Letter 7006: Formula of the Count of the Aqueducts.
Cassiodorus→Unknown|c. 522 AD|Cassiodorus
friendship
Formula of the Count of the Aqueducts.
[The Comes Formarum was responsible for Rome's famous aqueducts. Cassiodorus here pauses for a remarkable description of the city's water system.]
Although the buildings of Rome can scarcely be called inferior to one another -- since everything that can be seen there was clearly designed to inspire wonder -- we nevertheless judge that there is a difference between what essential usefulness recommends and what merely the beauty of appearance commends. The Forum of Trajan is a miracle even when seen constantly. To climb the heights of the Capitoline is to see human ingenuity surpassed. But can anyone live by those monuments? Is the body's health refreshed by any pleasure taken from them?
In the aqueducts of Rome, on the other hand, both qualities are supreme: the construction is marvelous and the healthfulness of the water unmatched. Consider how many rivers are brought there through what seem like man-made mountains! You would think them natural channels of solid rock, since so great a force of water has been sustained securely for so many centuries. Hollowed-out mountains sometimes collapse; the courses of torrents are disrupted. Yet that ancient work is not destroyed, so long as it is maintained with diligent effort.
Consider how much splendor the abundance of water lends to Rome's walls. What would the beauty of the public baths be without those magnificent bodies of fresh water? The Aqua Virgo flows with the most delightful purity -- so named, it is believed, because it is polluted by no impurities. While other waters are fouled in heavy rains by the admixture of earth, this one, gliding along with perpetual clarity, seems to imitate a cloudless sky. Who could describe such things in words equal to the subject?
The Aqua Claudia was conducted over such a vast height of masonry to the summit of the Aventine Hill that, when it falls from that elevation, it seems to irrigate that lofty peak as though it were a valley below. The Nile of Egypt rises at fixed seasons, flooding the plains with its muddy overflow, churning and turbulent under a clear sky. But how much more beautiful it is that the Roman Claudia sends its purest streams through pipes across so many dry mountain summits to baths and houses, flowing so steadily that its welcome supply never fails! The Nile, when it recedes, is mud; when it comes unexpectedly, a flood. Who, then, would not judge the famous Nile surpassed by the rivers of our city -- the Nile that either terrifies its people by coming or abandons them by retreating?
I have told this story at length for a purpose: so that you may appreciate the quality of diligence required of one to whom so great a beauty is entrusted. For this reason, we have committed to you the Count of the Aqueducts for the coming indiction, after great deliberation. Strive with the utmost care to accomplish what you see is fitting for structures so great and noble.
First, we decree that the harmful trees which cause the ruin of the structures -- acting as a kind of unbearable battering ram against the walls -- be torn out by the roots, since no injury is truly removed whose source is left in place. Whatever has been torn down by advancing age must be repaired with watchful speed, lest the damage grow and the cost to us increase. The success of the water supply is your fortune: you will prosper as long as it stands sound, and so long as you strengthen it. You advance in our esteem exactly as much as you are shown to have devoted yourself to this work. Let your skill and loyalty ensure both that the fabric of the construction remains undamaged and that the distribution of water is not diminished through any corruption of the guards.
VI.
FORMULA COMITIVAE FORMARUM.
[1] Quamvis Romuleae fabricae collatae sibi vix possint praecipuae reperiri, quia totum ad ammirationem noscitur exquisitum, quod ibi cernitur esse fundatum, tamen interesse arbitramur, quod utilitas necessaria gratificat et quod pulchritudinis tantum causa commendat. Traiani forum vel sub assiduitate videre miraculum est: Capitolia celsa conscendere hoc est humana ingenia superata vidisse. sed numquid per ea vivitur aut corporis salus aliqua inde delectatione recreatur? [2] In formis autem Romanis utrumque praecipuum est, ut fabrica sit mirabilis et aquarum salubritas singularis. quot enim illuc flumina quasi constructis montibus perducuntur, naturales credas alveos soliditate saxorum, quando tantus impetus fluminis tot saeculis firmiter potuit sustineri. cavati montes plerumque subruunt, meatus torrentium dissipantur: et opus illud veterum non destruitur, si industria suffragante servetur. [3] Respiciamus certe aquarum copia quantum Romanis moenibus praestat ornatum. nam thermarum illa pulchritudo quid esset, si dulcissima quaedam aequora non haberet? currit aqua Virgo sub delectatione purissima, quae ideo sic appellata creditur, quod nullis sordibus polluatur. nam cum aliae pluviarum nimietate terrena commixtione violentur, haec aerem perpetue serenum purissime labens unda mentitur. quis possit talia sermonibus idoneis explicare? [4] Claudiam per tantam fastigii molem sic ad Aventini caput esse perductam, ut cum ibi ex alto lapsa