] Frontin., c. 18.

[33] Signor F. Gori, who is a native of Subiaco, and has followed the line of the aqueducts on foot from Subiaco to Rome, says that he has found the source of the Anio Vetus in the river Anio, at three miles from Subiaco, on the Via Sublacensis vetus, twenty miles from the old gate of Tibur or Tivoli, in the district called Le Connotta, where he finds two specus, the higher one the Anio Novus, the lower one the Anio Vetus. He traces the same specus near Marano, a village thirty-eight miles from Rome, on the Via Sublacensis Neroniana, near Vico-varo; and again near Tivoli, on the bank of the Valle degli Arci. “Delle vere Sorgenti dell’ Acqua Marcia e delle altre acque allacciate dai Romani presso le Vie Valeria e Sublacense,” per F. Gori. Roma, 1866, 8vo., pp. 53, 54.

[34] The local patois for Albergo or Auberge.

IMP. CAESAR
DIVI. F. AVGVST. EX . S.C.
dclix. P. CCXL.

IMP. CAESAR .
DIVI. F. AVGVST. EX . S.C.
dclxix. P. CCXL.

[35] By the side of a plan of Rome in the first volume of his magnificent work (pl. xxxviii.), Piranesi gives a section of the relative heights of the Aqueducts, as compared with each other. The figures refer to the base of each specus above that of the Appian, and the following is the result, according to his measurements, reduced to English feet:—

He gives as the total full range, i.e. from the specus of the Alsietina (the lowest), to that of the Anio Novus (the highest), as 211.2½ palmi, or 154½ English feet. The height of the Appian, he shews by his diagram to be about 24 English feet above the Quay of the Tiber. The points at which Piranesi obtained his measurements, and the mode employed, are not recorded. It seems hardly possible that the Appia is 55 ft. under the Anio Vetus in Rome.

[36] See ante. Frontinus, cap. 21.

[37] The passage, as it stands in the Codex Cassinensis, is, “Anio Vetus citra quartum miliarium infra novum qui a Via Latina in Lavicanam inter arcus trajicit, et ipse piscinam habet.” This piscina is visible at the third modern milestone on the Via d’Albano, and at the fourth on the Via Latina. The Codex Vaticanus is an inferior copy of the Codex Cassinensis; but the Codex Urbinas, now also in the Vatican Library, is distinct. No other MS. is of any authority.

[38] Remains of the tombs on the Via Latina are distinctly visible and rather prominent objects, close to the Torre Fiscale. The Marrana, or Almo, the small stream that received the surplus water of the aqueducts, also washes the foot of the tower.

[39] This castellum aquæ is exactly two miles from the Porta Maggiore, another proof that the entrance to Rome (though not to the City) was considered by Frontinus to have been at that gate. All the aqueducts on the eastern side of Rome are measured by him from this gate, and the inscriptions put over that gate as the entrance into Rome indicate the same thing. The level of this castellum above the sea is about 153 ft.; at the Porta Maggiore, where the Anio Vetus enters Rome, it is about 146 ft., allowing a descent of about 3 ft. 4 in. for the two miles, which is natural. The Via Appia Nova, in the part near Rome, was made out of the old Via Asinaria. Frontinus says that this branch “was conveyed to the Asinian gardens,” which were between the Lateran and the Sessorium, and to which the Porta Asinaria (or gate of the Asinii) was the entrance. Between that gate and the Amphitheatrum Castrense are remains of an ancient reservoir or castellum aquæ, cut in the rock at the foot of the wall and half underground, as was very usual with the Anio Vetus. The branch that goes along the Via Latina appears to have gone from the same reservoir, but to be distinct from the one mentioned by Frontinus, and to have been made after his time. This last branch seems to be the same as the Aqua Antoniniana of the Regionary Catalogue, having been made in the third century to supply the great Thermæ of the Antonines. In the Middle Ages, this was considered to have been a branch of the Aqua Marcia; but if this had been the case, there must have been some remains of the arcade for it across the valley.

[40] This branch is believed to have been called Aqua Antoniniana, as it conveyed water to supply the great Thermæ of the Antonines, called after Antoninus Caracalla. But it seems doubtful whether it may not be the Severiana, which conveyed water to the Thermæ of Septimius Severus. There appear to have been two aqueducts along this point of the Via Latina at different levels, and the higher one, passing over the Arch of Drusus, is said to have been a branch from the Marcia.

[41] Frontinus, c. 21. On the subject of the word Spes (?) or Specus (?), see the Appendix to this Chapter.

