Ponte St. Antonio in the nearness of San Gregorio da Sassola. The Roman aqueduct and the problems
of river erosion
The Roman aqueduct of
Anio Novus
(53 BC) takes its name from a chapel, once located close to the
structure, no longer existent but mentioned in a letter by Petronselli (1739) and visible in a photograph by
John Henry Parker taken between 1868 and 1869, and in a drawing by Edward Lear. For the study of the
monument, the works of Thomas Ashby is still fundamental and extremely useful. He identifies the path
and dates the wall structures of which it is composed. The ancient aqueduct, an opus quadratum building
of tuff, dates to the Claudian period, and was lined on the outside with a brick and conglomerate structure
in the post-Severian period. The widening was not only carried out to resolve static problems, but also to
create a service road alongside the aqueduct to facilitate maintenance and allows transit between the two
sides.
The work analyses the phenomena of degradation and mainly those caused by river erosion and
possible remedies.
