lake, and several other mills on the line of the stream, as has been
mentioned. The water must always have flowed out of the lake in the old
deep bed of the small river Almo, and passed under the bridge on which
the Porta Metronia is built, into Regio I., and then under the foot of
the Aventine by the side of the Circus Maximus into the Tiber, as before
described. The tower built in the twelfth century, against the inside of
the gate and the bridge, conceals this from view.
XVIII. AQUA FELICE, A.D. 1587.
This aqueduct is named after the Pope, Felice Peretti, whose title was
Sixtus V.; he brought it from a place near La Colonna, the ancient
Labicum, about twelve miles from the city, to the fountain of Moses (now
so called from a statue) at the Termini on the Esquiline, as recorded
on an inscription[199]. It is still in use, supplying the fountains
at the Termini, near the Thermæ of Diocletian, of Monte Cavallo, near
those of Constantine, and the whole of the upper town. The waters of
the Aqua Hadriana were united with some others in the territory called
Pantano, at about twelve miles from Rome, where they emerged from
the mountains. All these sources or springs of water were collected
during the pontificate of Gregory XIII., A.D. 1572-1585, in an immense
reservoir, repaired in 1869, with several other smaller ones subservient
to it for purification. The aqueduct was built in the time of Sixtus V.
(A.D. 1585-1590), but the reservoirs were not completed until the time
of Urban VII. or VIII. [1623-44]. From this point the water is carried
into the canal or channel through an opening called the _fistula Urbana_,
made in a piece of marble. According to Fontana, this water was brought
to the Porta Maggiore on a new arcade made out of the materials of the
old aqueducts in a very clumsy manner. It was the intention of the Pope
to have made use of the canal or conduit of the Aqua Marcia, but that was
found to be at too high a level, and his clumsy engineers were obliged
to make a new arcade at immense expense. He availed himself, however,
of the old arcades as far as he could, by building his new conduit up
against the side of the piers of the old ones, sometimes on the Marcian,
as may be seen at the place called _Sette Bassi_, and near the Porta
Furba, sometimes against the Claudian as near Rome. After bringing it
into the city in this canal of rough stone, the water was carried in
leaden pipes into the old subterranean channels, as may still be seen
in the deep _specus_ on the Cœlian, and the metal pipes pass through
the tall brick piers of the arcade of Nero, and are supported on flat
arches across from one pier to the other, with a rapid descent over the
first or ancient road from S. Croce to the Porta Maggiore, and into the
Specus Vetus underground, before arriving at the second or modern one
from S. Croce to S. Maria Maggiore. The point of descent is marked by a
respirator.
Pantano is about two miles from Gabii, and this reservoir is still
in use. It is very near to the ancient _castellum aquæ_, which was
made originally by Hadrian[200] for his aqueduct, as is shewn by an
inscription found there. The other streams coming from Tivoli are said
to have emerged also near this point, and the first engineer of the
Felice, Matteo da Castello, considering the Claudian and Marcian lines
as the best, followed those to the _piscinæ_; but having made a mistake
in the levels, instead of using the Marcian _specus_ and arcade from the
_piscinæ_ into Rome, and merely repairing it as the Pope had intended,
Fontana was obliged to rebuild it entirely of the materials of the old
Marcian arcade, with the help also of those of the Claudian, all the way
to Rome. This was done in great haste and in a very clumsy manner[201].
From the Porta Maggiore one branch of the Aqua Felice is carried across
the great foss to the Lateran, through the piers of the arches of Nero,
and down a cascade-pipe into the old _specus_ of the Appia, and along
that to the fountains and reservoirs at the Lateran. This is the branch
that goes straight on from the corner of the Sessorium to the west.
