Sextus Julius Frontinus
Liber Primus
4. Ab urbe condita per annos quadringentos quadraginta unum contenti fuerunt Romani usu aquarum, quas aut ex Tiberi aut ex puteis aut ex fontibus hauriebant. Fontium memoria cum sanctitate adhuc exstat et colitur; salubritatem aegris corporibus afferre creduntur, sicut Camenarum et Apollinis et Iuturnae. Nunc autem in urbem influunt aqua Appia, Anio Vetus, Marcia, Tepula, Iulia, Virgo, Alsietina quae eadem vocatur Augusta, Claudia, Anio Novus.
5. M. Valerio Maximo P. Decio Mure consulibus, anno post initium Samnitici belli tricesimo aqua Appia in urbem inducta1 est ab Appio Claudio Crasso censore, cui postea Caeco fuit cognomen, qui et Viam Appiam a Porta Capena usque ad urbem Capuam muniendam curavit. Collegam habuit C. Plautium, cui ob inquisitas eius aquae venas Venocis cognomen datum est. Sed quia is intra annum et sex menses deceptus a collega tamquam idem facturo
Aqueducts Of Rome, I
Book I
For four hundred and forty-one years from the foundation of the City, the Romans were satisfied with the use of such waters as they drew from the Tiber, from wells, or from springs. Esteem for springs still continues, and is observed with veneration. They are believed to bring healing to the sick, as, for example, the springs of the Camenae,1 of Apollo,1 and of Juturna.2 But there now run into the City: the Appian aqueduct, Old Anio, Marcia, Tepula, Julia, Virgo, Alsietina, which is also called Augusta, Claudia, New Anio.
In the consulship of Marcus Valerius Maximus and Publius Decius Mus,3 in the thirtieth year after the beginning of the Samnite War, the Appian aqueduct was brought into the City by Appius Claudius Crassus, the Censor, who afterwards received the surname of “the Blind,” the same man who had charge of constructing the Appian Way from the Porta Capena4 as far as the City of Capua. As colleague in the censorship Appius had Gaius Plautius, to whom was given the name of “the Hunter”5 for having discovered the springs of this water. But since Plautius resigned the censorship within a year and six months,6 under the mistaken impression that
- 1The location of these is uncertain.
- 2This fountain is close to the Temple of Castor and Pollux, on the south side of the Roman Forum.
- 3312 b.c..
- 4This gate was on the south side of the City, in the old Servian Wall.
- 5The English rendering does not reproduce the word play in venas Venocis.
- 6Eighteen months was the regular term of office for the censors.