]

[Sidenote: 70 B.C.]

[Sidenote: Inf. xv. 73-78. Par. xv. 124-126.]

Then Macrinus, Albinus, Gneus Pompey, and Marcius, furnished with
materials and workmen, came from Rome to the city which Caesar was
building, and agreed with Caesar to divide the work after this manner:
that Albinus undertook to pave all the city, which was a noble work
and gave beauty and charm to the city, and to this day fragments of
the work are found, in digging, especially in the sesto of Santo Piero
Scheraggio, and in Porta San Piero, and in Porta del Duomo, where it
shows that the ancient city was. Macrinus caused the water to be
brought in conduits and aqueducts, bringing it from a distance of
seven miles from the city, to the end the city might have abundance of
good water to drink and to cleanse the city; and this conduit was
carried from the river called Marina at the foot of Montemorello,
gathering to itself all the springs above Sesto and Quinto and
Colonnata. And in Florence the said springs came to a head at a great
palace which was called "caput aquae," but afterwards in our speech it
was called Capaccia, and the remains can be seen in the Terma until
this day. And note that the ancients, for health's sake, used to drink
spring waters brought in by conduits, forasmuch as they were purer and
more wholesome than water from wells; seeing that few, indeed very
few, drank wine, but the most part water from conduits, but not from
wells; and as yet there were very few vines. Gneus Pompey caused the
walls of the city to be built of burnt bricks, and upon the walls of
the city he built many round towers, and the space between one tower
and the other was twenty cubits, and it was so that the towers were of
great beauty and strength. Concerning the size and circuit of the city
we can find no chronicle which makes mention thereof; save that when
Totila, the scourge of God, destroyed it, history records that it was
very great. Marcius, the other Roman lord, caused the Capitol to be
built after the fashion of Rome, that is to say the palace, or master
fortress of the city, and this was of marvellous beauty; into which
the water of the river Arno came by a hollowed and vaulted passage,
and returned into the Arno underground; and the city, at every
festival, was cleansed by the outpouring of this duct. This Capitol
stood where to-day is the piazza which is called the Mercato Vecchio,
over against the church which is called S. Maria, in Campidogl