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
On the western side of the Lateran fortress is another great foss,
between the Cœliolum and the east end of the Cœlian Hill. It was either
thought more convenient to make a bank across that great foss for the
aqueduct to rest upon, or this bank which traverses that great foss had
been made before for an upper road, and was used first for the Aqua Appia
and the Anio Vetus, and afterwards by Nero. The existence of such a
foss between the east end of the Cœlian Hill and the Cœliolum is denied
by those who have not paid attention to the subject, and have not been
into the gardens and vineyards to examine it; but the fact is a matter
of demonstration. The tomb of the first century (miscalled the House of
Verus, probably a tomb of the great Lateran family), being on the western
bank of that fortress and the eastern bank of the foss, and the other
tomb of the first century also, in the garden of what was the Museum of
Campana (_under_ an arch that carries the modern road), on the western
side of that great foss, are a demonstration that there was such a foss
on the east side of the City of Servius Tullius, i.e. that the Cœliolum
and Lateran did not form part of the City at that time. (See my chapter
on the Tombs, and the photographs of these two tombs, 174 and 1942).
The Arches of Nero remain on the Cœlian in many parts of the line,
by the side of the road from the Lateran to S. Stefano Rotondo and
the Navicella, with the arch of Dolabella, which was under the great
reservoir of Nero, and formed the entrance of the Claudium. The Arches of
Nero are faced with the finest brickwork in the world (ten bricks to the
foot, as usual at that period, and are chosen as typical examples). This
is well shewn in 78, and the internal construction of rubble, faced only
with the fine brickwork, in 358. A line of these, shewing the picturesque
effect, is shewn in 131 and 357. The aqueduct formed one of the usual
angles between the Lateran and the arch at the west end of the Cœlian. It
has been destroyed in this part; but this accounts for the arches being
sometimes on one side of the road and sometimes on the other.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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