Another more important branch of the Aqua Felice turns short to the north
from the same angle and over the Porta Maggiore, along the city wall to
the Porta S. Lorenzo, in a new channel very badly and clumsily built of
rough stone from the materials of the old aqueducts, making use of the
piers of the Claudian arcade as far as they go, and then of the inside
of the wall of Aurelian over the Marcian arcade. The Aqua Felice having
here been brought to a higher level, that is to say, the descent from
the _piscinæ_ being less rapid than that of the Marcia, after passing
the Porta Maggiore, goes over the Marcia upon the Arch of Augustus at
the Porta S. Lorenzo. There is a _castellum aquæ_ for it in the wall
just to the south of the Porta S. Lorenzo, where the water may be heard
rushing through, and the surplus water runs off into an ancient drain
on the outside of the wall. With the rapidity of all the public works
under that energetic Pope, the undertaking, a decree for which he had
signed in April, 1585, was completed in two years, by the labours of
from 2,000 to 3,000 men, and the waters were seen to gush from their
sculptured fountain in the Piazza di Termini, on the 15th of June, 1587.
The Aqua Felice was conducted for fifteen miles underground, and for
seven miles upon arcades. Besides the Aqua Felice, the Via Felice and the
Via Sistina (Sixtus) in continuation of it, and many other great works
were inaugurated by the same Pope, who has been called the real founder
of modern Rome. Other old subterranean conduits are employed to carry the
pipes of the Felice where convenient for the purpose of conveying water
to different parts of the town.
Junctions of the arcade of Sixtus V., or Aqua Felice, with that of
the Claudia, take place at an angle where the Torre Fiscale has been
built, and again at another angle where there is an archway called the
Porta Furba, about two miles from Rome, and a most picturesque ruin
of a _piscina_, with a tall tower by the side of it, in which is the
ventilating-shaft of the conduit. The difference of construction and
of level is very evident, and the three conduits carried on the same
arches may be seen distinctly. The construction of the Claudia (VIII.)
is of large square blocks of stone. The Anio Novus (IX.) is merely an
additional brick conduit, the work is part of that of Claudius and Nero,
and is carried over the original one at a great height from the ground.
Near the city only small portions of this upper conduit remain here and
there, as, for instance, over the Porta Maggiore, and in a few places on
the wall. In some places, the arcade of the Aqua Felice runs parallel to
the Claudian for a considerable distance, and is joined to it at both
ends, as near the Porta Furba. This lower arcade carried part of the
conduits of the Aqua Marcia, Tepula, and Julia, which ran from the Porta
Furba into the city parallel to the later one of Claudius, at a lower
level.
Where the Aqua Felice enters the city, it is carried on the piers of the
arcade of Claudius, from the junction with the arches of Nero, over the
Porta Maggiore to the old _castellum_ at the corner of the wall, where
it turns at a sharp angle. Here the arches of Claudius cease; but the
conduit of the Aqua Felice is continued along the city wall, of which it
forms part, upon the ancient embankment as far as the Porta S. Lorenzo,
and over the archway of Augustus there, using one of the older conduits.
It then makes a sharp turn to the west, and after being carried along
the north side of the road for a short distance, crosses it again on an
archway built for the purpose by Sixtus V., as recorded by an inscription
upon it; then it turns sharply to the west again, and is carried on an
arcade between the road on the north and the railway on the south, to
the great inner _agger_, which it reaches at a point near the Thermæ of
Diocletian and the railway station. It is then carried in an old _specus_
in that bank along the east side of the Thermæ, and turns at an angle to
the north, at the Via Nomentana, near the Porta Nomentana, a little to
the south of the modern Via di Porta Pia; then along the north side of
the Thermæ till it arrives at the great reservoir behind the fountain
of Termini. The _specus_ is three feet wide, and the water in it is
usually from three to four feet deep, running with a rapid current about
five miles an hour, and constantly flowing day and night. Thence it is
carried in pipes to the different reservoirs and fountains of the upper
town. It also supplies the lower part of the city from the Ghetto to the
Marmorata, along the bank of the Tiber.
SUMMARY.
Frontinus, who wrote in the time of Nerva and Trajan, mentions (as we
have seen) nine aqueducts[202], reckoning as distinct several branches,
or additional channels, subordinate to others more important. There is
one more important record to which reference has not hitherto been made,
namely, the summary at the end of the _Curiosum_ and _Notitia_, in which
nineteen are enumerated.
The entry in the Summary of the Regionary Catalogue is as follows:—
Aquæ XIX.
