When did the Romans get aqueducts?
Technology
The ancient Romans also had a complex system of aqueducts, which were used to transport water across long distances. The first Roman aqueduct was built in 312 BCE. The eleventh and final ancient Roman aqueduct was built in 226 CE. Put together, the Roman aqueducts extended over 450 kilometers, but less than seventy kilometers of this was above ground and supported by arches.
Solomon's Pools
The growing water needs of the Jerusalem Temple and the pilgrims it attracted during the later part of the Second Temple period, led to efforts to create a conduit able to reach the relatively high top of the Temple Mount by gravity alone. The hills south of Jerusalem are higher than the city and its Temple Mount, and contain a number of perennial springs, offering a good choice to the ancient engineers. The water system gradually created consisted of two aqueducts feeding the pools, which themselves acted as a collection and distribution facility, and of three further aqueducts carrying the water north to Jerusalem (two) and to Herodium (the third one). Together, the five aqueducts totalled some 80 kilometres in length.
Recent evidence suggests that the lower pool was probably constructed during the Hasmonean period, between mid-second and mid-first century BC. It is connected to the so-called Lower or Low Level Aqueduct, built at the same time, which carries the water over a distance of 21.5 km to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
A second phase occurred when Herod the Great, using Roman engineering and in connection with his rebuilding program of the Second Temple, created the sophisticated Wadi el-Byiar Aqueduct, which fed the upper pool. The aqueduct was partially built as a tunnel which collected underground water from the aquifer it was passing through, in the way of a qanat, to supplement the spring water and surface runoff it was also carrying. Water from the same upper pool was taken to Jerusalem's Upper City, where Herod had erected his new palace, through the king's ambitious so-called Upper or High Level Aqueduct. North of Bethlehem a tall bridge consisting of two levels of arches helped pass a deep valley.
In a third phase, Roman prefect Pontius Pilate built of aqueduct bringing yet more water to Solomon's Pools from the large collection pools at Arrub to the south.
The water system based on Solomon's Pools has provided water to Jerusalem, on and off, for two millennia, all until 1967. The Low Level Aqueduct was the longest serving of the Jerusalem-bound ones. It started at the lower pool and once it reached Jerusalem, it crossed the Tyropoeon Valley over a bridge to find its way onto the Temple Mount platform, where it ended inside the great cisterns hidden underneath its surface.
Major repairs to the water system were done by the 10th Roman Legion, "Legio Fretensis" during the second century CE, later by the Mamluks, the Ottomans and the British. In 1902 for instance, a new 16 km pipeline to Jerusalem was inaugurated to mark the 60th birthday of the Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid II
Roman aqueduct
Rome had several springs within its perimeter walls but its groundwater was notoriously unpalatable; water from the river Tiber was badly affected by pollution and waterborne diseases. The city's demand for water had probably long exceeded its local supplies by 312 BC, when the city's first aqueduct, the Aqua Appia, was commissioned by the censor Appius Claudius Caecus. The Aqua Appia was one of two major public projects of the time; the other was a military road between Rome and Capua, the first leg of the so-called Appian Way. Both projects had significant strategic value, as the Third Samnite War had been under way for some thirty years by that point. The road allowed rapid troop movements; and by design or fortunate coincidence, most of the Aqua Appia ran within a buried conduit, relatively secure from attack. It was fed by a spring 16.4 km from Rome, and dropped 10 metres over its length to discharge approximately 75,500 cubic metres of water each day into a fountain at Rome's cattle market, the Forum Boarium, one of the city's lowest-lying public spaces.
Aqueduct (water supply)
The Indian subcontinent is believed to have some of the earliest aqueducts. Evidence can be found at the sites of present-day Hampi, Karnataka. The massive aqueducts near river Tungabhadra supplying irrigation water were once long. The waterways supplied water to royal bath tubs.
