The water supply of the complex must have been guaranteed by a branch of the aqueduct, perhaps deviated on purpose and called the Aqua Traiana. This name recalls the lead pipes found in the complex, but does not seem to belong to one of the known aqueducts. The water was channelled and then stored in the enormous cistern of the Sette Sale.
Erroneously considered to be the cisterns of the Domus Aurea for a long time because they faced the same direction, the Sette Sale were finally recognized as part of the Terme di Traiano. Because of their size and grandeur they needed an adequate water reserve.
The cistern has nine parallel chambers, all 5.30m wide but of different lengths. Because of the curved shape and static requirements of the eastern external wall, it rests on a natural embankment of earth.
A part of these chambers are therefore underground. They range from 29.30m to 39.75m long and are separated by concrete walls leading to communicating doors, located on diagonal axes to avoid the forming of water currents.
The entirely artificial construction, with a face on the visible brick parts, is built on two levels, the lower one being on the ground. Its only function was to raise the water container until the pressure was sufficient enough to fill the baths.
The reservoir had a capacity of over 8 million liters and was partially embanked in the ground and reinforced by square buttresses. The rooms were lined inside with a type of earthen mixture (cocciopesto) as far as the impost of the barrel vaults, erected on a double centring of bipedals and 20cm square bricks (bessels), where traces of concrete can still be seen.
Thanks to the excavations made from 1967 to 1975, a very opulent residence, built above the terrace of the Sette Sale, was brought to light. It was originally meant to occupy a still bigger area.
Two phases of the building of the residence can be discerned. The first is the nucleus, which was originally dated to the period of Traiano, with regular and parallel rooms built, based on a mixed style, for the purpose of a cistern. The second belonging to the fourth century, a very complex and diversified period, with walls in opera vittata of tuff and bricks, a rich architectural decoration on the floor, still partly preserved, in opus sectile and mosaic style as well.
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 | | | I Municipio
Rione I - Monti
Regio III - Isis et Serapis
Via delle Terme di Traiano 5/B
Tel. 06/4873262 |  |
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