AQUA VIRGO
* an aqueduct completed by Agrippa on 9th June 19 B.C.
(Ovid,
Fast. i. 464; ex
Pont. i. 8. 38; Frontinus, de aquis i. 4, 10, 18, 22;
ii. 70,84; Seneca, Ep. 83. 5;
Mart. v. 20. 9;
vi. 42. 18;
vii. 32. 11;
xi. 47. 6; Plin.
NH xxxi. 42;
xxxvi. 121, who is in error in attributing it
to 33 B.C., and in associating the rivus Herculaneus with it; see
AQUA
MARCIA; Stat.
Silv. i. 5. 26; Cass.
Dio liv. 11; Not. app.; Pol. Silv.
545, 546; Cassiodor.
Var. vii. 6;
CIL vi. 1252-1254; 31564, 31565;
NS
1910, 547).
The springs were situated at the eighth mile of the via Collatina, i.e.
two miles to the left of the eighth mile of the via Praenestina, in agro
Lucullano (
PBS i. 139, 143), and produced 2504 quinariae or 103,916
cubic metres in 24 hours. The subterranean course was 12,865 paces long,
and 540 paces were carried on substructions. A girl is said to have shown
the springs to some soldiers, hence the name; the incident was recorded
by a painting in a chapel near the springs (
Frontinus i. 10). It was the
lowest of all the aqueducts except the Appia and the Alsietina.
It ran almost entirely underground, by a conduit which is still in use,
until it reached the
HORTI LUCULLANI. (q.v.) on the Pincian, below which
it had a settling tank, added after the time of Frontinus (i. 22). See
LF 1, 2, 9, 15, 16.
The cippi, erected by Tiberius (36-37 A.D.) and Claudius (44-45 A.D.)
only ran as far as this point, two bearing the number 1 having been found
in the Villa Medici. From this point it ran southward along the side of the
hill, and near the Via Capo le Case turned south-west and began to run
on arches for 700 paces. The arch in the modern via del Nazzareno, by
which the aqueduct was carried over a branch street from the via Lata
(from which the church of S. Maria in Via takes its name, see HCh 375),
records its restoration by Claudius in 46 after the damage caused by the
AMPHITHEATRUM CALIGULAE (q.v.). See
ARCUS CLAUDII (I) , and cf.
Mart. iv. 18,
qua vicina pluit Vipsanis porta columnis (see
PORTICUS
VIPSANIA). It passed east of the
CAMPUS AGRIPPAE (q.v.) and then
turned westward (see
VICUS CAPRALICUS).
It crossed the via Lata by the
ARCUS CLAUDII (2) (q.v.) and its arches
ended, after passing along the north facade of the Saepta (
arcus ... finiuntur
in campo Martio secundum frontem Saeptorum,
Frontinus i. 22), near the
north-west angle of the church of S. Ignazio, under the facade of which its
arches were found;
1 and here was its terminal castellum (LA 444). Like
the Marcia, its supply was largely diverted to private uses in the time
of Nero (Plin.
NH xxxi. 41). A restoration by Constantine is recorded
in an inscription found in the Via Nazionale, obviously nowhere near its
original position (
CIL vi. 31564).
The forma Virginis is frequently mentioned in documents of the eighth
to tenth centuries (cf. Eins. 2. 5; 4. 4; Mon.
L. i. 455-456, 467).
It was repaired by Hadrian I (
LPD i. 505); cf. also a bull of 955, which
speaks of the arcus Claudii (1) as arcora (
Kehr i. 63, 6;
ASRSP 1899, 268).
In 1453 Nicholas V restored it, and brought the water as far as the Trevi
fountain, where its present termination is in the fine fountain of Niccolo
Salvi
(1744). It was repaired by Sixtus IV, but in 1570 it was thoroughly
rebuilt by Pius V. His successors, and especially Gregory XIII, built
many fountains which were supplied by it. Its low level rendered it
impossible for it to supply any part of the higher quarters of Rome. See
LA 332-342;
NS 1885, 70, 250;
1887, 447;
BC 1878, 17-21 ;
1883, 6, 51;
1888, 61-67; Mitt. 1889,269;
PBS i. 143; HCh 397,398.