Cisterns of the Roman Baths, Beirut
For centuries, the streams and wells of Ain Naba’, Berjawi and Khandaq Al-Ghamiq provided Beirut with fresh water. At the time of Roman Berytus, four large bath complexes as well as numerous private baths increased the city’s water consumption. The Romans constructed an aqueduct fed by the Beirut River whose main source was located 10 km from the city. The aqueduct crossed the river at Qanater Zbaydeh and followed the slopes of Hazmieh to Mar Mikhael and Furn Al-Chebak. The water finally reached Riad Al Solh Square; there, at the foot of the Serail Hill, it was stored in large cisterns. An intricate network of lead or clay pipes and channels distributed the water to the various pools of the Roman Baths.
Kavala aqueduct
While the aqueduct is "probably of Roman origin", the present structure dates to the 16th century. A Byzantine barrier wall of the early 14th century, built as part of the fortifications on the Kavala acropolis, probably also functioned as an aqueduct. If so, it would have been a rare example of a Byzantine aqueduct, since Byzantine cities more typically used wells and cisterns rather than either maintaining existing Roman aqueducts or building new ones. The barrier wall was replaced with the present arched aqueduct during Suleiman the Magnificent's repair and improvement of the Byzantine fortifications. Some authors date that construction to the time of the 1522 Siege of Rhodes, but a more likely date is between 1530 and 1536. As late as 1911, it was still being used to supply the city with drinking water from Mount Pangaeus.
Valens Aqueduct
The exact date that construction on the aqueduct began is uncertain, but it was completed in 368 AD during the reign of Roman Emperor Valens, whose name it bears. The spectacular bridge section lay along the valley between the third and fourth hills of Constantinople, occupied respectively at that time by the Capitolium and the Church of the Holy Apostles. According to tradition, the aqueduct bridge was built using the stones of the walls of Chalcedon, pulled down as punishment in 366 after the revolt of Procopius. The structure was inaugurated in 373 by the urban prefect Clearchus, who commissioned a "Nymphaeum Maius" in the Forum of Theodosius, that was supplied with water from the aqueduct.
Roman aqueduct
Before the development of aqueduct technology, Romans, like most of their contemporaries in the ancient world, relied on local water sources such as springs and streams, supplemented by groundwater from privately or publicly owned wells, and by seasonal rain-water drained from rooftops into storage jars and cisterns. The reliance of ancient communities upon such water resources restricted their potential growth. Rome's aqueducts were not strictly Roman inventions – their engineers would have been familiar with the water-management technologies of Rome's Etruscan and Greek allies – but they proved conspicuously successful. By the early Imperial era, the city's aqueducts supported a population of over a million, and an extravagant water supply for public amenities had become a fundamental part of Roman life. The run-off of aqueduct water scoured the sewers of cities and towns. Water from aqueducts was also used to supply villas, ornamental urban and suburban gardens, market gardens, farms, and agricultural estates, the latter being the core of Rome's economy and wealth.
Maritime hydraulics in antiquity
With the issue of supplying water to a very large population, the Romans developed hydraulic systems for multiple applications: public water supply, power using water mills, hydraulic mining, fish tanks, irrigation, fire fighting, and of course aqueduct (Stein 2004). Scientists such as Ctesibius and Archimedes produced the first inventions involving hydraulic power (Oleson 1984).
Claudius
Claudius embarked on many public works throughout his reign, both in the capital and in the provinces. He built two aqueducts, the Aqua Claudia, begun by Caligula, and the Anio Novus. These entered the city in 52 AD and met at the Porta Maggiore. He also restored a third, the Aqua Virgo.
He paid special attention to transportation. Throughout Italy and the provinces he built roads and canals. Among these was a large canal leading from the Rhine to the sea, as well as a road from Italy to Germany – both begun by his father, Drusus. Closer to Rome, he built a navigable canal on the Tiber, leading to Portus, his new port just north of Ostia. This port was constructed in a semicircle with two moles and a lighthouse at its mouth. The construction also had the effect of reducing flooding in Rome.
