DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61894#0323
Ch. IX.
THROUGH ITALY.
293
efforts were attended with partial, none with full
success. Wether the failure is to be ascribed to
the deficiency of the means employed at the be-
ginning', or to the neglect of repairs and the want
of continuul attention afterwards, it is difficult to
determine; though considering the skill and opu-
lence of the Romans, it is more natural to attri-
bute the defect either to the nature of the evil in
itself irremediable, or to the distracting circum-
stances of the intervening times.
Of the methods employed by A ppi us, and af-
terwards by the Consul Cethegus, we know little;
though not the road only but the traces of certain
channels duo; to draw the water from it, and
mounds raised to protect it from sudden swells of
water, are traditionally ascribed to the former.
Julius Caesar is said to have revolved in his mighty
mind a design worthy of himself, of turning the
course of the Tiber from Ostia, and carrying it
through the Pomptine territory and marshes to
the sea at Terracina. This grand project which
existed only in the mind of the Dictator perished
with him, and gave way to the more moderate
but more practicable plan of Augustus, who en-
deavoured to carry off the superfluous waters by
opening a canal all along the Via Appia from
Forum Appii to the grove of Feronia. It was
customary to embark on this canal at night time,
THROUGH ITALY.
293
efforts were attended with partial, none with full
success. Wether the failure is to be ascribed to
the deficiency of the means employed at the be-
ginning', or to the neglect of repairs and the want
of continuul attention afterwards, it is difficult to
determine; though considering the skill and opu-
lence of the Romans, it is more natural to attri-
bute the defect either to the nature of the evil in
itself irremediable, or to the distracting circum-
stances of the intervening times.
Of the methods employed by A ppi us, and af-
terwards by the Consul Cethegus, we know little;
though not the road only but the traces of certain
channels duo; to draw the water from it, and
mounds raised to protect it from sudden swells of
water, are traditionally ascribed to the former.
Julius Caesar is said to have revolved in his mighty
mind a design worthy of himself, of turning the
course of the Tiber from Ostia, and carrying it
through the Pomptine territory and marshes to
the sea at Terracina. This grand project which
existed only in the mind of the Dictator perished
with him, and gave way to the more moderate
but more practicable plan of Augustus, who en-
deavoured to carry off the superfluous waters by
opening a canal all along the Via Appia from
Forum Appii to the grove of Feronia. It was
customary to embark on this canal at night time,