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 p494  Spes Vetus

Article on p494 of

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

Spes Vetus: an ancient shrine on the Esquiline which is mentioned twice in connection with the legendary victory of Horatius over the Etruscans in 477 B.C. (Liv. II.51.2; Dionys. IX.24). Nothing further is known of the temple (HJ 365; Rosch. IV.1296; Becker, Top. 551), but it gave its name 'ad Spem veterem' to its immediate vicinity, the district just inside the later Porta Praenestina, where several aqueducts met (cf. Hist. Aug. Elag. 13: hortos Spei veteris; see Horti Variani). It was the highest point on the east side of the city, and was therefore selected for the entry of almost all the aqueducts (LA passim; HJ 364, 365; LS III.157; PBS I.150).

Ad Spem veterem is described by Frontinus (de aquis i.5) as being in confinio Hortorum Torquatianorum et [Epaphroditia]NORUM (q.v.) (see Aqua Appia); here branches of the aqua Iulia and the aqua Claudia diverged to the Caelian (ib. 19, 20; cf. 21; II.65, 76, 87). For a 'sutor a spem (sic) vetere' cf. CIL XV.5929.

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