Book I
For four hundred and forty-one years from the foundation of the City, the Romans were satisfied with the use of such waters as they drew from the Tiber, from wells, or from springs. Esteem for springs still continues, and is observed with veneration. They are believed to bring healing to the sick, as, for example, the springs of the Camenae,[1] of Apollo,[1] and of Juturna.[2] But there now run into the City: the Appian aqueduct, Old Anio, Marcia, Tepula, Julia, Virgo, Alsietina, which is also called Augusta, Claudia, New Anio.
In the consulship of Marcus Valerius Maximus and Publius Decius Mus,[3] in the thirtieth year after the beginning of the Samnite War, the Appian aqueduct was brought into the City by Appius Claudius Crassus, the Censor, who afterwards received the surname of "the Blind," the same man who had charge of paving the Appian Way from the Porta Capena[4] as far as the City of Capua. As colleague in the censorship Appius had Gaius Plautius, to whom was given the name of "the Hunter"[5] for having discovered the springs of this water. But since Plautius resigned the censorship within a year and six months,[6] under the mistaken impression that
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The location of these is uncertain.
- ↑ This fountain is close to the Temple of Castor and Pollux, on the south side of the Roman Forum.
- ↑ 312 B.C.
- ↑ This gate was on the south side of the City, in the old Servian Wall.
- ↑ The English rendering does not reproduce the word play in venas Venocis.
- ↑ Eighteen months was the regular term of office for the censors.