I. Traiana [X.]
II. Annia (or Anio Vetus?) [II.]
III. Attica (Anio Novus) [IX.]
IV. Marcia [III.]
V. Claudia [VIII.]
VI. Herculea [XVII. Almo?]
VII. Cerulea [IX.]
VIII. Julia [V.]
IX. Augustea [I.]
X. Appia [I.]
XI. Alseatina [VII.]
XII. Ciminia (?).
XIII. Aurelia [XII.]
XIV. Damnata (Cloaca Maxima?).
XV. Virgo [VI.]
XVI. Tepula [IV.]
XVII. Severiana [XIII.]
XVIII. Antoniana [XIV.]
XIX. Alexandrina [XV.]
Those not previously mentioned are (1.) Attica, (2.) Herculea, (3.)
Cerulea, (4.) Augustea, (5.) Ciminia, (6.) Damnata.
1. Attica is supposed by Fabretti to be the same as Alseatina [VII.], but
then how is the number of nineteen to be made up? It was probably the
Anio Novus, as already described. [See IX.]
2. Herculea. This is mentioned by Frontinus[203] as receiving a part
of the Aqua Marcia after its entrance into the city[204]. Another
stream of the same name, thirty-eight miles from the city, was added to
the Anio Novus[205]; but it seems most probable that the stream here
intended is the Almo, which enters Rome under the Porta Metronia, and
conveys the water of the Marrana, or Aqua Crabra, coming from these two
mountain-streams united, as already described. This is always a very
strong stream. It follows the line of the aqueducts for miles towards
Rome, and received the surplus water in many places, where there were
_piscinæ_; it passes very near to the point where the aqueducts enter
Rome at the Porta Maggiore, and may very well have received the surplus
water there also of the Marcia, as stated by Frontinus.
3. Cerulea. This is the name of one of the branches of the Claudia, among
its sources, and is mentioned in the inscription at the Porta Maggiore;
but again, this does not account for one of the nineteen Aquæ.
4. Augustea. A stream was added to the Aqua Marcia by Augustus, and
called after him[206]; but that would not account for another stream in
Rome here indicated as one of the nineteen Aquæ. It is more probable that
the water here intended is the Augustan branch of the Aqua Appia, which
was united at the Gemelli within the outer wall of Rome. Frontinus (c.
4), indeed, mentions that the Alseatina was also called Augustea, but
that would not account for another of the nineteen streams[207].
5. Ciminia, another name for the Sabbatina [X.], according to Onuphrius
Panvinius; but the sources of the Sabbatina are very distant from the
Monte Cimino. Ciminia is perhaps written for Curtia, another source of
the Claudia; but again, this does not account for another of the nineteen
streams.
6. Damnata. This may be the stream that comes from the Quirinal and the
Palatine, and which formed the lake of Curtius, whence it was conveyed
into the Cloaca Maxima, as it still is. It was therefore _condemned_ to
serve for washing out a drain only.
There is reason to believe that some of these nineteen streams are
the natural watercourses, and others merely branches from the great
aqueducts, as has been said.
There were 1,452 _lacus_, that is wells, or cisterns of water, supplied
by the aqueducts in Rome, according to the _Horum Breviarium_ of the
_Notitia_, or Catalogue of the fourth century, and they must in many
instances have been very near together. A reservoir for the distribution
of the water was almost a necessary termination of an aqueduct, and at a
junction it was equally necessary.
Rutilius describes the aqueducts about A.D. 417, in such terms as shew
that they were not destroyed in the first siege of the Goths[208].
Cassiodorus represents them as perfect, about twenty years before the
siege carried on by Vitiges[209]. At the time of the siege by that
king, Procopius (i. 19), writing in the sixth century, records only the
fourteen aqueducts already mentioned[210].
APPENDIX.—AQUEDUCTS.
Since this chapter was printed, the great excavations that have been
carried on in Rome have brought to light many remains of the old
Aqueducts in places where they were not previously known or thought of.
