AQUA MARCIA
* constructed in 144-140 B.C. by Q. Marcius Rex, the water
being brought to the Capitol in the latter year. He had been commissioned
by the senate to repair the Appia and Anio (Plin.
NH xxxvi. 121, who
wrongly adds the Tepula, constructed in 127 B.C.). The total cost was
180,000,000 sesterces or £1,800,000 sterling (Frontinus, de aquis i. 4, 7, 9,
12, 13, 14, 18, 19;
ii. 67, 68, 72, 76, 81, 87, 89, 91-93, 125;
Prop. iii.
2. 14;
Strabo v. 3. 13. p. 240;
Vitruv. viii. 3. 1; Tac.
Ann. xiv. 22;
Plin. NH cit. and xxxi. 41;
Martial vi. 42. 18;
ix. 18. 6; Stat.
Silv.
i. 3. 66; 5. 27 ; Not. app.; Pol. Silv. 545, 546;
CIL vi. 1245-1251,
31559-31563;
xiv. 4074-4078, 4081; Mon.
Anc. iv. 11, 12).
Two arches of this aqueduct may be represented on a coin of C. Marcius
Censorinus (circa 87 B.C.; BM
Rep. i. 301. 2419), and five arches on coins
of L. Marcius Philippus (ib. 485. 3890-5).
It was repaired by Agrippa in 33 B.C. and again by Augustus, with
the rest of the aqueducts, between 11 and 4 B.C. (
rivos aquarum omnium
refecit, in the inscription (
CIL vi. 1244) of the latter year on the monumental arch by which it was carried over the via Tiburtina, later incorporated in the Aurelian wall as part of the
PORTA TIBURTINA (q.v.);
see
BC 1917, 207-215).
Numerous cippi belonging to this restoration (
CIL vi. 1250, 1251
(= 31562); add 509 (unpublished) 803 (
CIL vi. 31570 c)
1 and 816 (
NS 1892,
152-
EE ix. 966)) have been found, including the 1215th from Rome,
which stood only about 3.5 kilometres from the springs, and about 86.6
from Rome. This corresponds fairly closely with Frontinus' measurement
of 61,7101 paces (91.4 kilometres) : whereas the distance from the springs
by road was 38 miles along the via Sublacensis, from which they lay 200
paces to the left, or 3 miles to the right of the thirty-sixth milestone of the
via Valeria (Plin. and Strabo loc. cit. are in error). Augustus also added
another spring, the aqua Augusta, which lay 800 paces further up (see
AQUA CLAUDIA), which doubled the volume of the aqueduct (Mon.
Anc.
iv. 11, 12). The supply at the springs was 4690 quinariae, or 194,635 cubic
metres in 24 hours.
The same group of springs are still in use for the modern water supply
of Rome, and are now, as then, famous for coldness and purity; though,
owing to the fact that the floor of the Anio valley has risen since Roman
times, it is impossible to identify them exactly.
Nero outraged public opinion by bathing in its springs: but the
aqueduct itself seems to have yielded but little to the city in his day,
owing to the depredations of private persons (Frontinus cit.; Plin.
NH
xxxi. 42), and a further restoration was carried out by Titus in 79 A.D.
(
CIL vi. 1246): there is evidence of repairs by Hadrian; and others were
probably made by Septimius Severus in 196 A.D. (
CIL vi. 1247); while
in 212-3 Caracalla cleared the springs, made some new tunnels, and added
another spring, the fons Antoninianus, in connection no doubt with
the construction of the branch to his thermae
(ib. 1245).
The aqua Marcia was joined by the
AQUA TEPULA (q.v.) and the
AQUA IULIA (q.v.) before the point where it emerged from its underground
course, near the sixth mile of the via Latina; and their channels were
carried above it on the same arches, and are to be seen in section in the
Aurelian wall, just to the right of the
PORTA MAIOR (q.v.). From this
point they have been made use of by it as far as the
PORTA TIBURTINA (q.v.),
soon after which they begin to run underground once more, and reach
their terminal castellum just inside the porta Collina, at the north angle
of the thermae Diocletiani.
For all this stretch there were cippi of Augustus bearing the names of
the three aqueducts (
CIL vi. 1249=3156 ; add No. 71,
BC 1905, 289;
CR 1905, 330, and No. 82,
BC 1899, 39).
The regions served by the main channel of the aqua Marcia were in the
neighbourhood of the castellum; numerous lead pipes were also found
near the porta Viminalis, which served for its distribution (LF 10, 17, 24,
etc.). It also ran to the Quirinal (
Mart. ix. 18. 6; see
DOMUS MARTIALIS).
