After That Period, I Suppose The
Antient Aqueducts Continued Dry, And Were Suffered To Run To
Ruins.
Without all doubt, the Romans were greatly obliged to
those benefactors, who raised such stupendous works for the
benefit, as well as the embellishment of their city:
But it might
have been supplied with the same water through pipes at one
hundredth part of the expence; and in that case the enemy would
not have found it such an easy matter to cut it off. Those popes
who have provided the modern city so plentifully with excellent
water, are much to be commended for the care and expence, they
have bestowed in restoring the streams called acqua Virgine,
acqua Felice, and acqua Paolina, which afford such abundance of
water as would plentifully supply a much larger city than modern
Rome.
It is no wonder that M. Agrippa, the son-in-law, friend, and
favourite of Augustus, should at the same time have been the idol
of the people, considering how surprisingly he exerted himself
for the emolument, convenience, and pleasure of his fellow-citizens.
It was he who first conducted this acqua Virgine to
Rome: he formed seven hundred reservoirs in the city; erected one
hundred and five fountains; one hundred and thirty castella, or
conduits, which works he
adorned with three hundred statues, and four hundred pillars of
marble, in the space of one year. He also brought into Rome, the
aqua Julia, and restored the aqueduct of the aqua Marzia, which
had fallen to decay.
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