8
References 1 Latin for Capital of the World, Capital of water. 2 Frontinus, De Aquaductu in ‘Stratagems. Aqueducts of Rome’, Loeb Classical Library, ed. M.B. McElwain, transl. C.E. Bennett (Massachusetts 1925) 4.1. 3 Ibidem, 127, 129: The Lex Quinctia of 9 BC prohibited the obstruction of public fountains. In R. Taylor, Public Needs and Private Pleasures: Water Distribution, The Tiber River and the Urban Development of Ancient Rome (Rome, 2000) p. 55-56, the author claims that water was a right for everyone. 4 G. De Klein, The Water Supply of Ancient Rome: City Area, Water, and Population (Gieben 2001) p. 79-80, and Taylor, Public Needs, p. 97-98. 5 Frontius, De Aq. 9. 6 Ibidem, 10.This is remarkable, because the aedileship was not regarded as one of the highest magisterial positions one could take. At first glance it might have been more logical had he assumed a position with a higher rank, such as praetor or consul. However, Agrippa practically chose the position of aedile - him being a close friend to Augustus. 7 H.B. Evans, Water Dustribution in Ancient Rome: The
The Trevi Fountain, one of the most famous fountains in the world, is currently still being watered by the Acqua Virgine, the foundations of which were laid in 19 BCE by Marcus Agrippa. Photo by Henning Klokkeråsen. Via Wikimedia.org Evidence of Frontinus (Michigan 1994) p.106-107. Evans notes that the Aqua Virgo was technically not the first aqueduct watering the Campus Martius. The Aqua Appia reportedly also supplied water to small parts of the Campus Martius. However, Evans does not clearly not which parts they might have been. Probably only the outskirts of the Campus Martius were supplied. 8 It is important to note that the Campus Martius originally was the drilling fields of Rome - the ‘Field of Mars’ - and it was prohibited to build anything on the Campus. This prohibition slowly faded away during the first century BC. 9 R.Taylor, K.W. Rinne, K. Spiro, Rome: An Urban History from Antiquity to the Present (Cambridge 2017) p.39-40. 10 Ibidem, p.37-38. The authors contribute the idea that Agrippa’s building schemes might have been Octavian