Note sulla travagliata storia di Aqua Claudia e Anio Novus: dal testo ai luoghi, risalire alla fonte

e aim of this paper is to outline and trace the difficult and troubled history of two of the main aqueducts of Rome, Aqua Cladia and Anio Novus, while also attempting to give a satisfactory explanation to the evident discrepancy between the reported lengths for both of them between the epigraphical source (the inscriptio triplex over Porta Maggiore in Rome) and the textual source (Frontinus’ Aquae Ductu Urbis Romae). Different approaches have been utilized through decades by many scholars, but only with a careful balance between epigraphy, archaeology and philology the matter can be put under the right perspective, thus granting us a more detailed insight not only into the main problem, but also into collateral, though still important, matters (such as the possibility of tracing restorations or interventions already recorded by the sources, but whose extension is still debated).