Walsh, whose travels in Turkey are so late as 183-, visited this subterranean

reservoir, and confirms the account of Gyllius. Modern Rome is almost as bountifully supplied with water as the ancient city, notwithstanding the destruction or decay of the old aqueducts. But the Romans of this day are but a handful perhaps 150,000 to the populousness of the elder time; and this comparatively small number possess, without enjoying as they might, the advantage of overflowing fountains. The anarchy of the middle ages, as has been already stated, led to the destruction, among other works of art, of the aqueducts, and the Romans were again reduced to wells and springs, and the Tiber. A precarious supply of purer element had been occasionally obtained by repairing an ancient conduit but neither the resources of the State, nor the skillof individuals, were equal to the undertaking of a permanent reparation. It was

not until the pontificate of Nicolas V., that a restoration of an ancient aqueduct was the Aqua Appia was then begun, and the work continued by Sextus attempted ; IV., was completed by Pius IV., in 1568. At this period, the three channels by which water of the restored conduit arrived at

46 PRELIMINARY ESSAY.

Rome, were conducted into, and distributed from, a reservoir without any architectural ornament. Clement XII. began its decoration on the side of the modern Palais ^Conti, from the designs of Nicolo Salvi. This beautiful monument and masterpiece of its author, was finished under Benedict XIV., and received the name of Trevi, from the water being conducted into its basin by three channels, and also from its position at the