Euripus

An artifical water channel constructed by M. Agrippa across the W *Campus Martius in order to drain the *Stagnum Agrippae into the *Tiber (Strabo 13.1.19: ... καὶ τοῦ εὐρίπου; Frontin., Aq. 84.2: Euripo, cui ipsa (sc. aqua Virgo) nomen dedit; cf. Ov., Pont. 1.8.38). Fed by the *Aqua Virgo with clear running water, the Euripus had a great urbanistic impact and played a vital rôle in Agrippa’s building campaign on the *Campus Martius. Part of the Euripus can be seen on the Severan Marble Plan (frag. 252; Coarelli 1977, 834) and archaeological evidence allows its course to be plotted with relative accuracy. The Euripus is thought to have run parallel to the Tiber in the NW Campus Martius, and scattered remains of its channel have been recovered there (Gatti 282; Coarelli; Quilici-Gigli). The channel had a semicircular section (diam. 1.73 m) and was flanked by two parallel walls in opus reticulatum and tufa ashlar masonry; these building techniques, combined with the use of marble and travertine elsewhere in the structure, suggest an early Augustan date for the Euripus. Moreover, the stratigraphic level of these remains, which corresponds approximately to that of the Republican *Sepulcrum: A. Hirtius, would not sustain a later attribution (Coarelli, LTUR). Romanelli (317) dates the remains of the canal to the reign of Nero, and Shipley and Blake attribute them to part of the Neronian project for the organization of the Campus Martius. However, Lugli (1938, 159-60; id. 1970) and Nash accept an early-Imperial date for the canal. Discounting this archaeological evidence, Lloyd (197) argues that the Agrippan Euripus should not be identified with this canal, and should instead be located in the SW Campus Martius, N of the Pons Agrippae where it would have been fed entirely by the Aqua Virgo. There is no evidence that the Euripus was the boundary of the pomerium in the W Campus Martius as early as the Augustan period (Boatwright 489 n.16; contra, Coarelli 1977, 819-22, 830-37).