[42]

ANIo
IMP . CAESAR
divI . f . avgvsT . ex . sc
VII PCCXL

iMP . CAESAR
divI . f . avgvsT . ex . sc
VIi PCCXL
C

[43] “Descrizione del luogo denominato anticamente Speranza Vecchia, del monumento delle Acque Claudia ed Aniene Nuova, e del Sepolcro di Marco Virgilio Eurisace, dell’ architetto cav. Luigi Canina.” 8vo., Roma, 1839, with six Plates; extracted from the Annali dell’ Instituto Archeologico.

[44] There are two other temples known to have been dedicated to Spes, and the one near the Porta Carmentalis is thus entered in the Notitia and Curiosum Urbis: “Fortunæ et Spei Templa Nova.” We know that there had been a great fire here, and that these temples were rebuilt, and therefore the Nova has reference only to the new structure. Besides, to be analogous, it should have been “Spes Nova,” or “Templum Spei Novæ.” According to Dionysius, another Temple of Spes was a mile or eight stadia from the City. (Dion. Hal., ix. 24.) “Having in the first battle, which was fought at the distance of eight stadia from the City, near the temple of Hope, overcome the enemy and beaten them out of the field, and after that fought them again near the gate called Collina,” &c. The Porta Maggiore, in the outer wall of enceinte, is just a mile from the Porta Esquilina, in the inner wall of the City, and the Arch of Gallienus. On the other hand, the line of the specus, with the foss-way by the side of it, must have been important ground for a battle. The modern theory that the whole of the eastern side of Rome was called after Spes, has no ancient authority. Another instance is on all accounts very puzzling. It is a passage in Lampridius, in the life of Heliogabalus: “Ipse secessit ad hortos Spei Veteris, quasi contra novum juvenem.” (Lampridius, Antoninus Heliogabalus, 13.) It would almost appear that there were some gardens called by the name of Spes, unless indeed in transcribing some such error should have been made as in the case of the transcriber of Frontinus, and “Spei” written for “Specus,” by a scribe to whom the former word was familiar but the latter not, who had mistaken Spc̄ for Spē. It is a strong passage in favour of the temple theory; but still there is strong evidence on the other side. This garden was that of the Sessorium, one side of which was enclosed by the arcade carrying the specus of the Claudian aqueduct.

[45] The seven places where the abbreviation of spem or specum occurs in Frontinus are given in another page, with tracings of these passages from the best manuscript.

[46] Polenus and Buecheler have demonstrated that the Codex Cassinensis is the earliest and best. It was discovered at Monte Cassino by Poggio in the fourteenth century. The Codex Vaticanus is a copy of the above; but the Codex Urbinas, though of later date, is not a copy from that manuscript. Probably both are copies from an earlier one, not now extant. Some of the various readings in the Codex Urbinas are better than those of the Codex Cassinensis. See the edition of Frontinus by Polenus, Prolegomena, p. 20. Patavii, 1722, 4to.

[47] Other excavations, made in 1871 in the large vineyard near the Porta Maggiore, near the building called Minerva Medica, shewed the aqueducts very distinctly passing through the higher ground and going along the line of the wall towards the Porta di S. Lorenzo.

[48] Frontinus, c. 87.

[49] Piranesi, Le Antichità Romane, vol. i. pl. x.

[50] I am indebted to the kindness of the abbot of the monastery at Monte Cassino, for the tracings of these passages here reproduced by the process of photo-engraving.

[51] The manuscript called Codex Urbinas reads, jungitur ei ad anionem veterem. In the present instance, the true reading is evidently specum. Frontinus is describing the Aqua Appia, the oldest of the aqueducts, and the junction of the Augusta with the old specus. This could have nothing to do with the Anio Vetus.

[52] ascus (?): Buecheler reads this ad spem.

[53] The Torquatian Gardens were near the Porta Maggiore, and probably the same as those of the Sessorium, now those of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme.

[54] Canina published a volume on what he considered to be the Temple of Spes, by the side of the Porta Maggiore (as before mentioned); but a few years afterwards those ruins were pulled down to make room for a modern guard-house. In doing so, the inscription of the dedication to Hercules was found by the architect, Felice Cicconetti, and sent to the Vatican Museum. This statement was made to me some years since by Signor Cicconetti himself, and was confirmed by his friend, Signor Simelli, the photographer, who said he had seen it.

