Well of Junia Rufina
About
A wealthy patron named Junia Rufina transformed a natural spring near the Lion Gate into a monumental public well, dressing it in stone walls and brick arches and dedicating it with a Greek inscription calling herself "friend of the Nymphs." Its brick-faced concrete matches other buildings from a citywide renewal that researchers tie to Hadrian's own tour of Epirus in 132 CE — about fifteen years after the 117 CE snapshot this map captures, so the well did not yet exist when Hadrian took the throne.
What happened here
This is where most of the town gets its water, and it runs continuously because the aqueduct cannot be switched off. A basin catches the flow, jars are filled from spouts, and the overflow goes into a channel that flushes the street. Queues form early and the fountain is where the neighbourhood's news circulates. The stonework wears into grooves where thousands of hands and rope have rested on the rim. Animals drink at a lower trough. Bigger show-fountains at street corners and road junctions are put up by magistrates and carry their names; the water is the gift and the inscription is the receipt. Blocking, fouling or tapping a public fountain is an offence people are actually prosecuted for.
Sources
Nearby
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →