Note 115 — Chapter IV · PART I. THE AQUEDUCTS. (continued 2)

Nibby considers this a mistake, and is of opinion that the water was the Sabatina, not the Alsietina; but the mistake is made by Nibby himself, not by the engineers of Pope Paul, who certainly brought the water from the Lacus Alsietina and the other small lake above it (as mentioned on p. 50). By the draining of these lakes, the aqueduct is now made to depend on the Lacus Alsietina only. The sources of the Alsietina are very different from those of the Sabatina. The former was taken by Augustus from the lake Alsietinus, now called Lago di Martignano, and the latter by Trajan from the sources between the lake Sabatinus and the villages of Vicarello, Bassano, and Oriolo. The Alsietina was at the lowest level of all the aqueducts, and the Sabatina at the highest. The first specus was for the most part subterranean, and the other was carried upon arcades for part of its course.