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
[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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account