Page:Frontinus - The stratagems, and, the aqueducts of Rome (Bennet et al 1925).djvu/483

 How much care was taken that no one should venture to injure the conduits, or draw water that had not been granted, may be seen not only from many other things, but especially from the fact that the Circus Maximus could not be watered, even on the days of the Circensian Games, except with permission of the aediles or censors, a regulation which, as we read in the writings of Ateius Capito, was still in force even after the care of the waters had passed, under Augustus, to commissioners. Indeed, lands which had been irrigated unlawfully from the public supply were confiscated. Whenever a slave infringed the law, even without the knowledge of his master, a fine was imposed. By the same laws it is also enacted as follows: "No one shall with malice pollute the waters where they issue publicly. Should any one pollute them, his fine shall be ten thousand sestertii." Therefore the order was given to the Curule Aediles to appoint two men in each district from the number of those who lived in it, or owned property in it, in whose care the public fountains should be placed.

 Marcus Agrippa, after his aedileship (which he held after his consulship) was the first man to become the permanent incumbent of this office, so to speak—a commissioner charged with the supervision of works which he himself had created. Inasmuch as the amount of water now available warranted it, he determined how much should be allotted to the public structures, how much to the basins, and how much to private parties. He also