Sources of the Aqua Traiana
Between 2008 and 2010 we have been researching the various sources and springs which fed the Aqua Traiana. They are counted clockwise around Lake Bracciano in the direction which the aqueduct flows around the lake. The aqueduct has the shape of a questionmark, and the water flows in the direction that you would normally draw that questionmark.
Click above for larger map.
Archaeologist Alberto Cassio listed the following spring water sources in the mid-eighteenth Century:
- The sources mysteriously described as being in the territory of the Altieri Dukes of Oriolo, including the Fonte del Grugnale.
Cassio, followed by Ashby both say that there were seven springs here, which were collected together in three tanks called Greca, Spineta and Pisciarello.(Lanciani identifies the Fonte del Grugnale closer to the modern suburb of Pisciarelli in the Comune di Bracciano. ‘Grugnale’ means Dogwood in the local Manziana dialect.)
- The sources of the Fiora Stream which he describes as ‘lost’.
- North along the Fosso di Spina towards Fonte Cerasolo and Bassano.
- The waters of the Vigna di Venere (Venus Vine), somewhere to the north of the Fosso di Fiora at the west of the lake.
- The water sources associated with the baths of Vicarello (Acqua Appolinaris to the North West of the Lake.
- The Acquareli to the North East of the Lake.
If Lanciani is correct, then this major vein can be called the Piscarello branch, or the Aqua del Fosso di Bocca di Lupo. The Piscarello branch connects the furthest water sources from the city of Rome.
But there are also other veins around the lake, some of which were used in the reconstruction of the aqueduct at the start of the seventeeth century and which may be older notably:
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