next draws our attention.
The aqueduct which supplied the Thermæ of Caracalla crossed the road a
few steps before the Aurelian Gate of the city, the Porta Appia (now
called the Porta S. Sebastiano), where an arch of travertine, adorned
with white marble and pillars of various colours (still standing) was
employed to convey the aqueduct over the road. The arch itself is
evidently much older than the aqueduct, and has, consequently, been
pronounced by antiquaries to be the triumphal arch awarded to Drusus
by a decree of the senate, and said to have been erected to him on the
Appian Way. It was supported by four columns of African marble,
relieved by four niches and an attic above a small pediment; the whole
was surmounted by an equestrian statue between two trophies, as shown
upon a coin. "The senate likewise decreed for Drusus a triumphal arch
of marble, with trophies, over the Appian Way, and gave him the
cognomen of Germanicus" (Suetonius, "Claudius," i.).
_Passing under, we come to_