FOUNTAIN OF TREVI, 
REVI, which 
fourteen ‘ 
cross-roads. 
gives its name to one of the 
regions”? of Rome, means the 
In Imperial times the long 
street leading straight from the Forum of 
Trajan struck across the street now called Tritone, 
by the arch of Claudius. The place was called the 
Fountain of Trevi long before the present splendid 
fountain was built. The name is connected now with 
the fountain, for who, hearing it, thinks of anything 
but the great sea-god, the plunging horses, the 
ceaseless rush and gush of the Virgin Water below 
that splendid facade ? From the days of Agrippa the 
water has borne its name—given it in memory of a 
maiden who, meeting a tired and thirsty troop of 
Roman soldiers, marching between Palestrina and 
Tivoli, led them to a secret spring, hidden in the 
hills, fresh and ice cold, known only to the 
shepherds. Agrippa in 733 first brought it to 
Rome to feed his baths near the Pantheon, when its 
advent was celebrated by fifty-nine days of feast- 
ing. It originates on the old Via Collatinus, 
halfway between Tivoli and Palestrina, and was 
brought into Rome by a subterannean channel 
fourteen miles long. The aqueduct passes near 
Ponte Nomentano, crosses the Via Nomentana and 
Via Salaria, and, having traversed Villa Borghese, 
divides at the foot of the Trinita dei Monti into 
two streams, one of which flows under Via 
Condotti, while the other debouches at Trevi. 
In later Roman times it suffered much from 
being turned aside to feed the Roman villas out- 
side the walls. It was no one’s business to 
preserve its aqueducts for a time, and it lost its 
old reputation for purity, which, Pliny says, 
caused it at one time to be ranked higher than 
the famous Aqua Marcia. Under Trajan the 
raids on it were put a stop to, and the water, in 
nineteen aqueducts, was dispersed over a great part 
of the town. Rome, which was accustomed to 
flood vast spaces for naval combats, and to use 
millions of gallons in the public baths, was poorly 
provided in private houses. In the time of the 
Empire, and long after, water was carried about 
by water-carriers. Sixtus V. was the first to 
inaugurate that system of fountains for which 
Rome is so famous, and which Paul III. com- 
pleted by carrying the waters of Bracciano to the 
Janiculum. The water of Trevi has been 
nounced in analysis to be of great purity, and in 
181g it was still carried in barrels to many 
houses and convents in the town. Clement VII., 
Paul IIL., and Gregory XIII. would never drink 
any other, and took it with them on journeys, 
even out of Italy. 
It is thought that in classic times a fountain 
must have stood near where the famous one is now 
placed, for an inscription was found in the immediate 
neighbourhood which evidently belonged to one : 
pro- 
“Nymph of this place, guardian of the sacred stream, 
I sleep, watch o’er me, while its murmur fills my dream. 
O, you who approach this fount and tread its marbles, 
Disturb me not, if you bathe or drink, be silent.” 
Nicholas V. had already begun a fouitain ; 
by three aqueducts, through three masks, the 
water flowed into a marble shell. This was the 
work of Leon Battista Alberta, and we cannot 
help giving a sigh to one of the beautiful lost 
works of the Renaissance. At that time, as 
Vasari tells us, it looked towards Piazza Poli, but 
Urban VIII. turned it round, as it is at present. 
In Via Nazzareno may be seen the low door which 
gives access to the aqueduct. It is large enough for 
a boat with two men to go up it for some distance. 
The archives relate that on July 8th, 1643, 
Pope Urban left the Vatican and went to stay at 
Monte Cavallo, and stopped on his way to see 
the Fountain of Trevi, which had just been 
turned about. Above it were the arms of 
Nicholas V., who had restored it. Pope Urban 
threw down the houses that had stood behind it 
and made a piazza, so that it could be seen 
from Monte Cavallo, and the pressure of the 
water being increased, it rose much higher than 
before. This Pope proposed to erect a grand 
fountain, and, with Bernini’s co-operation, planned 
to adorn it with statues taken from the tomb of 
Cecilia Metella; but the popular outcry against 
dismantling this splendid relic of antiquity was so 
strong that the Pope thought it prudent to 
abandon his project. Pope Urban laid a very 
unpopular tax upon wine, and Pasquino wrote 
the following couplet upon him : 
“ Urban having raised the tax upon wine, 
Regaled the people of the Quirinal with water.” 
