John Henry Parker

“ Eventually, however, a new engineer of the company thought it better to examine the ground himself, and the result was to establish that Gori’s views were perfectly correct. He then became a warm advocate for the company, which he thinks entitled to great praise for the admirable manner in which its works in the valley of the Anio have been carried out as far as Tivoli. Their works almost equal those of the time of the Empire, and are carried out on the same principles; but from Tivoli to Rome the water is carried in metal pipes, and not in a stone specus as it is above Tivoli. ”

“ Following the direction of the aqueducts towards Rome for about a mile, along a very rough cross-country path, we arrive at a good carriage-road from Rome to Poli, and about a mile beyond that is another magnificent structure, as fine and more perfect than the last, called Ponte Lupo, one of the greatest works of all the Roman aqueducts. There are not so many open arches as at the bridge of S. Antony, but a greater extent of substructure and wall at each [63] end, and the height above the mountain-stream is even greater. ”

“ The character of the construction of the castella, or reservoirs, does not agree with the time of Alexander Severus, but suits perfectly well with those of Nerva, Trajan, and Hadrian, whose works are so well known. It is work of the first or second century, not of the third. It does not follow the line of the Via Gabina, but is carried at once to the south of it, towards the Via Labicana, and passes nearly parallel to it between those two roads until it crosses the Via Labicana at five miles from Rome, at the place called Cento Celle. ”

“ Such a bank with such trenches can be clearly traced all round Rome by eyes that are accustomed to examine such things, although modern buildings have disguised them so much that an ordinary observer does not see them. ”

“ The Castellum Aquæ Juliæ, or chief reservoir of the Julian Aqueduct, is usually, but erroneously, said to have been the one situated on high ground near the church of S. Maria Maggiore, where the picturesque ruins stand, usually called the “Trophies of Marius,” because those trophies were hung under two of the arches there, until they were removed to the Capitol. A lofty arcade carrying a specus at a high level passes across the valley, from the reservoir near the Porta S. Lorenzo to this point. ”

“ 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. ”

“ On the further side of the stream the land is high, and the aqueduct is again underground, but it has been traced not only across the valley, but under the cliff on the northern side of the Pseudo-Aventine, with a branch to the left to supply the Piscina Publica, which was an enormous swimming-bath for the whole population of Rome at that period, extending as far as the north end of the Thermæ of Caracalla, where the hollow with the bank round it can still be seen, and where a great reservoir remains, lined with the cement called opus signinum (or coccio pisto) . ”

“ The aqueduct of Claudius has a stone specus carried on a stone arcade for the last five miles into [64] the city. It was begun by Caligula, and carried on by his successor; this portion was completed in fourteen years, a very short period for so enormous an undertaking. The Anio Novus was the most abundant of all the aqueducts, as stated by Frontinus [139] .
The arches of aqueducts, stretching for miles across the open country and entering Rome at the eastern angle, are the first objects to attract the attention of strangers on approaching the city. ”

“ There are none of the great arcades to carry the specus for five or six miles; the only portion where they are carried on an arcade for any distance is on the side and upon the wall of the garden of the villa Pamphili-Doria, and there the arcade as seen is the work of Pope Paul V. (Borghese) , who restored them to use in the sixteenth century, making use of the old subterranean specus and the ruins of the old arches, which can be seen against the wall of that garden. ”

“ The large reservoir for the water now in use is very near to the remains of the old one of Hadrian. The construction of this aqueduct is very rude and rough, of concrete and rubble-stone only, and this stone consists entirely of old materials; still the large scale of the work, and the height at which the specus is carried upon the arcade, give it a grand effect. At a little distance, the inferior construction [136] is not seen, and this almost modern aqueduct is frequently mistaken by strangers for one of the old ones of the time of the Empire, of which it is only an imitation. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The specus of the Aqua Appia leads directly into this cave, and other aqueducts also meet there. The surplus water of the Trajan, far above this level, descends into it by a vertical pipe of terra cotta. Piranesi, in the last century, recognised the cave as the mouth of the Aqua Appia, and gives one of his admirable etchings of this part of the Aventine, with the cave at its foot. ”

