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
The right-hand branch, in crossing the Campagna, appears to have run
nearly under the Marcian arcade, which was afterwards built on the same
line and nearly over it. As we approach near to Rome, there are remains
of a reservoir built of large stones a little way down the road, about
a hundred yards from the Porta Maggiore. It enters Rome under the wall,
almost on the level of the ground; the upper part of the _specus_ was
visible in 1868, but in 1869 was studiously concealed by a modern brick
wall. It is visible again inside the wall, on the other side of the road,
going into the vineyard in which the Minerva Medica stands, while one
branch went to the great reservoir near to it, westward of the gate.
Another branch passes along the bank under the wall of Aurelian, and is
not visible again until it reaches the Prætorian Camp, where a portion
of it was excavated in May, 1868, built of large stones of tufa, under
the Porta Chiusa. It may then be traced all round the three sides of the
Prætorian Camp, and near the north-east corner there was, in 1868, an
opening into it, now closed by a modern wall. It is distinctly visible in
several places, especially on the north side of the Camp, where the wall
of Tiberius remains perfect, faced with the fine brickwork of his period,
whereas the _specus_ under it is faced with _Opus Reticulatum_, probably
of the time of the Republic. The wall of Tiberius distinctly stands on
the old _specus_. There was an opening into it here also in 1868; but
this was also carefully walled up in 1869 under the influence of the
Garibaldian panic, which had a bad effect upon the Roman authorities at
that period. Remains of a reservoir or _castellum aquæ_ were also found
on the surface of the ground on the bank near the Porta Chiusa, with the
present wall of Rome built right across it, but this part of the wall has
been rebuilt of old materials, and is not exactly in the same line. There
are remains of several other reservoirs on the bank at intervals outside
the wall in the modern road, and in many places all along the eastern and
southern sides of Rome.
Beyond this, near the Porta Nomentana, are the ruins of another reservoir
or _piscina_ on the surface of the ground, against the wall. From near
the Porta Chiusa another branch went along the old road, which passed
through that gate across the inner foss to the Thermæ of Diocletian,
where a part of the _specus_ and two _cippi_, with two inscriptions upon
them, naming this aqueduct the Anio Vetus, were found in the year 1861,
when the railway was made[42]. These _cippi_ are now in the Vatican
Museum.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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