A dictionary of Greek and Roman . he slope (fastigium), on which the aqueductwas built, in order to give the water a proper fall(libramentum), ought not, says Vitruvius, to beless than half a foot in everyl00 feet (I in 200) ;but Pliny only allows a sicilicus (a quarter of aninch) in 100 feet. The great circuit, which mostof the aqueducts of Rome made, was taken chiefly(as is the case with the New River), to preventthe too rapid descent of the water. There is-,however, a considerable variation in their de-clivities : for example, the Aqua Marcia and the- 114 AQUAEDUCTUS. Aqua Cla
A dictionary of Greek and Roman . he slope (fastigium), on which the aqueductwas built, in order to give the water a proper fall(libramentum), ought not, says Vitruvius, to beless than half a foot in everyl00 feet (I in 200) ;but Pliny only allows a sicilicus (a quarter of aninch) in 100 feet. The great circuit, which mostof the aqueducts of Rome made, was taken chiefly(as is the case with the New River), to preventthe too rapid descent of the water. There is-,however, a considerable variation in their de-clivities : for example, the Aqua Marcia and the- 114 AQUAEDUCTUS. Aqua Claudia, though of such different heights atRome, have their sources at the same elevation. At convenient points on the course of the aque-duct, and especially near the middle and end,there was generally a reservoir {piscina, piscinalimosa) in which the water might deposit anysediment that it contained. The construction ofthese reservoirs will be understood from the follow-ing woodcut, which represents a restored section ofone which still The water flowed from the aqueduct a into thefirst upper chamber, thence down and up againthrough the openings b, c, e, into the second upperchamber, out of which it passed into the continua-tion of the aqueduct /, having deposited its sedi-ment in the two lower chambers, which could becleaned out by the door d. The piscina was notalways vaulted: Hirt, from whose work the abovecut is taken, gives also an engraving of an openpiscina. These reservoirs were not always used:for example, the Aqua Virgo and the Alsietinawere without them. They were especially neces-sary when the water was conveyed through were also used as reservoirs for the supplyof the neighbouring country, chiefly for the pur-poses of irrigation. The details, which we have now been noticing,are minutely described by Frontinus, and byVitruvius* (viii. c. 7. s. 6), and briefly by Pliny{ xxxi. 6. s. 31). (3.) The Termination of the Aqueduct, and theArrangements
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