I fail to see what motive induced Augustus, a most sagacious sovereign, to bring in the Alsietinian water, also called Augusta. For this has nothing to commend it,—is in fact positively unwholesome, and for that reason is nowhere delivered for consumption by the people. It may have been that when Augustus began the construction of his Naumachia,[1] he brought this water in a special conduit, in order not to encroach on the existing supply of wholesome water, and then granted the surplus of the Naumachia to the adjacent gardens and to private users for irrigation. It is customary, however, in the district across the Tiber, in an emergency, whenever the bridges[2] are undergoing repairs and the water supply is cut off from this side the river, to draw from Alsietina to maintain the flow of the public fountains. Its source is the Alsietinian Lake, at the fourteenth milestone, on the Claudian Way, on a cross-road, six miles and a half to the right. Its conduit has a length of 22,172 paces, with 358 paces on arches.
To supplement Marcia, whenever dry seasons required an additional supply, Augustus also, by an underground channel, brought to the conduit of Marcia another water of the same excellent quality, called Augusta from the name of its donor. Its source is beyond the springs of Marcia; its conduit, up to its junction with Marcia, measures 800 paces.
After these aqueducts, Gaius Caesar,[3] the successor of Tiberius, in the second year of his reign, in the
- ↑ Nauniachia was the name given to the artificial lakes prepared for exhibitions of sham naval battles; the same name was applied to the contests themselves. See map facing p. 341.
- ↑ Bridges sometimes served as carriers for the water pipes. Among the bridges crossing the Anio, Ponte Lupo near Gallicano served as transit for four waters, Marcia, Anio Vetus, Anio Novus and Claudia, besides a carriage-way and a bridle-path. At Lyons there are the ruins of a Roman bridge, which still contains lead pipes.
- ↑ Caligula, who reigned from 37 to 41 A.D.
