Anio Novus

Anio Novus (named after a river Anio at the forty-second mile of the Via Sublacensis from which the water was taken originally) is an aqueduct, which, like the Aqua Claudia, was begun by Caligula in 38¹ AD and completed in 52 AD by Claudius, who dedicated them both on August 1.

Details

It was the highest in level of all the aqueducts that came into the city. After the water was apt to be turbid, Trajan made use of the two uppermost of the three lakes formed by Nero for the adornment of his villa at Subiaco thus lengthening the aqueduct to 58 miles and 700 paces². The lakes were created by dams in the river, and were the tallest of any built by the Romans. They were swept away by the river in the Medieval period. Its volume at the intake was 196,627 cubic metres in 24 hours. From its filtering tank near the seventh milestone of the Via Latina it was carried on the lofty arches of the Aqua Claudia, in a channel immediately superposed on the latter. Before the reforms the aqueduct was freely used to supply the deficiencies (largely due to dishonesty) of other aqueducts, and, being turbid, rendered them impure. It is described in some detail by Frontinus in his work published in the later first century, De aquaeductu.

Notes

1- Suet., Cal., 20.

2- The length of 62 miles given to the original aqueduct in the inscription of Claudius on the Porta Maior is considered to be an error.

See also

• Aqueducts
• Aqueducts of Rome
• De aquaeductu
• Frontinus
• List of aqueducts in the city of Rome
• List of aqueducts in the Roman Empire
• List of Roman aqueducts by date
• Roman technology
• Roman engineering

External links

• Subiaco Roman dams