One of the Anios, namely Old Anio, running at a lower level than most of the others, keeps this pollution to itself. But New Anio contaminated all the others, because, coming from a higher altitude and flowing very abundantly, it helps to make up the shortage of the others; but by the unskilfulness of the water-men, who diverted it into the other conduits oftener than there was any need of an augmented supply, it spoiled also the waters of those aqueducts that had a plentiful supply, especially Claudia, which, after flowing in its own conduit for many miles, finally at Rome, as a result of its mixture with Anio, lost till recently its own qualities. And so far was New Anio from being an advantage to the waters it supplemented that many of these were then called upon improperly through the heedlessness of those who allotted the waters. We have found even Marcia, so charming in its brilliancy and coldness, serving baths, fullers, and even purposes too vile to mention.
It was therefore determined to separate them all and then to allot their separate functions so that first of all Marcia should serve wholly for drinking purposes, and then that the others should each be assigned to suitable purposes according to their special qualities, as for example, that Old Anio, for several reasons (because the farther from its source it is drawn, the less wholesome a water is), should be used for watering the gardens, and for the meaner uses of the City itself.
But it was not sufficient for our ruler to have restored the volume and pleasant qualities of the other waters; he also recognized the possibility of remedying the defects of New Anio, for he gave orders to