These are so numerous that we can do little more than mention them,
beginning at the Sessorium, where the principal aqueducts entered
Rome. In the Sessorian or Palatian gardens, now those of Santa Croce
in Gerusalemme, a pit was dug in the reservoir which was used for the
Thermæ of S. Helena, which is a large cistern of two narrow chambers,
with others similar under them; this was ascertained by digging this
pit. Remains of other reservoirs along the line of the north wall of the
garden, which is made out of the old aqueduct, were brought to light
more clearly. Just outside of this garden is the road from the church of
Santa Croce to the Porta Maggiore[211], which is carried on a bank of
earth that was the boundary of the Sessorian garden, and on the outer
side of it, this bank is supported by a wall of the time of Constantine,
no doubt built when his mother, S. Helena, resided there. Just beyond
this bank, and in the great foss of the ancient fortress, are two large
reservoirs close together, one on either side of the foss. These appear
to correspond with the _Gemelli_, or twin reservoirs of Frontinus; an
excavation made here was stopped by water, but enough was seen to make
it evident that there were other chambers under them, and that they were
very deep, but have probably been used for one of the later aqueducts, at
a higher level also. It was very usual to carry one aqueduct nearly over
another, in order that the older subterranean reservoir might receive
the surplus water of the later and higher ones. It is probable that in
this instance the Claudia and Anio Novus had each a reservoir here on the
higher level, and that the water of the two was here united and carried
on along the Cœlian Hill in one _specus_, on the arches of Nero, to the
middle of the city.
The inscriptions on the Porta Maggiore record the distances from the
sources of the aqueducts to this point, clearly shewing that this was
the entrance into Rome in the outer wall, though not into the CITY,
until the boundary of the city was extended to this outer wall by
Aurelian, in the third century. On the northern side of this great gate
remains of the Marcian arcade were found going from this point, where
the three aqueducts pass through the outer wall at one of the angles,
and go straight on to the high bank on which the wall of Aurelian was
afterwards carried, to the Porta Tiburtina (now di S. Lorenzo), and the
reservoirs there. The _specus_ passes underground for some distance,
about half-way between the two gates, and is carried on arches near the
gates. The fine building called Minerva Medica was full of fountains, as
was all the great public garden in which it stands, and all the fountains
in Rome were supplied by the aqueducts. Between this building, of the
third century, and the wall, is another large reservoir, turned into a
house, where considerable excavations have been made. The later aqueduct,
called Aqua Alexandrina, was carried in the wall over the earlier ones,
to a point just opposite, to the remains of the Minerva Medica. The
piers of the arches that supported the _specus_ can be seen in the wall,
both outside and inside, as far as this, but they go no farther. This
point, where they cease, is close to the place where the railway passes
through the wall. Beyond these arches other excavations were made by the
archæologists near the Porta di S. Lorenzo, and the arches that carried
the Marcia, etc., were shewn. There are remains of two reservoirs near
this point; the outer wall of one now forms part of the city wall, and
is foolishly called “the house of Cicero;” the other is just within
the line, but still on the bank, with the wall of Aurelian built close
against it on the outer side. There are remains of another reservoir on
the other side of the gate, and one branch goes on from thence to the
Prætorian Camp, passing by the Porta Chiusa, where the _specus_ was shewn
in some other excavations of the archæologists; and near to it, on the
south side, is a large reservoir on the bank, cut through the middle by
the wall of Aurelian. This proves that the great bank of earth was there,
and had the aqueducts carried upon it, before the time that the wall of
Aurelian was built. The _specus_ then goes upon the bank round this camp,
but is for the most part concealed; it is visible again on the northern
side, which is the only perfect part of the fortification of the camp by
Tiberius, and his wall stands upon the earlier _specus_ of the aqueduct;
the latter is faced with _opus reticulatum_ where perfect; the wall is of
fine brickwork.
