Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 01.djvu/268

AQUEDUCT 216 AQUEDUCT th£ remains of which indicate that they it furnished 277,866 cubic meters a day; were used for aqueducts. Recent ex- it was not used for drinking, but for cavations at Jerusalem have laid bare irrigating gardens and flushing drains. wells and channels cut in the solid rock, In 144 B. c. the Senate determined to comparative: sections of aqueducts CATSKILL AQUA CLAUDIA NEW CROTO>ir'^ i.nvr OLD CROTON AQUEDUCTS and indicate that the water supply of the city was brought from the neighborhood of Bethlehem and Hebron. In Patara, a city of Lycia, in Asia Minor, there is a very ancient aqueduct, consisting of an embankment of rough stone 250 feet high and 200 feet long. The channels for the water consist of cubical stone blocks about a yard in dimension, with a hole 13 inches in diameter, the blocks being closely connected and cemented to- gether. The first Roman aqueduct was the joint work of Appius Claudius Caecus and Caius Plautius Venox, censors in 312 B. C. Appius Claudius built the con- duit, Venox discovered the springs. The entire length of the aqueduct was about 10 miles, and it furnished 115,303 cubic meters a day. The second aqueduct was begun in 272 B. c, by Manius Curius Dentatus, and was finished three years later. Its length was about 45 miles, and repair the old aqueducts and built a new one. This work was begun by Quintus Marcius Rex. The Marcian aqueduct brought the water from 56 miles away in the territory of Arsoli, and fed water to the highest platform of the capitol. It was restored in 33 B. c, and Augustus doubled the supply of water in 5 B. C. The viaducts and bridges by which it crossed the highlands are magnificent. There are seven bridges, some of them carrying four aqueducts. The Marcian reaches Rome at the Porta Maggiore, where no less than 10 water supplies met. Of the nine aqueducts which brought water to ancient Rome, three still supply the modern city, viz.,^ the Aqua Virgo, now Acqua Vergine, finished by Agrippa, 27 B. c, and restored by Pope Nicholas V. in 1453; the Aqua Trajana, now Acqua Paolo; and the Aqua Marcia.