The fact is now denied by the Roman archæologists, and when challenged by the Cavaliere Visconti to shew him the inscription in the Vatican Museum, they say they cannot now remember anything about it; and the stone with the inscription upon it has not been found. It is printed by Dr. Henzen in his collection of Inscriptions as then in the warehouse of the Vatican Museum; but he considers it to have belonged to a wayside altar only, not to a temple.

The twin reservoirs are very near the same spot; but the place where the Aqua Appia enters Rome is in the gardens of the Sessorium, some distance from the gate, to the east of it. An old specus certainly runs along the Cœlian Hill, nearly under the Neronian Arcade, and part of it is now used for the Aqua Felice. I have been along it for more than a quarter of a mile, from near the Porta Maggiore to the Lateran. The Aqua Felice is carried down a sharp incline into that old specus, and the metal pipes on the slope are still supported on brickwork of the first century, probably part of the Marcian Arcade, when rebuilt in that part by Frontinus. The old specus runs on (or ran on, it is said to be now interrupted,) to the reservoir on the Cœlian Hill, at the Arch of Dolabella.

That a part of the eastern side of Rome went by the name of Spes Vetus, is said to be proved by a curious graffito upon the bottom of an amphora, found in 1871 in the excavations in the Exquiliæ, near the Porta Maggiore, of a cobbler’s stall, in that district:—

TYCHICI
SVTORIS
A. SPEM VE
TERE.

This piece of terra-cotta is of the first century of the Roman Empire; but at what period the name and address of the cobbler was scratched upon it, is a question not so easily answered.

[55] The Aqua Claudia and Anio Novus enter Rome at the extreme eastern point on a lofty arcade, which formed the northern boundary of the Sessorian gardens, and was incorporated in the Wall of Aurelian. This extends for about a quarter of a mile; it then turns at a sharp angle to the north, and passes over the Porta Maggiore, to its final reservoir in a tower at an angle to the north of that gate. But part of the water of the Claudia and the Anio Novus united, was carried straight on along the bank on which the arches of Nero stand, to the Cœlian Hill and the reservoirs at the west end of it. The temple, called by Canina Spes, stood near the angle where the water was divided into two distinct channels, between that point and the Porta Maggiore.

[56] The name of Porta Esquilina is here given to the Porta Maggiore, the outer gate on the road to the Esquiline. The same name was also given to the inner gate in the agger of Servius Tullius; but there must always have been an outer gate also in the outer mœnia, or bank and wall for enclosure, which was a necessary part of every fortified city. (The same name, Porta Angelica, is still given to both the inner and the outer gate of the Leonine City, near the Vatican.) The high streams were carried on this bank to the Porta Viminalis of Frontinus, now called the Porta di S. Lorenzo. The remains of these three aqueducts can be plainly seen on entering through the city wall close to the Porta Maggiore, on the north side, and going along on this bank to the Porta di S. Lorenzo. The specus is visible at both ends, carried on arches. In the middle the ground is higher, and the specus pass through it underground, and then emerge and are carried again upon arches, exactly as described by Frontinus. The Aqua Felice is carried over the three aqueducts of the Marcian arcade; it is on arches twenty feet from the ground at each end, and in the middle, where these three are underground. The lower part of the specus of the Aqua Felice almost touches the ground, while the other three are underground.

[57] The gemelli are, in all probability, the large twin reservoirs just outside the western wall of the Sessorium, now in a large vineyard near the Porta Maggiore, through which the Neronian arches pass. These reservoirs are below the level of the specus of the Anio Vetus, as was shewn by some excavations made in them under my direction in 1869.

[58] Some of the water had been thrown into the old specus at the junction of the Claudian with the Neronian arches.

[59] There are remains of more than one specus crossing the valley from the Cœlian to the Aventine upon the agger of Servius Tullius, and passing over the Porta Capena at the foot of the Cœlian. One of these was the Marcia, from the reservoir over the Arch of Dolabella, which is near the site of the Claudium and Temple of Claudius. There were great reservoirs for the aqueducts at this point on different levels; one of them underground is still in use, the remains of the others are among the most picturesque objects in Rome. This passage cannot apply to the temple of Hope, which is full a mile away from the Aventine.

[60] “Quum hæc accepta clades esset, jam C. Horatius et T. Menenius consules erant. Menenius adversus Tuscos, victoria elatos, confestim missus. Tum quoque male pugnatum est, et Janiculum hostes occupavere: obsessaque urbs foret, super bellum annona premente, (transierant enim Etrusci Tiberim) ni Horatius consul e Volscis esset revocatus: adeoque id bellum ipsis institit mœnibus, ut primo pugnatum ad Spei sit æquo Marte, iterum ad Portam Collinam. Ibi quanquam parvo momento superior Romana res fuit, meliorem tamen militem, recepto pristino animo, in futura prœlia id certamen fecit.” (Livii Hist., lib. ii. c. 51.)

