DOI issue:
Ashby,T.: The classical Topography of the roman campagna. The via latina. Introduction
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70348#0140
124
The British School at Rome.
and 13 feet wide, the minor ones 20 feet and less high and about 11 feet
wide. The greater part of the passage which is approached from the
entrance I has not been entirely excavated, a comparatively small tunnel
having been left below, while the upper portion has been all cut away. At
0 is a modern sheep wash ; and at I and at ppp are other entrances,
with regard to which it is very interesting to see how carefully the quarries
have been arranged so as to exhaust every part of the interior of the hill
which it was safe to excavate. Modern pozzolana diggers have not been so
careful, with the result that many of the pozzolana quarries round Rome
have fallen in, rendering useless a not inconsiderable quantity of land in the
neighbourhood of the city.
This great villa was supplied with water by an aqueduct of its own
bringing water from springs somewhat further up the hill. It is constructed
of chips of selce in the same way as the villa itself: the specus is 0’96 metre
wide and ΙΌΟ high to the spring of the vault of its roof. Three arches,
half-buried, may still be seen. Lanciani, Comentari cit. 324, and tav. vii, fig.
1-5 gives a description and a drawing at a point at which a small aperture
O’i6 by 0’22 metre has been left in the N. E. side of the specus for a small
branch conduit or for an overflow. A little further S. E. is a rectangular
reservoir divided into two chambers by a line of pillars, which he believes
to have been the collecting tank for the springs which supplied this aqueduct.
The reservoir is at point 141 on the Staff Map: to the S.E. of it, on
the N. E. side of the Via Latina, are the .scanty remains of a villa and to the
S. W. of the Via Latina (which here runs to the N. E. of the modern road)
two tombs in concrete. There is a reservoir (?) of selce concrete (the interior
is not accessible) on the N. E. edge of the road, just inside the oliveyard
belonging to the Casale Ciampino. Some way to the N. E., at point 142, is
a vaulted substruction of selce concrete, belonging to a reservoir or some
other small building.1 The paving of the Via Latina can be seen on the
N. W. edge of the Naples railway : at this point is a drain in a quarry on the
N. E. edge of the modern road, 0'55 metre wide. From point 154 onwards
the line of the Via Latina is marked by the boundary wall of the oliveyard,
which is in part built of the pavingstones taken from it. The site of the
tenth mile is reached just before the Casale Ciampino; and with it a new
chapter may well be begun.
1 At point 152, to the E.S.E. again, and just to the W. of the Via Cavona, are remains of
foundations in ofiti-s qzcadratuin, possibly of a farm-house, with scanty brick debris.
The British School at Rome.
and 13 feet wide, the minor ones 20 feet and less high and about 11 feet
wide. The greater part of the passage which is approached from the
entrance I has not been entirely excavated, a comparatively small tunnel
having been left below, while the upper portion has been all cut away. At
0 is a modern sheep wash ; and at I and at ppp are other entrances,
with regard to which it is very interesting to see how carefully the quarries
have been arranged so as to exhaust every part of the interior of the hill
which it was safe to excavate. Modern pozzolana diggers have not been so
careful, with the result that many of the pozzolana quarries round Rome
have fallen in, rendering useless a not inconsiderable quantity of land in the
neighbourhood of the city.
This great villa was supplied with water by an aqueduct of its own
bringing water from springs somewhat further up the hill. It is constructed
of chips of selce in the same way as the villa itself: the specus is 0’96 metre
wide and ΙΌΟ high to the spring of the vault of its roof. Three arches,
half-buried, may still be seen. Lanciani, Comentari cit. 324, and tav. vii, fig.
1-5 gives a description and a drawing at a point at which a small aperture
O’i6 by 0’22 metre has been left in the N. E. side of the specus for a small
branch conduit or for an overflow. A little further S. E. is a rectangular
reservoir divided into two chambers by a line of pillars, which he believes
to have been the collecting tank for the springs which supplied this aqueduct.
The reservoir is at point 141 on the Staff Map: to the S.E. of it, on
the N. E. side of the Via Latina, are the .scanty remains of a villa and to the
S. W. of the Via Latina (which here runs to the N. E. of the modern road)
two tombs in concrete. There is a reservoir (?) of selce concrete (the interior
is not accessible) on the N. E. edge of the road, just inside the oliveyard
belonging to the Casale Ciampino. Some way to the N. E., at point 142, is
a vaulted substruction of selce concrete, belonging to a reservoir or some
other small building.1 The paving of the Via Latina can be seen on the
N. W. edge of the Naples railway : at this point is a drain in a quarry on the
N. E. edge of the modern road, 0'55 metre wide. From point 154 onwards
the line of the Via Latina is marked by the boundary wall of the oliveyard,
which is in part built of the pavingstones taken from it. The site of the
tenth mile is reached just before the Casale Ciampino; and with it a new
chapter may well be begun.
1 At point 152, to the E.S.E. again, and just to the W. of the Via Cavona, are remains of
foundations in ofiti-s qzcadratuin, possibly of a farm-house, with scanty brick debris.