Piscina Publica Explained

In ancient Rome, the Piscina Publica ("Public Pool") was a public reservoir and swimming pool located in Regio XII. The region itself came to be called informally Piscina Publica from the landmark.^[1] The piscina was situated in the low-lying area between the Via Appia, the Servian Wall, and the northeast slope of the Aventine Hill, an area later occupied by the Baths of Caracalla.^[2]

There is some disagreement as to whether the reservoir was fed by one of several springs in the immediate area^[3] or by the Aqua Appia, the first public aqueduct built by Appius Claudius Caecus.^[4] Located just inside the Porta Capena,^[5] it was the first site for both communal water distribution and sports.^[6] The aqueduct supplied water for wool processors near the piscina.^[7]

Mention of a piscina publica was first made in 215 BC,^[8] when the two city praetors moved their tribunals to the site, near where the Senate was meeting with generals to discuss the ongoing Hannibalic War.^[9] A reference in Festus indicates that it no longer existed in the 2nd century.^[10]

See also

• List of Roman cisterns

Notes and References

1. CIL VI.975; Ammianus Marcellinus 17.4.14; Lawrence Richardson, A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), p. 332.
2. [Samuel Ball Platner]
3. Richardson, A New Topographical Dictionary, p. 291.
4. Mario Torelli, "The Topography and Archaeology of Republican Rome," in A Companion to the Roman Republic (Blackwell, 2010), p. 92.
5. Richardson, A New Topographical Dictionary, p. 292.
6. Torelli, "Topography and Archaeology," p. 92.
7. CIL VI.167; Stephen L. Dyson, Rome: A Living Portrait of an Ancient City (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010), p. 67.
8. [Livy]
9. [T. Corey Brennan]
10. Festus 213 (Verrius): "The name of the Public Pool remains today, but the pool itself does not."