The branch that goes from the Porta di S. Lorenzo to the other reservoir,
under the Trophies of Marius, is carried on a fine arcade of the first
century; this has been brought out far more clearly than it had been for
many centuries. The remains of the reservoir at this very high level are
also made visible. Signor Ernest de Mauro, the surveyor who took the
levels, considers this branch so high, that the only water that could
reach it was that of the Claudia and Anio Novus united, which we know
from Frontinus was carried into all the fourteen Regiones of Rome, but
it was considered by Fabretti to have belonged to the Aqua Julia; the
difference of level between the two aqueducts is only ten feet. At this
high point the water was divided, and carried in different directions;
one branch, of which part of the _specus_ is visible, went to the other
great reservoir called the Sette Sale, which supplied the Thermæ of
Titus and Trajan on the Esquiline, and the surplus water passed on to
the Colosseum and to the fountain called the Meta Sudans. From the other
great division of the aqueducts, at the corner of the Sessorian gardens,
near the Porta Maggiore, the well-known arches of Nero go along the
bank to the Lateran, and from thence along the Cœlian Hill to the great
central reservoir of Nero, over the Arch of Dolabella. At that point
it has been already shewn that several of the aqueducts met, and were
divided into three branches, one straight on to the Palatine, on a double
arcade across the valley from the Cœlian, of which there are considerable
remains of the lower tier of arches, and one arch of the upper tier,
which forms a sort of back gate to the palaces of the Cæsars. A second
branch passed over the Porta Capena to the Aventine, at different levels;
the earliest and lowest, the Aqua Appia, is the one that can now be the
most distinctly traced. After passing over the short _agger_ of Servius
Tullius it goes underground under the cliff, at the north end of the
Pseudo-Aventine, and at the further end under the hill on which S. Sabba
now stands; a series of stone-quarries have been made by cutting away one
side of the _specus_, leaving the wells to give air to the quarry.
At this point excavations have repeatedly been made by the archæologists,
and as often filled up again by the workmen in the summer months, until
1876, when an arrangement was made with the proprietor to make a more
complete excavation, and put up a door to protect it. In this part, which
is just before the _specus_ crosses the last road on its way to the
Tiber, seven different branches of other aqueducts cast their surplus
water into this earliest and lowest; in many parts this was only a tunnel
cut in the bed of tufa, and generally half full of a deposit of clay,
left by the water which comes from the clayey fields of Lucullus, but
in one part it is built of large blocks of tufa, like the walls of the
Kings; it is here six feet high and two feet wide; on each side of it is
a terra-cotta water-pipe of very early character, and bringing different
water in the same tunnel[212].
Near this point it crossed _over_ the road on a bridge (?), or perhaps
from the low level _under_ it, at the site of a gate where the four roads
meet, to another old stone-quarry of the same kind nearly under Santa
Prisca, where the _specus_ was visible in 1874, but is now concealed by
some of the vault having fallen in; and from that it has been traced
through another series of old stone-quarries to the mouth on the bank
of the Tiber, in the very curious cave called that of Picus and Faunus,
and Hercules—having previously passed through another reservoir, with
water still in it knee-deep, remaining at a considerable distance under
the hill, with a _specus_ from thence to the cave at the mouth, partly a
natural channel for the water to escape, and partly cut when the aqueduct
was made.
The third great branch from the Arch of Dolabella went direct to the
Colosseum, and two subsidiary springs still flow there, one under the
garden of the Villa Celi-Montana, the other under the garden of the
monastery of SS. John and Paul, near to the Colosseum, the latter a very
abundant stream, bubbling up copiously; and there are three small pools
supplied by it in that quarry, which was formerly called the _Vivarium_,
and supposed to have been the place where the wild beasts were kept,
but this was a mistake[213]. From that reservoir another branch went
in a _specus_ at a considerable depth under the garden of the Marchese
Rappellini, behind the monastery of S. Gregory. In this garden there was
a landslip in the spring of 1876, and the Marchese thought it probable
that the palace of Scaurus had stood there, as it is close by the sloping
road called the Clivus Scauri; I thought it more likely to have been
the aqueduct which had fallen in, but agreed that the archæologists
should excavate it, which was done in May. It turned out to be an old
stone-quarry that had fallen in, at the depth of more than 20 ft., but
the _specus_ of the aqueduct had passed through the quarry, and remained
visible in the pit coming from the cave called the _Vivarium_, and going
over the Porta Capena. There is, however, so little of interest left,
that the pit was filled up again, after a plan and sketch had been made
by Signor Cicconetti.