ceciderit, cacumen illud excelsum quasi imam vallem irrigare videatur. Aegyptius Nilus certis temporibus crescens per campos iacentes superducto diluvio aere sereno turbulentus exaestuat: sed quanto pulchrius est Claudiam Romanam per tot siccas montium summitates lavacris ac domibus liquores purissimos fistularum uberibus emisisse et ita aequaliter fluere, ut numquam se possit desiderata subducere! ille enim dum recedit, limus est, dum venit insperate, diluvium. quis ergo famosum Nilum urbis nostrae fluminibus non aestimet esse superatum? quando Nilicolas suos aut veniendo terret aut recedendo destituit. [5] Verum haec non superflua commemoratione narravimus, ut possis advertere qualis a te diligentia perquiratur, cui pulchritudo tanta committitur. qua de re per indictionem illam comitivam tibi formarum sub magna deliberatione credidimus, ut summo studio nitaris efficere quod tantis ac talibus rebus respicis expedire. [6] In primis noxias arbores, quae inferunt fabricarum ruinas, dum sunt quidam moenium importabiles arietes, censemus radicitus amputari, quia nulla laesio removetur, cuius origo non tollitur. si quid autem conficiente senio fuerit demolitum, pervigili celeritate reparetur, ne crescente defectu augeatur nobis causa dispendii. ductus aquae fortuna tua est, dum incolumis eris, si illa solidaveris, tantumque apud nos proficis, quantum te illis studuisse probaveris. agat ergo peritia fidesque tua, ut et constructio fabricae illibata permaneat et aquae distributio nulla se custodum venalitate subducat.
◆
Formula of the Count of the Aqueducts.
[The Comes Formarum was responsible for Rome's famous aqueducts. Cassiodorus here pauses for a remarkable description of the city's water system.]
Although the buildings of Rome can scarcely be called inferior to one another -- since everything that can be seen there was clearly designed to inspire wonder -- we nevertheless judge that there is a difference between what essential usefulness recommends and what merely the beauty of appearance commends. The Forum of Trajan is a miracle even when seen constantly. To climb the heights of the Capitoline is to see human ingenuity surpassed. But can anyone live by those monuments? Is the body's health refreshed by any pleasure taken from them?
In the aqueducts of Rome, on the other hand, both qualities are supreme: the construction is marvelous and the healthfulness of the water unmatched. Consider how many rivers are brought there through what seem like man-made mountains! You would think them natural channels of solid rock, since so great a force of water has been sustained securely for so many centuries. Hollowed-out mountains sometimes collapse; the courses of torrents are disrupted. Yet that ancient work is not destroyed, so long as it is maintained with diligent effort.
Consider how much splendor the abundance of water lends to Rome's walls. What would the beauty of the public baths be without those magnificent bodies of fresh water? The Aqua Virgo flows with the most delightful purity -- so named, it is believed, because it is polluted by no impurities. While other waters are fouled in heavy rains by the admixture of earth, this one, gliding along with perpetual clarity, seems to imitate a cloudless sky. Who could describe such things in words equal to the subject?
The Aqua Claudia was conducted over such a vast height of masonry to the summit of the Aventine Hill that, when it falls from that elevation, it seems to irrigate that lofty peak as though it were a valley below. The Nile of Egypt rises at fixed seasons, flooding the plains with its muddy overflow, churning and turbulent under a clear sky. But how much more beautiful it is that the Roman Claudia sends its purest streams through pipes across so many dry mountain summits to baths and houses, flowing so steadily that its welcome supply never fails! The Nile, when it recedes, is mud; when it comes unexpectedly, a flood. Who, then, would not judge the famous Nile surpassed by the rivers of our city -- the Nile that either terrifies its people by coming or abandons them by retreating?
I have told this story at length for a purpose: so that you may appreciate the quality of diligence required of one to whom so great a beauty is entrusted. For this reason, we have committed to you the Count of the Aqueducts for the coming indiction, after great deliberation. Strive with the utmost care to accomplish what you see is fitting for structures so great and noble.
First, we decree that the harmful trees which cause the ruin of the structures -- acting as a kind of unbearable battering ram against the walls -- be torn out by the roots, since no injury is truly removed whose source is left in place. Whatever has been torn down by advancing age must be repaired with watchful speed, lest the damage grow and the cost to us increase. The success of the water supply is your fortune: you will prosper as long as it stands sound, and so long as you strengthen it. You advance in our esteem exactly as much as you are shown to have devoted yourself to this work. Let your skill and loyalty ensure both that the fabric of the construction remains undamaged and that the distribution of water is not diminished through any corruption of the guards.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.