“ The specus which Frontinus calls subterraneus, although that is literally true, does not mean exactly what we now call a tunnel; but this specus is cut in the rock of the cliff, with a few feet of stone only as an outer wall to it, and in this manner it is continued along the edge of the valley of the river Anio for many miles, always on the left side of the river in going towards Rome. An old road runs by the side of it, not now used for carriages, but remaining as a cart-road only ”

“ The spring called Curtius is another of these streams.
This valley is admirably calculated for the sources of aqueducts; the ground is full of springs of beautiful water, and the watery meadows have only to be dammed up a little to form lakes or reservoirs. Probably the water from these springs, which now runs into the river, was entirely intercepted and carried into Rome in the aqueducts. The Anio is in general such an abundant stream, that these additional springs would scarcely be missed, although in time of severe drought the water did sometimes run short [151] . ”

“ The specus is six feet high and two feet wide, and it is filled up to nearly half its height by solid clay, evidently the deposit left by the water. The old specus, long after it had been out of use, seems to have been employed by the quarrymen: as it was a tunnel in the tufa rock just high and wide enough for a man to walk in, by cutting away one side they made it wide enough for a horse and cart to carry the stone, and they raised the vault as high as was convenient for the purpose of making an entrance into the quarry. ”

“ It will be observed that all these passages apply to the well-known Temple of Spes near the bank of the Tiber, of which there are considerable remains now in the church of S. Nicolas in Carcere, and do not apply to a Temple of Spes at the Porta Maggiore.
The word specus is used by Vitruvius in the sense of a covered water-course:—
“But if there should be mounds in the middle between the walls and the fountain-head, it must be so contrived that the water-channel (specus) be dug under the earth, and poised on the top [64] .” ”

“ The Virgo has no reservoir, i.e. Piscina ... “The arches of the Virgo have their commencement beneath the Lucilian (or Lucullan?) gardens. They end in the Campus Martius, along the front of the Septa [96] .”
The Virgo was the seventh in height as to level (c. 18) .
The road now called Via Collatia, or Collatina, where the Aqua Virgo has its origin, is between the present roads to Tivoli and Palestrina; it turns off to the left or north of the highway now called Via Prænestina, just beyond the ruins called Torre de’ Scavi or de’ Schiavi, about three miles from the city. ”

“ The Anio Novus, at the forty-second milestone, on the Via Sublacensis, at Simbruinum [126] , is taken out of the river, which, since it has about it cultivated land in a rich territory, and so very loose banks, flows muddy and turbid even when uninfluenced by violent rains; and therefore at the very entrance of the channel is placed a cistern for the mud (piscina limaria) , so that the water on its way from the river to the specus should settle and become clear. ”

“ Passing by the remains of Roma Vecchia to the Torre Fiscale and the Porta Furba (given under the head [127] of the Aqua Claudia) , the specus rises to a remarkable reservoir, which from its great elevation must have belonged to the highest of the aqueducts. It is a most picturesque one, near the Mausoleum of S. Helena, but is earlier than her time; it belongs rather to that of Trajan, being faced with fine reticulated work, with layers of bricks on the exterior. The interior is distinguished by remarkably solid central buttresses, to support the wall against the pressure of the water (553) . ”

“ This road or promenade of Carciano is rather high on the side of the hill above the villa of Hadrian, looking towards Rome. The dome of S. Peter’s is distinctly visible from it. The road is on a ledge on the side of the cliff, and the aqueducts run along the steep side of the hill or cliff, until they come to the valley of a small stream winding down to the Anio; along the cliff of this they are then carried. The Anio Vetus being at a considerably lower level, is more difficult to trace than the others ”