Roman engineering
The Romans were among the first civilizations to harness the power of water. They built some of the first watermills outside of Greece for grinding flour and spread the technology for constructing watermills throughout the Mediterranean region. A famous example occurs at Barbegal in southern France, where no fewer than 16 overshot mills built into the side of a hill were worked by a single aqueduct, the outlet from one feeding the mill below in a cascade.
Tor Fiscale Park, Rome
Six Roman aqueducts criss-crossed the park area, including the Aqua Claudia, the Aqua Marcia and the Aqua Anio Novus. Much of Aqua Marcia was demolished to make way for the Aqua Felice, which was constructed in the Middle Ages. Aqua Claudia was almost fully dismantled over the centuries to provide building materials for new houses. 
The area of the park was suitable to be transformed into a fortified zone, which could be used to control both the Via Latina and the Appian Way. This was first done by the Ostrogoths during the Siege of Rome (537–38) in the early years of the Gothic War (535–554). They closed in the arches of the aqueducts to provide a fortified camp, enabling them to block the flow of supplies to the city via the Via Appia and the Via Latina. They also interrupted the flow of water to the city by severing the aqueducts. Subsequently, the area took on the name of Campus Barbaricus. Its strategic importance meant that it continued to be used by invading armies. For example, in 1084 the troops of Robert Guiscard, who had come to the aid of Pope Gregory VII in his struggle with the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV, pitched their camp in this area.
Aqua Appia
The Aqua Appia was the first test of Roman engineering of its type and is quite unsophisticated in comparison to Rome's ten other aqueducts. Raffaelo Fabretti, one of the first to excavate the Appia, characterises it as "The first fruits of Rome's Foresight and greatness". Nevertheless, the Appia was kept in use into the era of Augustus Caesar through regular maintenance, renovations and even an expansion. Little of the original material remains today and much of information on the aqueduct comes from Frontinus who was appointed as water commissioner and recorded the technical, and some historical, details of the Appia about one hundred years after its completion.
List of aqueducts in the Roman Empire
This is a list of aqueducts in the Roman Empire. For a more complete list of known and possible Roman aqueducts and their bridges see List of Roman bridges.
Pipeline transport
Two millennia ago, the ancient Romans made use of large aqueducts to transport water from higher elevations by building the aqueducts in graduated segments that allowed gravity to push the water along until it reached its destination. Hundreds of these were built throughout Europe and elsewhere, and along with flour mills were considered the lifeline of the Roman Empire. The ancient Chinese also made use of channels and pipe systems for public works. The famous Han Dynasty court eunuch Zhang Rang (d. 189 AD) once ordered the engineer Bi Lan to construct a series of square-pallet chain pumps outside the capital city of Luoyang. These chain pumps serviced the imperial palaces and living quarters of the capital city as the water lifted by the chain pumps was brought in by a stoneware pipe system.
Roman aqueduct
A licensed right to aqueduct water on farmland could lead to increased productivity, a cash income through the sale of surplus foodstuffs, and an increase in the value of the land itself. In the countryside, permissions to draw aqueduct water for irrigation were particularly hard to get; the exercise and abuse of such rights were subject to various known legal disputes and judgements, and at least one political campaign; in the early 2nd century BC Cato tried to block all unlawful rural outlets, especially those owned by the landed elite - "Look how much he bought the land for, where he is channeling the water!" - during his censorship. His attempted reform proved impermanent at best. Though illegal tapping could be punished by seizure of assets, including the illegally watered land and its produce, this law seems never to have been used, and was probably impracticable; food surpluses kept prices low. Grain shortages in particular could lead to famine and social unrest. Any practical solution must strike a balance between the water-needs of urban populations and grain producers, tax the latter's profits, and secure sufficient grain at reasonable cost for the Roman poor (the so-called "corn dole") and the army. Rather than seek to impose unproductive and probably unenforcable bans, the authorities issued individual water grants (though seldom in rural areas) and licenses, and regulated water outlets, with variable success. In the 1st century AD, Pliny the Elder, like Cato, could fulminate against grain producers who continued to wax fat on profits from public water and public land.