[61] “Romæ fœdum incendium per duas noctes ac diem unum tenuit: solo æquata omnia inter Salinas ac Portam Carmentalem cum Æquimælio Jugarioque vico. In templo Fortunæ ac matris Matutæ et Spei extra portam late vagans ignis, sacra profanaque multa absumpsit.” (Ibid., lib. xxiv. c. 47.)

[62] “Comitia deinde a prætore urbano de senatus sententia plebisque scito sunt habita: quibus creati sunt quinqueviri muris turribusque reficiendis: et triumviri bini; uni sacris conquirendis donisque persignandis; alteri reficiendis ædibus Fortunæ et matris Matutæ intra Portam Carmentalem, sed et Spei extra portam, quæ priore anno incendio consumptæ fuerant.” (Livii Hist., lib. xxv. c. 7.)

[63] “Theatrum et proscenium ad Apollinis, ædem Jovis in Capitolio, columnasque circa poliendas albo locavit: et ab his columnis, quæ incommode opposita videbantur, signa amovit: clipeaque de columnis, et signa militaria affixa omnis generis dempsit. M. Fulvius plura et majoris locavit usus: portum et pilas pontis in Tiberim; quibus pilis fornices post aliquot annos P. Scipio Africanus et L. Mummius censores locaverunt imponendos; basilicam post argentarias novas et forum piscatorium, circumdatis tabernis, quas vendidit in privatum; et forum, et porticum extra Portam Trigeminam, et aliam post navalia, et ad fanum Herculis, et post Spei ad Tiberim ædem Apollinis Medici.” (Ibid., lib. xl. c. 51.)

[64] “Sive autem medii montes erunt inter mœnia et caput fontis, sic erit faciendum, uti specus fodiantur sub terra librenturque ad fastigium,” &c. (Vitruv., De Architectura, lib. viii. c. 6. § 3.)

[65] “Alexandria est fere tota suffossa, specusque habet ad Nilum pertinentes, quibus aqua in privatas domos inducitur.” (Aulus Hirtius, De Bello Cæsaris Alexandrino, cap. 4.)

[66] Frontinus, lib. i. c. 7. He also quotes from Fenestella concerning the delays which occurred, and speaks of the Decemvirs consulting the Sybilline books, and being supposed to have found that it was not the Marcian but rather the Anio which should be brought into the Capitol: (“Invenisse dicuntur, non esse aquam Marciam, sed potius Anionem in Capitolium perducendam.”) Eventually, however, Marcius prevailed, and his plan was carried out.

Pliny also refers to the work of Marcius: “Sed dicantur vera æstimatione invicta miracula; Q. Marcius Rex jussus a senatu aquarum Appiæ, Anienis, Tepulæ ductus reficere, novam a nomine suo appellatam cuniculis per montes actis intra præturæ suæ tempus adduxit.” (Nat. Hist., lib. xxxvi. c. 121; see also further details in Plin., xxxi. 41, and ibid.)

[67] “Qui lapide quadrato ampliores ductus excitavit, perque illos aquam quam acquisiverit rei publicæ commodo, trium millium opera fabrorum duxit cui ab auctore,” &c. These words are wanting in the best manuscript, that of Monte Cassino. In place of them we have “( ... priores ductus restituit et tertiam illam aquarum in urbem perduxit) cui ab auctore,” &c. This does not agree with the opinion of the learned, that the Urbinas Manuscript is a copy of the one at Monte Cassino, unless great liberties were taken with it. The fact that the arcade with the specus of the aqueduct is always built of large squared stones, is strongly in favour of the Codex Urbinas. It is also certain from the nature of the work, that a large number of men must have been employed upon it. This passage seems to have been omitted in the Codex Cassinensis, which is a proof that the Codex Urbinas is not a copy from it. Dederich, p. 15, suggests after “commodo,” the words “trium millium opera fabrorum.”

[68] Frontinus, lib. i. c. 7.

Frontinus states in another chapter (c. 12) that Augustus brought underground another stream, which should be supplementary to the Marcian whenever the dryness of the season rendered extra supply necessary. It was called from the name of the contriver, Augusta, and had its rise above the spring of the Marcian. This additional ductus, or Specus Augusta, was 800 paces long.