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Bill Thayer

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 p44  Arcus Stillans

Article on pp44‑45 of

Samuel Ball Platner (as completed and revised by Thomas Ashby):
A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome,
London: Oxford University Press, 1929.

Arcus Stillans: the name​a given in the Scholiast on Juvenal (3.11) and in the Mirabilia (10) to the arch of the Aqua Marcia (q.v.), which crossed the via Appia at the Porta Capena (q.v.). It also occurs as arcus Stellae in an interpolation in the life of Stephen I (LP xcvii.) and in a spurious bull of Paschal II, in which, however, the local names have been taken from an authentic document of Calixtus II (Kehr, Italia Pontificia II.43, No. 7). Here must have stood the ecclesia S. Laurentii de . . . quae est iuxta arcum stillantem cum omnibus pertinentiis suis, et omnes curtes quas habetis in regione schole Grece (Studi e Doc. Storia eº Diritto, 1886, 108; BC 1886, 352; Armellini 597; HCh 287; HJ 202). The possibility of extending the regio schole Grece (S. Maria in Cosmedin) as far as the porta Capena has recently been denied, and the  p45 arcus Stillans consequently identified with the Fornix Augusti (RAP III.143‑190); but the evidence is insufficient​b (HCh 593).


Thayer's Notes:

a the name Arcus Stillans: Those of you with no Latin mustn't imagine something wonderful, or a fancy official name for a great monument. Arcus stillans merely means "the arch that drips"; it is quite clear that the aqueduct wasn't as well sealed as it could have been, and that when you were walking along on the Via Appia in a nice clean toga, the arch was something you had to watch out for.

b the evidence is insufficient: Further information and sources, and a different opinion, can be found in Christian Hülsen's Le Chiese di Roma nel Medio Evo s.v. S. Laurentii post S. Gregorium.


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