Roman aqueducts of Toledo
The Romans captured Toledo in 193 BC. The aqueducts are difficult to date precisely. They seem to have been built in the 1st or 2nd centuries A.D.
Canal
Canals with sources of water at a higher level can deliver water to a destination such as a city where water is needed. The Roman Empire's aqueducts were such water supply canals.
Navigable aqueduct
Navigable aqueducts (sometimes called water bridges) are bridge structures that carry navigable waterway canals over other rivers, valleys, railways or roads. They are primarily distinguished by their size, carrying a larger cross-section of water than most water-supply aqueducts. Although Roman aqueducts were sometimes used for transport, aqueducts were not generally used until the 17th century when the problems of summit level canals had been solved and modern canal systems were developed. The 662-metre long steel Briare aqueduct carrying the Canal latéral à la Loire over the River Loire was built in 1896. It was ranked as the longest navigable aqueduct in the world for more than a century, until the Magdeburg Water Bridge in Germany took the title in the early 21st century.
Aqua Claudia
Aqua Claudia, ("the Claudian water") was an ancient Roman aqueduct that, like the "Anio Novus", was begun by Emperor Caligula (12–41 AD) in 38 AD and finished by Emperor Claudius (10 BC – 54 AD) in 52 AD.
Roman aqueducts of Toledo
There are remains of two Roman aqueducts which supplied the Roman city of "Toletum" (modern Toledo) in Castile-La Mancha, Spain. The infrastructure carried water from various sources with the main reservoir located at Mazarambroz to the south of the city in the Montes de Toledo Comarca.
Roman aqueduct
Rome's first aqueduct (312 BC) discharged at very low pressure and at a more-or-less constant rate in the city's main trading centre and cattle-market, probably into a low-level, cascaded series of troughs or basins; the upper for household use, the lower for watering the livestock traded there. Most Romans would have filled buckets and storage jars at the basins, and carried the water to their apartments; the better off would have sent slaves to perform the same task. The outlet's elevation was too low to offer any city household or building a direct supply; the overflow drained into Rome's main sewer, and from there into the Tiber. At this time, Rome had no public baths. The first were probably built in the next century, based on precursors in neighboring Campania; a limited number of private baths and small, street-corner public baths would have had a private water supply, but once aqueduct water was brought to the city's higher elevations, large and well-appointed public baths were built throughout the city, and drinking water was delivered to public fountains at high pressure. Public baths and fountains became distinctive features of Roman civilization, and the baths in particular became important social centres.
List of Roman aqueducts by date
This is a list of aqueducts in the city of Rome listed in chronological order of their construction.
Ancient Roman bathing
The Romans emulated many of the Greeks' bathing practices, and surpassed them in the size of their baths. As in Greece, the Roman bath became a focal center for social and recreational activity. With the expansion of the Roman Empire, the idea of the public bath spread to all parts of the Mediterranean and into regions of Europe and North Africa. By constructing aqueducts, the Romans had enough water not only for domestic, agricultural, and industrial uses, but also for their leisurely pursuits. Aqueducts provided water that was later heated for use in the baths. Today, the extent of the Roman bath is revealed at ruins and in archaeological excavations in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.
Aqua Alsietina
In Ancient Rome, the Aqua Alsietina (sometimes called Aqua Augusta) was the earliest of the two western Roman aqueducts, erected somewhere around 2BC, during the reign of emperor Augustus. It was the only water supply for the Transtiberine region (the right bank of the river Tiber).
Roman aqueduct
Most Roman aqueducts were flat-bottomed, arch-section conduits that ran 0.5 to 1 m beneath the ground surface, with inspection-and-access covers at regular intervals. Conduits above ground level were usually slab-topped. Early conduits were ashlar-built but from around the late Republican era, brick-faced concrete was often used instead. The concrete used for conduit linings was usually waterproof. The flow of water depended on gravity alone. The volume of water transported within the conduit depended on the catchment hydrology – rainfall, absorption, and runoff – the cross section of the conduit, and its gradient; most conduits ran about two-thirds full. The conduit's cross section was also determined by maintenance requirements; workmen must be able to enter and access the whole, with minimal disruption to its fabric.
