The archæology of Rome, Part 8 : $b The aqueductsParker, John Henry
History
The archæology of Rome, Part 8 : $b The aqueducts
Parker, John Henry
Rome -- Antiquities
One of the springs, called Aqua Argentina, deserves special attention; it
comes out of the rock in a considerable body, and with much force, under
the north-west corner of the Palatine Hill, at a great depth, in the cave
called the Lupercal, which from its situation may very well have been a
wolf’s cave at the time of the foundation of Rome. (702* is the plan and
section of this). It falls into the larger stream that comes from the
Quirinal and Capitoline Hills, and now runs in the Cloaca Maxima (690*).
The point of junction of these two streams can be seen in an opening
where the vault has been destroyed (158), near the arch of Janus and the
church of S. Georgio in Velabro, which was the silversmiths’ quarter in
Rome, as is shewn by the arch they erected in honour of Septimius Severus
near this spot, the inscription on which remains.
The stream that comes from the foot of the Quirinal, and now runs through
the Cloaca Maxima, emerges in a cellar under a house at the back of the
church of S. Hadrian, and a great body of water rises with considerable
force. Such a spring is no doubt in its original place. Another spring
that runs into this stream is the one that rises in the crypt under the
church of the Crucifixion, at the foot of the Capitoline Hill, called the
Prison of S. Peter, which is another natural source.
Of the wells or reservoirs of rain-water, we have one remarkable
example still preserved; it is on the Palatine Hill, at the north-west
corner, just behind the most perfect part of the Wall of Romulus, and
at one corner of his _arx_ or citadel, called Roma Quadrata, and there
are certain peculiarities about it. It has _specus_, or subterranean
conduits, to carry water to it from different parts of the hill. The
cistern itself is seven feet high, of about the same width, and of
considerable length. Into this reservoir descend certain wells of a
peculiar and unusual form, like a hollow cone with the wide mouth
downwards. This form of well is said to be common in the east; but the
only examples known in this part of Italy are this one on the Palatine
under the _arx_ of Romulus, and one at Alba Longa, under the corner of
the _arx_ or citadel of that ancient city, from which the Romans are
said to have been originally a colony. This is certainly a remarkable
coincidence, if it is nothing more. One of these wells is shewn in 764
and 765 from nature, and in 366*, 384*, from a drawing. 1630 is a view
of the reservoir at Alba Longa (mis-called the Prison). 1940* is from a
drawing of the two compared.
The remains of the aqueduct and reservoir at Tusculum (shewn in 1903) are
of _opus quadratum_, of very early character, and seem to shew that the
inhabitants there had aqueducts before the Romans. Frontinus, indeed,
makes no claim to invention, nor were the Romans generally inventors,
they rather turned to useful account the inventions of other people whom
they had conquered.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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