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203 the means of arches and aqueducts admirably constructed. This assertion is, however, destitute of all probability, such a magnificence being utterly incompatible with the poverty of Romulus, and with the huts of the shepherds which were consumed by the fire of the Gauls. Other writers, on the authority of the fifth law of the twelve tables, affirm that the decemvirs were the first to construct aqueducts; but without recurring to the indigence of the Romans at that epoch, it is simply necessary to pay a little attention to the context of the above law, to regard this opinion as an unreasonable conjecture, since it does nothing more than treat of the trenches that were to be dug in the plains, to serve as receptacles for the water which was at the same time to be made to communicate with other grounds.

Aqueducts were, according to Justus Lipsius, invented by the censor Appius Claudius, who, by the means of subterraneous canals, brought from the river Tiber to Rome, water of an excellent quality, which was discharged at the gates Capena and Trigemina, and thence directed to the Campus Martis. The successful issue of these early attempts stimulated the Romans to undertake the magnificent works, having a reference to the same obje6t, which at this time attract the admiration of the most celebrated architects. Casiodorus more particularly celebrates the surprizing structure of their aqueducts, and the singular salubrity of the waters they conveyed, describing with astonishment those canals, fabricated in solid rocks of a great elevation, which appeared to be the productions of Nature herself. On this account they were justly considered by Julius Frontinus as incontestable tokens of the grandeur of the Roman empire. The