List of aqueducts in the city of Rome
This page lists ancient Roman aqueducts in the city of Rome.
In order to meet the massive water needs of its huge population, the city of Rome was supplied with 11 aqueducts. Their combined capacity was capable of supplying at least 1,127,000 cubic metres (nearly 300 million gallons) of water to the city each day mostly from the Anio and the Apennine Mountains, serving a million citizens. Detailed statistics for the city's aqueducts were logged around 97 AD by Sextus Julius Frontinus, the "curator aquarum" (superintendent of the aqueducts) for Rome during the reign of Nerva. Less information is known about aqueducts built after Frontinus.
Aqua Marcia
The Aqua Marcia () was one of the longest of the 11 aqueducts that supplied the city of ancient Rome. The aqueduct was built between 144–140 BC, during the Roman Republic. The still-functioning Acqua Felice from 1586 runs on long stretches along the route of the Aqua Marcia.
Roman aqueduct
Most Roman aqueducts proved reliable and durable; some were maintained into the early modern era, and a few are still partly in use. Methods of aqueduct surveying and construction are noted by Vitruvius in his work "De Architectura" (1st century BC). The general Frontinus gives more detail in his official report on the problems, uses and abuses of Imperial Rome's public water supply. Notable examples of aqueduct architecture include the supporting piers of the Aqueduct of Segovia, and the aqueduct-fed cisterns of Constantinople.
Roman aqueduct
The aqueducts were under the overall care and governance of a water commissioner ("curator aquarum"). It was a high status, high-profile appointment. In 97, Frontinus served both as consul and as "curator aquarum", under the emperor Nerva. Little is known of the day-to-day business of aqueduct maintenance teams ("aquarii"). Under the emperor Claudius, Rome's contingent of imperial "aquarii" comprised a "familia aquarum" of 700 persons, both slave and free, funded through a combination of Imperial largesse and water taxes. They were supervised by an Imperial freedman, who held office as "procurator aquarium". Theirs was probably a never-ending routine of patrol, inspection and cleaning, punctuated by occasional emergencies. Full closure of any aqueduct for servicing would have been a rare event, kept as brief as possible, with repairs preferably made when water demand was lowest, which was presumably at night. The water supply could be shut off at its aqueduct outlet when small or local repairs were needed, but substantial maintenance and repairs to the aqueduct conduit itself required the complete diversion of water at any point upstream or at the spring-head itself.
Technological history of the Roman military
However, the Romans made many significant technological advances, such as the invention of hydraulic cement and concrete. They used such new materials to great advantage in their structures, many of which survive to this day, like their masonry aqueducts, such as the Pont du Gard, and buildings, such as the Pantheon and Baths of Diocletian in Rome. Their methods were recorded by such luminaries as Vitruvius and Frontinus for example, who wrote handbooks to advise fellow engineers and architects. Romans knew enough history to be aware that widespread technological change had occurred in the past and brought benefits, as shown for example by Pliny the Elder's Naturalis Historia. That tradition continued as the empire grew in size and absorbed new ideas. Romans thought of themselves as practical, so small-scale innovation was common (such as the development of the ballista into the polybolos or repeating ballista). The traditional view is that their reliance on a plentiful slave labour force and a lack of a patent or copyright system have both been cited as reasons that there was little social or financial pressure to automate or reduce manual tasks. However, this view is being challenged by new research that shows they did indeed innovate, and on a wide scale. Thus the watermill had been known to the Greeks, but it was the Romans who developed their efficient utilisation. The set of mills at Barbegal in southern France were worked by a single aqueduct, which drove no fewer than 16 overshot mills built into the side of a hill. They probably were built by the army and supplied flour to a wide region. Floating mills were also used to exploit fast flowing rivers.
