PISCINA PUBLICA
a public bath and swimming pool (Fest. 213), fist
mentioned in 215 B.C. (
Liv. xxiii. 32. 4), situated in the low ground
between the via Appia, the Servian wall, the north-east slope of the
Aventine, and the area afterwards occupied by the baths of Caracalla
(Liv. Fest. locc. citt.; Cic. ad Q.
Fr. iii. 7. I;
Jord. ii. 106-107; HJ
183-184). Near it was the headquarters of the lanii piscinenses (
CIL
vi. 167; cf. Plautus, Pseud. 326-328). This pool later gave its name to
the vicus piscinae Publicae (
CIL vi. 975; Amm.
Marcell. xvii. 4. 14),
which led from the south end of the circus Maximus across the depression
on the Aventine to the porta Raudusculana. The piscina itself was
probably fed by local springs, not by the aqua Appia (LA 234-245 ; cf.
Jord. i. I. 447, 458), and had ceased to exist in the second century (Fest.
213), but the name clung to the locality (cf. ad piscinam publicam
Hippolyt. philos. ix. 12, p. 552; cf.
BC 1914, 353), and it was popularly given to
Region XII of the city of Augustus. This region was
bounded on the north-east by the via Appia, on the south-east by a
line extending from the junction of the via Appia and the vicus Sulpicius
to the porta Raudusculana, on the south by the line of the Aurelian
wall, and on the west and north-west by the vicus portae Raudusculanae
and the vicus piscinae Publicae, thus including a very small area
inside the line of the Servian wall (
BC 1890, 115-137). Piscina Publica
was not an official name for
Region XII, and we do not know how early
it came into use (Pr. Reg. 71-72).
