ANIO VETUS
*an aqueduct commenced in 272 B.C.,
1 which took its supply from the river Anio, at a point opposite Vicovaro, the ancient Varia, 8 miles from Tibur (Plin.
NH xxxvi. 121; Frontinus, de aquis i. 4, 6, 7, 9, 13, 18, 21;
ii. 66, 67, 80, 90-92, 125; Stat.
Silv. i. 5.25, which may refer to the Anio Novus; Auct. de vir. ill. 33. 9). The meaning of the phrase in
Frontinus i. 6,
concipitur .. supra Tibur vicesimo miliario extra portam ... R Ra... nam (so the MSS.), is therefore quite uncertain. He gives it a length of 43,000 paces, for all of which (except 221) it ran underground, no doubt for strategic reasons; and it is sixth in order of
level. But the cippi of Augustus seem to make the length even greater (8 kilometres against 63.7), and the line may have been shortened in Frontinus' day (i. 18). It was repaired by Q. Marcius Rex (see
AQUA MARCIA), by Agrippa in 33 B.C., and by Augustus in 11-4 B.C. It acquired the name of Vetus when the Anio Novus was built. Frontinus found the amount of water at the intake to be 4398 quinariae, or 182,517 cubic metres in 24 hours.
We have several cippi of Augustus, some of which, together with a long stretch of its channel going northwards from the porta Esquilina, have been found within the city (LF 17, 23, 32); the reckoning, as usual, beginning from Rome (
CIL vi. 1243; cf. 31558;
xiv. 4079, 4080, 4083,
4084;
BC 1899, 38=
EE ix. 968, 969; and No. 733, near Ponte Lupo,
unpublished); and also the inscription of an aquarius aquae Anionis
veteris castelli viae Latinae contra dracones (
CIL vi. 2345, cf. 2344 = 8493;
260).
The original subterranean channel has been found and destroyed just
inside the Porta Maggiore; the intrados was at 46.15 m. above sea-level,
(
BC 1912, 228-232;
NS. 1913, 7, 441). Less than two miles from the
city, a part of it was turned into the specus Octavianus (
PBS iv. 15),
which reached the district of the
VIA NOVA (q.v.) near the
HORTI ASINIANI
q.v.) (Frontinus, i. 21). The channel is believed to have been identified
at various points; but the site of the via Nova is unfortunately quite
uncertain. Lanciani believes that it crossed the via Appia by the real (not
the so-called) Arch of Drusus, near the vicus Drusianus (see
AQUA DRUSIA).
As a result of Frontinus' reforms the turbid water of the Anio Vetus
was largely used for watering gardens and for the meaner uses of the city.
See LR 49; LA 255-270;
BC 1888, 77;
RE i. 2215; and Builder and
Livellazione, cited on Anio Novus, especially for its course outside Rome.