Roman aqueduct
During the fall of the Roman Empire, some aqueducts were deliberately cut by enemies but more fell into disuse because of deteriorating Roman infrastructure and lack of maintenance, such as the Eifel aqueduct ("pictured right"). Observations made by the Spaniard Pedro Tafur, who visited Rome in 1436, reveal misunderstandings of the very nature of the Roman aqueducts:
During the Renaissance, the standing remains of the city's massive masonry aqueducts inspired architects, engineers and their patrons; Pope Nicholas V renovated the main channels of the Roman "Aqua Virgo" in 1453. Many aqueducts in Rome's former empire were kept in good repair. The 15th-century rebuilding of aqueduct at Segovia in Spain shows advances on the Pont du Gard by using fewer arches of greater height, and so greater economy in its use of the raw materials. The skill in building aqueducts was not lost, especially of the smaller, more modest channels used to supply water wheels. Most such mills in Britain were developed in the medieval period for bread production, and used similar methods as that developed by the Romans with leats tapping local rivers and streams.
List of Roman cisterns
The list of Roman cisterns offers an overview over Ancient Roman cisterns. Freshwater reservoir were commonly set up at the termini of aqueducts and their branch lines, supplying urban households, agricultural estates, imperial palaces, thermae or naval bases of the Roman navy.
List of fountains in Rome
For more than two thousand years fountains have provided drinking water and decorated the piazzas of Rome. During the Roman Empire, in 98 AD, according to Sextus Julius Frontinus, the Roman consul who was named "curator aquarum" or guardian of the water of the city, Rome had nine aqueducts which fed 39 monumental fountains and 591 public basins, not counting the water supplied to the Imperial household, baths and owners of private villas. Each of the major fountains was connected to two different aqueducts, in case one was shut down for service.
Roman aqueduct
By 145 BC, the city had again outgrown its combined supplies. An official commission found the aqueduct conduits decayed, their water depleted by leakage and illegal tapping. The praetor Quintus Marcius Rex restored them, and introduced a third, "more wholesome" supply, the Aqua Marcia, Rome's longest aqueduct and high enough to supply the Capitoline Hill. The works cost 180,000,000 sesterces, and took two years to complete. As demand grew still further, more aqueducts were built, including the Aqua Tepula in 127 BC and the Aqua Julia in 33 BC. Aqueduct-building programmes reached a peak in the Imperial Era. Augustus' reign saw the building of the Aqua Virgo, and the short Aqua Alsietina that supplied Trastevere's artificial lake with water for staged sea-fights to entertain the populace. Another short Augustan aqueduct supplemented the Aqua Marcia with water of "excellent quality". The emperor Caligula added or began two aqueducts completed by his successor Claudius; the 69 km (42.8 mile) Aqua Claudia, which gave good quality water but failed on several occasions; and the Anio Novus, highest of all Rome's aqueducts and one of the most reliable but prone to muddy, discoloured waters, particularly after rain, despite its use of settling tanks.
Fountains in France
Beginning in the 5th century A.D., with the invasion of barbarian tribes into France, the Roman fountain system began to break down. Aqueducts were wrecked or fell into ruin, cities were abandoned, and the fountains usually stopped working, either from destruction or from neglect. French cities were not to have a reliable water distribution system until the 18th century.
During the Middle Ages, Roman aqueducts were wrecked or fell into decay, and many fountains in France stopped working, so fountains existed mainly in art and literature, or in secluded monasteries or palace gardens.
Aqua Appia
The Aqua Appia was the first Roman aqueduct, constructed in 312 BC by the co-censors Gaius Plautius Venox and Appius Claudius Caecus, the same Roman censor who also built the important Via Appia.
Cato the Elder
Among other things he repaired the aqueducts, cleansed the sewers, and prevented private persons drawing off public water for their own use. The Aqua Appia was the first aqueduct of Rome. It was constructed in 312 BC by Appius Claudius Caecus, the same Roman censor who also built the important Via Appia. Unauthorised plumbing into Rome's aqueducts had always been a problem, as Frontinus records much later. Cato also ordered the demolition of houses which encroached on the public way, and built the first basilica in the Forum near the Curia (Livy, "History", 39.44; Plutarch, "Marcus Cato", 19). He raised the amount paid by the publicani for the right to collect taxes and, at the same time, reduced the contract prices for the construction of public works.
