stop drawing directly from the river and to take from the lake lying above the Sublacensian Villa of Nero, at the point where the Anio is the clearest; for inasmuch as the source of Anio is above Treba Augusta, it reaches this lake in a very cold and clear condition, be it because it runs between rocky hills and because there is but little cultivated land even around that hamlet, or because it drops its sediment in the deep lakes into which it is taken, being shaded also by the dense woods that surround it. These so excellent qualities of the water, which bids fair to equal Marcia in all points, and in quantity even to exceed it, are now to supersede its former unsightliness and impurity; and the inscription will proclaim as its new founder, "Imperator Caesar Nerva Trajanus Augustus."
We have further to indicate what is the law with regard to conducting and safeguarding the waters, the first of which treats of the limitation of private parties to the measure of their grants, and the second has reference to the upkeep of the conduits themselves. In this connection, in going back to ancient laws enacted with regard to individual aqueducts, I found certain points wherein the practice of our forefathers differed from ours. With them all water was delivered for the public use, and the law was as follows: "No private person shall conduct other water than that which flows from the basins to the ground" (for these are the words of the law); that is, water which overflows from the troughs; we call it "lapsed" water;[1] and even this was not granted for any other use than for baths or fulling establishments; and it was subject to a tax, for a fee was fixed, to be paid into the
- ↑ That is, water the private right to which has become void.
