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Piscina Publica

 p391  Article on pp391‑392 of

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


Piscina Publica: a public bath and swimming pool (Fest. 213), first mentioned in 215 B.C. Liv. XXIII.32.4), situated in the low ground between the via Appia, the Servian wall, the north-east slope of the Aventine, and the area afterwards occupied by the baths of Caracalla (Liv. Fest. locc. citt.; Cic. ad Q. Fr. III.7.1; Jord. II.106‑107; HJ 183‑184). Near it was the headquarters of the lanii piscinenses (CIL VI.167; cf. Plautus, Pseud. 326‑328). This pool later gave its name to the vicus piscinae Publicae (CIL VI.975; Amm. Marcell. XVII.4.14), which led from the south end of the circus Maximus across the depression on the Aventine to the porta Raudusculana. The piscina itself was probably fed by local springs, not by the aqua Appia (LA 234‑245; cf. Jord. I.1.447, 458), and had ceased to exist in the second century (Fest. 213),  p392 but the name clung to the locality (cf. ad piscinam publicam Hippolyt. philos. ix.12, p552; cf. BC 1914, 353), and it was popularly given to Region XII of the city of Augustus. This region was bounded on the north-east by the via Appia, on the south-east by a line extending from the junction of the via Appia and the vicus Sulpicius to the porta Raudusculana, on the south by the line of the Aurelian wall, and on the west and north-west by the vicus portae Raudusculanae and the vicus piscinae Publicae, thus including a very small area inside the line of the Servian wall (BC 1890, 115‑137). Piscina Publica was not an official name for Region XII, and we do not know how early it came into use (Pr. Reg. 71‑72).


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Page updated: 22 Oct 03