Roman technology
Water inside the aqueducts depended entirely on gravity. The raised stone channels in which the water travelled were slightly slanted. The water was carried directly from mountain springs. After it had gone through the aqueduct, the water was collected in tanks and fed through pipes to fountains, toilets, etc.
Aqua Virgo
During the 17th century extensive lead piping was found in front of the church of Saint Ignazio where many believed this to be the terminal distribution for the aqueduct although this theory has since been put to scrutiny in the light of recent evidence. Due to the main reasons for the Aqua Virgo of supplying Agrippa’s baths as well as supply water to the inadequately served regions VII, IX, and XIV in the city of Rome the aqueduct continued beyond the Pantheon and the baths. The water was carried across the bridge of Agrippa after it was first transported from the low area of the Campus Martius over the higher ground of the ridge surrounding the Pantheon basin by using the baths drainage system as well as the Stagnum (an artificial lake) and the Euripus (an artificial channel for swimming) where it was drained into the Tiber River.
Aqueduct of the Gier
The Aqueduct of the Gier (French "Aqueduc du Gier") is an ancient Roman aqueduct probably constructed in the 1st century AD to provide water for Lugdunum (Lyon), in what is now eastern France. It is the longest and best preserved of four Roman aqueducts that served the growing capital of the Roman province of Gallia Lugdunensis. It drew its water from the source of the Gier, a small tributary of the Rhone, on the slopes of Mont Pilat, south-west of Lyon.
Roman technology
The Romans made extensive use of aqueducts, dams, bridges, and amphitheatres. They were also responsible for many innovations to roads, sanitation, and construction in general. Roman architecture in general was greatly influenced by the Greeks and Etruscans. Many of the columns and arches seen in Roman architecture were adopted from the Greek and Etruscan civilizations present in Italy.
Sanitation in ancient Rome
The management and maintenance involved in keeping the aqueducts flowing is well described by Frontinus, a general appointed by the emperor Nerva as water commissioner toward the end of the first century AD. He described his work on the distribution system in De aquaeductu published at the end of the first century AD. When first appointed, he surveyed and mapped the entire system, and strove to investigate the many abuses of the water supply, such as the act of tapping into pipes illegally. He also systematized aqueduct maintenance with gangs of specially trained workmen. He also tried to separate the supply, so that the best-quality water went to drinking and cooking, while second-quality water flowed to the fountains, baths, and, finally, sewers.
The system in Rome was copied in all provincial towns and cities of the Roman Empire, and even down to villas that could afford the plumbing. Roman citizens came to expect high standards of hygiene, and the army was also well provided with latrines and bath houses, or thermae. Aqueducts were used everywhere in the empire not just to supply drinking water for private houses but to supply other needs such as irrigation, public fountains, and thermae. Indeed, many of the provincial aqueducts survive in working order to the present day, although modernized and updated. Of the eleven ancient aqueducts serving Rome, eight of them entered Rome close to each other on the Esquiline Hill. Also, the first aqueduct was the Aqua Appia built in 312 BC by the censor Appius. Other aqueducts of importance to Roman sanitation was the Aqua Marcia built between 144-140 BC, which provided large amounts of quality water to Rome. One Aqueduct with some major importance to Rome was Traiana, which tapped from the clear springs of the northern and western slopes above lake Bracciano. It is said that the “Romans fully appreciated the importance of plentiful and wholesome supply of water, for domestic purposes to health of the Community. It was stated by Amulree that for 441 years after the building of Rome, it depended on water from the Tiber for drinking and other domestic purposes, but in 312 BC Appius Claudius Crassus provide Rome with water from the Springs of the Alban hills and brought to consumers by the means of Aqueducts. The Amulree notes state that this practice is in line with the teachings of Hippocrates: that stagnant water should be refused, not the spring water from the hills or rain water.