The water was brought to the Capitol by Marcius himself in 140,
2 and
where it issued forth must have stood his statue mentioned in the
diploma of Nero of 64 A.D. (
descrip. et. recognit. ex tabula aenea quae
fixa est Romae in Capitolio post aedem Iovis O.M. in basi Q. Marci Regis
pr(aetoris) CIL iii. p. 846; cf. Bull. d.
Inst. 1845, 119; the last word makes
it unlikely that
CIL vi. 3825=31613 =i
3. 660, Q. Marcius Q. f. Rex Cos. is
the base in question).
The rivus Herculaneus (not to be confused with the stream of the
same name, cf.
ANIO NOVUS) diverged from the aqua Marcia (Pliny (
NH
xxxi. 42) is entirely wrong in associating it with the aqua Virgo)
post
hortos Pallantianos; the castellum is incorporated in the Aurelian wall,
in the fifth tower south of the porta S. Lorenzo (
BC 1874, 53-55; LF 24)
and ran across the Caelian, though at too low a level to supply it
(
Frontinus i. 19. Cf.
RL 1888, 301;
BC 1886, 406;
1888, 400;
1889, 130;
1914, 199;
1917, 242;
NS 1888, 59;
1889, 66;
1917, 179;
Mitt. 1889,
235, for traces of it and especially of a conduit formed of solid stone blocks
with a circular orifice through them, which may have belonged to it),
to its terminal castellum over the
PORTA CAPENA (q.v.), which was therefore
called madida (Juv. 3. 11 ;
Mart. iii. 47; see also
ARCUS STILLANS;
HCh 287).
Hulsen attributes a cippus of Augustus, found near the Lateran, bearing
the name Marcia and the number 3 (
CIL vi. 31560) to this aqueduct:
but there is another hypothesis admissible in regard to it. Before the construction of the aqua Claudia, so Frontinus tells us (ii. 76), the Caelian and
Aventine were supplied by the Marcia and Iulia; and it is quite possible
that the cippus, and both the
ARCUS DOLABELLAE ET SILANI (q.v.)
and the
ARCUS LENTULI ET CRISPINI (q.v.) (
CIL vi. 1384, 1.385 ; cf. p. 3125)
belonged to this conduit. But afterwards these hills only received water
from the Claudia by the
ARCUS NERONIANI (q.v.) until Trajan took the
Marcia
amplo opere to the Aventine (
Frontinus ii. 87).2 It appears as
AQUA HERCULEA (q.v.) in Not. app. and Pol. Silv. 545. This conduit
may be the
forma of Eins. II. 4; 13.27 (Mon.
L. i. 515). See LF 35, 41.
Another branch, the starting-point of which is uncertain, though it
may have been near the third mile of the via Latina, was constructed
by Caracalla to supply his thermae (q.v.). It crossed the via Appia by
the so-called
ARCO DI DRUSO (q.v.) and thence led to the great reservoir
to the south-west of the thermae. It is mentioned as a separate aqueduct
(aqua Antoniniana) in Not. app.; Pol. Silv. 545.
The supply was increased by Diocletian, from whom it took the name
forma Iovia (Iobia, Iopia): cf. Eins. 11. 2; 13. 22: ibi (at the porta
Appia)
forma Iopia quae venit de Marsia, et currit usque ad ripam. The
conduit was restored by Hadrian I (
LPD i. 504), Sergius II (ii. 91) and Nicolas I
(ii. 154, where it occurs under the form Iocia; Tocia, which some writers
have referred to the aqua Appia, is a wrong reading; cf. Duchesne, ib.
167 n. 12). And the name forma Iovia is found in documents of the tenth
century relating to the territory of Tivoli (Reg. Subl. p. 36 (973), 30 (998)),
though the
forma quae appellatur Iovia ... foris porta maiore, via Lavicana
milliario ab urbe Roma p. m. IIII in loco quae dicitur IIII 2 (quarta), ib. p. 151,
must be the aqua Alexandrina (LA 315-319; LF 46;
Jord. ii. 228,
229; HJ 190, 195;
PBS iv. 14, 15).
See
Jord. i. 1. 468; LA 270-293, 298-318; LR 49-52;
RM 1889, 235 ;
HJ 220; Delbruck, Hellenist. Bauten in Latium, i. 1, 2;
BC 1912, 228-234;
NS 1913, 6-8; TF 137-139. Livellazione and Builder cited under Anio
Novus;
CIL vi. 8496 = 33729.
