The expense of this great work was defrayed out of the spoils of the Pyrrhic war. The Senate created Decemvirs to complete the aqueduct, naming Curius who had commenced it, and as his colleague, Fabius Flaccus. Curius died soon after the appointment, and the glory of terminating the work accrued to Fabius alone. The Anio Vetus began above Tivoli, at a distance of 20 miles from Rome, and before it reached the city, ithad run by many turnings, in order to preserve the level, a course of 43 miles. Of this distance 42 miles, 779 paces were subterraneous, and 220 paces above ground.

Burgess conjectures that the remains of a specus or water channel near the Porta Maggiore, of modern Rome, just visible among the foundation of the walls, is all that now remains of this great work.t At the end of 127 years, or in the year of Rome 607, Sulpicius Galba, and Lucius Aurelius, being consuls, it was found, owing both to the decay of the existing aqueducts, and the frauds by which individuals intercepted their water, that the supply was insufficient ; the Senate therefore gave a charge to Marcius, to repair the old aqueducts,

and to ascertain if some new supply could not be obtained. This led to the construction of the Aqua Marcia, of which Pliny thus speaks :

" Of all the waters in the world, that which we call the Marcia, in Rome, carrieth the greatest name by the general voice of its citizens, in regard both to its coldness and salubrity, and we may esteem this water for one of the greatest gifts the gods have bestowed on our city."