Aqua Marcia

The Aqua Marcia, one of the most important of the whole, was built by the praetor Q. Marcius Rex, by command of the senate, in B.C. 144. The want of a more plentiful supply of water had been long felt, especially as that furnished by the Anio Vetus was of such bad quality as to be almost unfit for drinking; and, in B.C. 179, the censors, M. Aemilius Lepidus and M. Flaccus Nobilior, had proposed the erection of a new aqueduct; but the scheme had been defeated, in consequence of Licinius Crassus refusing to let it be carried through his lands (Liv. xl.51). The two existing aqueducts had also fallen into decay by neglect, and had been much injured by private persons drawing off the water at different parts of their course. The senate therefore commissioned the praetor Marcius to repair the old aqueducts, and to build a third, which was named after him. Some writers have pretended that the original construction of this aqueduct is to be ascribed to Ancus Marcius, alleging a passage of Pliny (H.N. xxxi, 3 s. 24), and a medal of the Marcian gens, family Philippus, which bears on the obverse a head with the legend ANCVS, and on the reverse a representation of an aqueduct, with the letters AQVAMR between the arches, supporting an equestrian statue with the legend PHILIPPVS : but those who know any thing of the history of Roman family records will understand that this medal bears no evidence to the point in question, and is simply a perpetuation of two of the greatest distinctions of the Marcia gens , their alleged descent from Ancus, and the aqueduct which bore their name; and Pliny's opinion is simply one of his ludicrous blunders, arising probably from his confounding Marcius Rex with the king Ancus Marcus (Eckhel, Doctr. Num. Vet. vol. v p248). This aqueduct commenced at the side of the Via Valeria, thirty-six miles from Rome; its length was 61,710-1/2 passus, of which only 7463 were above ground; namely, 520 on solid substructions, and 6935 on arches. It was high enough to supply water to the summit of the Capitoline Mount. It was repaired by Agrippa in his aedileship, B.C. 33 (see below, No. 5), and the volume of its water was increased by Augustus, by means of the water of a spring 800 passus from it: the short aqueduct which conveyed this water was called the Aqua Augusta, but is never enumerated as a distinct aqueduct. Pliny states that the water of the Aqua Marcia was the coldest and most wholesome of all which was brought to Rome; and Vitruvius and other writers refer to the excellence of the water as being proverbial. Several arches of the Aqua Marcia are still standing (Frontin. 12; Pliny H.N. xxxi, 3 s. 24, who differs from Frontinus in some of the details; Strab. v. p240; Vitruv. viii.3 1; Dion Cass. xlix.42; Plut. Coriol. 1; Propert. iii.22, 24; Martial vi.42.16; Stat. Silv. i.5, 25).

P. Smith BA (in: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities 1875, W. Smith DCL LLD)
HOME More literature on more aqueducts Last modified: March 25, 2005 - Wilke D. Schram (wilke@cs.uu.nl)


Marcia Ponte Lupo
Marcia/Tepula
Marcia/Tepula
Marcia channel

Cistern
Cistern
Marcia-Aqua Antoniniana
Marcia-Aqua Antoniniana

Marcia-Aqua Antoniniana
Porta San Sebastiano
Arch of Drusus / Porta San Sebastiano
"Arc of Drusus"

'Arch of Drusus'
Marcia-Aqua Antoniniana
Thermae Antoninianae
Baths of Caracalla

Viale Guido Baccelli
Viale Guido Baccelli
Viale Guido Baccelli
Viale Guido Baccelli

Viale Guido Baccelli
Viale Guido Baccelli
Porta Maggiore
Porta Maggiore town side

Comparative heights
Porta Maggiore
Via Prenestina
View on Ad Spem Veterem

Between Maggiore and Tiburtina
Porta Tiburtina
Porta Tiburtina
Tiburtina in mediaeval times

Porta Tiburtina side view
Three inscriptions