Profiting from prophecy

The source of the Aqua Marcia stood at the thirty-eighth milestone on the Valerian Way. For most of its course, it ran underground on the right bank of the River Anio. The Porta Capena was also an important junction point for religion and divination. The social, political and financial importance of the Aqua Marcia make it likely that the senatorial discussions of 143 and 140 took place in the temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline. Mythology and historical record coincide in one last Marcian monument: the statue of Marsyas in the forum. Later, Pliny ascribed the origin of the Aqua Marcia to Ancus Marcius, a story that no doubt owed its genesis to the Marcii themselves, but he also traced the Marcia to its original water sources in the Paelignian Mountains. The early history of the Aqua Marcia cannot be divorced from the sacral importance attached to water and its associations with divination

Classical Antiquity Studies · Historical and Architectural Studies · Historical and Religious Studies of Rome · History

• Beyond Conservatism

  Federico Santangelo•Community in Transition•2022

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