Anio Novus
| Anio Novus | |
|---|---|
| Construction year | AD 38–52 |
| length | 87 km |
| Headwaters | Valley of the Aniene near Subiaco |
| Height of the source above sea level |
400 m |
| Height in Rome | 70 m |
| Cross section in the lower reaches (W × H in m) |
1.2 x 2.7 |
The Anio Novus (named after the river Aniene , lat. Anio ) was an ancient Roman aqueduct ( aqueduct ) to supply the city of Rome .
history
The Anio Novus, like the Aqua Claudia , was started under Emperor Caligula in 38 AD and ended under Emperor Claudius in 52 AD. Both water pipes were inaugurated together on August 1st. Their construction costs amounted to 350,000,000 sesterces .
Before the construction of the Anio Novus, there was an earlier aqueduct called Anio , which was henceforth called Anio Vetus (Latin vetus "old"), while the new aqueduct was called Anio Novus ( novus "new") (on inscriptions also aqua Anienis nova "new Anienisches water").
In late antiquity, the Anio Novus was restored in 381.
Water flow
The Anio Novus was one of the longest aqueducts to Rome and the one that supplied most of the water to the city. At the level of all aqueducts, it was the highest that came to Rome and supplied the higher parts of the city that the Aqua Claudia did not reach.
Originally, water from the Anio River, which is located in the east of Rome, was used for the Anio Novus. However, it delivered a rather cloudy water, as reported by the Roman curator aquarum (supervisor of the aqueducts of Rome) at the time of the Emperor Trajan , Sextus Iulius Frontinus , in his work De aquis urbis Romae . This is due to the tributaries of the Anio and the course of the river itself, which carried quite muddy water.
The water in the Anio Novus lost its quality, especially when it rained. Therefore Iulius Frontinus reformed the system of water pipes. Attempts were made to mix the water with other water in order to compensate for the inadequacies of this water pipe, but this did not lead to the desired result.
Later attempts were made to lead the polluted water into a basin ("filter container"), where the impurities should settle. However, this also failed. Ultimately, the problem was solved as follows: In order to make the water clearer and healthier, under Trajan the water of two of the three lakes that Emperor Nero had built for his villa in Subiaco was drawn upstream. The Subiaco reservoir was created for this purpose . There the dirt settled and the water became considerably more pure.
For this purpose, the Anio Novus was extended to around 87 km. Depending on the season, it carried up to 196,627 cubic meters per day.
Like the Aqua Marcia and Aqua Claudia, the aqueduct initially ran along the river from which it obtained the water. It then ran for almost 10 km along the Via Latina . On the last 13 kilometers before Rome, the Anio Novus aqueduct was built on top of that of the Aqua Claudia. This construction formed a monumental arch, the so-called Porta Maggiore . Some of these arches reached a height of 35 meters.
See also
literature
- Samuel Ball Platner , Thomas Ashby : A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. Oxford University Press, London 1929, pp. 11-12, ( digitized ).
- Lawrence Richardson : A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD et al. 1992, ISBN 0-8018-4300-6 , p. 11, (Anio Novus).
