The Fucine Lake ( it, Lago Fucino or ) was a large

endorheic An endorheic basin (; also spelled endoreic basin or endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water, such as rivers or oceans, but drainage converges instead into lakes ...

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

in western Abruzzo, central Italy, stretching from Avezzano in the northwest to Ortucchio in the southeast, and touching

Trasacco Trasacco ( Marsicano: ') is a ''comune'' and town in the province of L'Aquila in the Abruzzo region of central-eastern Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe ...

in the southwest. Once the third largest lake in Italy, it was drained in 1878.

Lore

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: th ...

mentioned the former lake in the

Aeneid The ''Aeneid'' ( ; la, Aenē̆is or ) is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who fled the fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of th ...

in book 7, in that it weeps for

Umbro Umbro is an English sports equipment manufacturer founded in 1924 in Wilmslow, Cheshire and based in Manchester. They specialise in football and rugby sportswear featuring their ''Double Diamond'' logo. Umbro products are marketed in over 10 ...

, the healer priest killed tragically in battle. (See line 7:882 in the Fagles translation).

Roman drainage

Lake Fucino Map (Flickr 38955575 20bd3cd7eb o)

The

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

knew the lake as ''Fucinus Lacus'' and founded settlements on its banks, including Marruvium. It was the site of the Battle of Fucine Lake in 89 BC; however, while the lake provided fertile soil and a large quantity of fish, it was also believed to harbour

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...

, and, having no natural outflow, repeatedly flooded the surrounding arable land. The

Emperor Claudius Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54) was the fourth Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Drusus and Antonia Mino ...

attempted to control the lake's maximum level by digging a drainage tunnel through ''Monte Salviano'', requiring 30,000 workers and eleven years, but with uncertain success. Of the collapse of one of the tunnels

Cassius Dio Lucius Cassius Dio (), also known as Dio Cassius ( ), was a Roman historian and senator of maternal Greek origin. He published 80 volumes of the history on ancient Rome, beginning with the arrival of Aeneas in Italy. The volumes documented the ...

observed

"When the Fucine Lake caved in, the prominent freedman
Tiberius Claudius Narcissus Tiberius Claudius Narcissus (died ) was one of the freedmen who formed the core of the imperial court under the Roman emperor Claudius. He is described as ''praepositus ab epistulis'' (in charge of correspondence). Life He reportedly had gre ...
was severely blamed for it. For he had been in charge of the undertaking, and it was thought that after spending a good deal less than he had received he had then purposely contrived the collapse, in order that his wrong-doing might not be detected."Cassius Dio, Book LXI.33.5

The original lake had a fluctuating area of about which the Claudian initiative may have reduced to about . A collecting canal was extended and deepened by Hadrian which reduced the area of the lake to about . The larger 19th century tunnel, along the same route as the Roman tunnel, destroyed most of the archaeology of the Roman tunnel, which is why the success of the earlier Claudian scheme is so uncertain. The deeper Hadrianic canal destroyed the archaeology of the Claudian canal. The final Roman canal has left clear archaeology, showing that from the lake, the tunnel was deep, wide at the top, and wide at the base. It sloped to the tunnel at 0.05% (a gradient of one in two thousand).

Drain blockage

As the Empire fell, maintenance of the Roman drainage scheme stopped. Sediment and vegetation blocked the collecting canal. An earthquake on a fault crossing the collecting canal dropped the land on the lake side relative to the tunnel entrance. Investigations where the fault crosses the canal reveal that large amounts of sediment had accumulated in the canal before the earthquake. On the assumption that this earthquake would damage Rome it seems very likely that the earthquake occurred shortly before 508 AD when the earthquake damage to the Colosseum was repaired. The lake appears to have returned to its uncontrolled pre-Claudian area by the end of the 5th century and certainly by the end of the 6th century. Some suggestion, or attempt, to restore the Roman drainage scheme appears in both the 13th and 15th centuries but neither succeeded.

Modern drainage

In the 19th century, the Swiss

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...

Jean François Mayor de Montricher Jean François Mayor de Montricher (otherwise Frantz Mayor de Montricher) (19 April 1810 – 28 May 1858) was a Swiss engineer. He designed the Roquefavour Aqueduct, near Aix-en-Provence in France, and drained the Fucine Lake in Central Italy. Bi ...

was commissioned by the prince

Alessandro Torlonia Prince ''Don'' Alessandro Raffaele Torlonia, Prince of Fucino, Prince of Civitella-Cesi, Duke of Ceri (January 1, 1800 – February 7, 1886) was an Italian nobleman of the House of Torlonia, titled Duca di Ceri, Prince di Fucino. He was the son ...

to drain the lake. A and canal was begun in 1862 and after more than 13 years, the lake was completely drained. The resulting plain is one of Italy's most fertile regions. Antiquities from the Roman occupation of the land, after the first drainage scheme, became part of the Torlonia collection. Lago Fucino 1875

References

External links

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{{Authority control Mountain lakes Former lakes of Italy Lakes of Abruzzo Avezzano Marsica Endorheic lakes of Europe