The Anio Vetus was commenced forty years later, B.C. 273, by the censor M. Curius
Dentatus, and was finished by M. Fulvius Flaccus. The expense was defrayed out of
the spoils taken from Pyrrhus. The water was derived from the river Anio, above
Tibur, at a distance of twenty Roman miles from the city; but, on account of its
windings, its actual length was forty-three miles, of which length less than a quarter
of a mile only (namely, 221 passus) was above the ground. There are considerable
remains of this aqueduct on the Aurelian wall, near the Porta Maggiore , and also in
the neighbourhood of Tivoli. It was built of blocks of peperino stone, and the water-
course was lined with a thick coating of cement (Front. 6; Aur. Vict. Vir. Ill. 43).
P. Smith BA (in: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities 1875, W. Smith DCL LLD)
