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
[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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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