Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

5,544 FONS. FONS.
out of which the water flowed into the open air, which were divided into two classes; namely,
and with a statue of Apolieo, and was enclosed with lacus, ponds or reservoirs, and salientes, jets of
a wall, on which was painted the slaughter of the water, besides which many of the castella were
suitors by Ulysses. (Paus. ii. 3. ~ 3; se3 a paper so constructed as to be also fountains. (See AQUAEby Gittling, on the present state of this fountain, DUCTUS, p. 114, b, and the woodcut.) Agrippa,
and of the Crcaneion, with an engraving of the source who during his aedileship paid special attention to
of the Peirene, in Gerhard's Archioloyische Zeituny the restoration of the Roman waterworks, is said to
for 1844, pp. 326, 328; the engraving is given be- have constructed 700 lacus, 105 salientes, and 130
low.) Corinth contained numerous other fountains; castella, of which very many were magnificently
adorned; they were decorated with 300 bronze
or marble statues, and 400 marble columns. (Plin.
II. N. xxxvi. 15. s. 24. ~ 9.) There were also
many small private fountains in the houses and
villas of the wealthy. (Plin. Epist. v. 6.) At
Pompeii, the fountains are extremely numerous,
"" _ ~. and that not only in the streets and public places,
especially at the junctions of streets (in biviis, in
triviis); but also in private houses. The engraving'ifll1K l~hj;p i' ~ on p. 109 represents a section of one of these foun~~~4i ~~IL [ l I i )tains, in which the water pours into a basin; that
now given, in which the water is thrown up in a
jet, is taken from an arabesque painting on the wall
over one of whichl was a statue of Bellerophon and
Pegasus, with the water flowing out of the horse's i\\
hoofs (Ib. ~ 5); over another, that of Glanuce, was
the Odeium (lb. ~ 6); and another was adorned
with a bronze statue of Poseidon, with a dolphin at
his feet, out of the mouth of which the water flowed. 6
(Paus. ii. 2. ~ 7. s. 8.) In the same city, was
another fountain on a still grander scale; namely,
that of Lerna, which was surrounded by a coloillade
with seats for those who desired a cool retreat in
summer; the water was no doubt collected in a
spacious basin in the centre. (Ib. 4. ~ 5. s. 6; see
also 5. ~ 1.) Several other fountains of a similar
kind to these are described or referred to by Pausaias (ii. 27, iv. 31, 33, 34, vii. 5, 21, viii. 1), of a house at Pompeii: in the painting, the vase and
arnong which two deserve special mention, as they pedestal rise out of a sheet of -water, which may
were within temples; namely, that in the temple be supposed to represent the inzpluviums in the
of Erechtheus at Athens, and of Poseidon at Man- atrium of a house. (Respecting the fountains of
tineia, which were salt-water springs (i. 26. ~ 5, Pompeii, see Pompeii, vol. i. p. 131, vol. ii. pp. 71,
viii. 10. ~ 4). Vitruvius mentions the fountain of 78, and Sir NV. Gell's Posmspeiana, vol. i. pp. 390,
Salmacis as among the admirable works of art at 395, plates 50, 53.) The proof which these founIlalicarnassus. (ii. 8. ~ 12.) tains afford, of the acquaintance of the ancients
The Romans also erected edifices of various de- with the chief law of hydrostatics is noticed under
grees of splendour over natural springs, such as the AQUAEDUCTUS, P. 109.
well-knIown grotto of Egeria, near Rome, where The forms given to fountains were as numerous
the natural cave is converted by the architect into as the varieties of taste and fiancy. The large flat
a sort of temple (comp. Plin. Ih. N. xxxvi. 21. vases were a common form, and they are found, of
s. 42), and the baptisteriumt of Constantine. A 5, 10, 20, and 30 feet in diameter, cut out of a
simiple mode of decorating less considerable springs single piece of some hard stone, such as porphyry,
was by covering them with a vault, in the top of granite, basanite, breccia, alabasterand marble. An.which was an opening, surrounded by a balustrade, ingenious and elegant variety, of which there is a
or by a low wall adorned with marble bas-reliefs, specimen in the Capitoline Museum, is a tripod, iup
one example of which, among many, is seen in a the centre of which the jet passes, the legs being
relief representing the twelve gods, now in the Capi- hollow to carry off the water again. Very often
toline Museum. In all cases, a cistern was colm- the water was made to flow out of bronze statues,
structed to contain the water, either by cutting it especially of boys, and of Tritons, Nereids, Satyrs,
out of the living rock, or (if the spring did not rise and such beings: several of these statues have been
out of rock) by building it of masonry. Vitruvius found at Pompeii; and four of them are engraved
discusses at length the different sorts of springs, in Pomnpeii, vol. i. p. 104, one of which is given be.and gives minute rules for testing the goodness of low. On the Monte Cavallo, at Rome, is a colossal
the spring, and for the construction of the cisterns statue of a river god, probably the Rhine, which
(viii. 3. 7). The observations of Vitruvius apply was formerly in the forum of Augustus, which it
chiefly to those springs and cisterns which formed refreshes with a stream of water pouring conthe sources of the aqueducts. tinually into a basin of granite twenty-seven feet
At Rome, a very large proportion of the im- in diameter. The celebrated group, known as
mense supply of water brought to the city by the the Toro Farnese, originally, in Hirt's opinion,
aqueducts, was devoted to the public fountains, adorned a fountain. Mythological subjects were