Rainwater harvesting
Rainwater harvesting was also common in the Roman Empire. While Roman Aqueducts are well-known, Roman cisterns were also commonly used and their construction expanded with the Empire. For example, in Pompeii, rooftop water storage was common before the construction of the Aqueduct in the 1st century BC. This history continued with the Byzantine Empire, for example the Basilica Cistern in Istanbul.
Agriculture in ancient Rome
The Romans improved crop growing by watering growing plants using aqueducts. An increasing amount of evidence suggests that some parts of the industry were mechanized. For example, extensive sets of mills existed in Gaul and Rome at an early date to grind wheat into flour. The most impressive extant remains occur at Barbegal in southern France, near Arles. Sixteen overshot water wheels arranged in two columns were fed by the main aqueduct to Arles, the outflow from one being the supply to the next one down in the series. The mills apparently operated from the end of the 1st century AD until about the end of the 3rd century. The capacity of the mills has been estimated at 4.5 tons of flour per day, sufficient to supply enough bread for the 12,500 inhabitants occupying the town of Arelate at that time.
Aqua Alexandrina
The aqueduct was constructed in AD 226 as the last of the eleven ancient aqueducts of Rome. It was built under the reign of Emperor Alexander Severus to supply his enlargement of the Thermae of Nero which were renamed "Thermae Alexandrinae". The aqueduct was repaired for the first time in the era of Diocletian between the 3rd and 4th century, later between the 5th and 6th century and finally in the 8th century during the reign of Pope Adrian I. The aqueduct was described in the 17th century by Raffaello Fabretti (1680).
Los Bañales
Located in an immense plain in the center of the fluvial basins of the rivers Riguel and Arba de Luesia, from its beginnings the city of Los Bañales had to solve, by means of cisterns and springs now mostly vanished, how to obtain a water supply. But its growth or the loss of the original aquifers led to the construction of a hydraulic system, unparalleled in the Roman world, which would provide the volume of water necessary to cover all the city's needs. Judging by the marks attested in some of the ashlars of the pillars of the aqueduct alluding to the Legio IIII Macedonica that participated in the construction between 9 and 5 a. C of the road between Caesaraugusta and Pompelo -together with Legio VI Victrix and Legio X Gemina-, one could date the construction of the aqueduct on those same dates, coinciding with what would be the first monumental takeoff of the city. In April 2015, within the program of the First Roman Weekend in Los Bañales, two new audiovisuals dedicated to the hydraulic system of the city were presented. The first one was a report directed by the young Aragonese filmmaker Álvaro Bonet y el segundo, una recreación infográfica realizada en Blender por Pablo Serrano and the second one, an infographic recreation made in Blender by Pablo Serrano, of which fragments also appear in the first of the audiovisuals.
Diocletianus Aqueduct
The Diocletian Aqueduct is an ancient Roman aqueduct near Split, Croatia constructed during the Roman Empire to supply water to the Palace of Emperor Diocletian.
Legacy of the Roman Empire
Some of the more famous examples are the Roman aqueducts (some of which are still in use today), Roman roads, water powered milling machines, thermal heating systems (as employed in Roman baths, and also used in palaces and wealthy homes) sewage and pipe systems and the invention and widespread use of concrete.
S'Argamassa Roman Fish Farm
Leading to the processing plant on the coast, the Romans constructed an aqueduct to carry fresh clean water from a nearby stream to the processing plant. Part of this aqueduct can still be seen today. The conduit is built from large limestone slabs with a channel carved into the top surface. Unfortunately it is rather neglected these days but a run of it can still be seen as it runs down to the coast alongside a modern hotel complex.
Qanat
Among the qanats built in the Roman Empire, the long Gadara Aqueduct in northern Jordan was possibly the longest continuous qanat ever built. Partly following the course of an older Hellenistic aqueduct, excavation work arguably started after a visit by emperor Hadrian in 129–130 AD. The Gadara Aqueduct was never quite finished and was put in service only in sections.
Bathing
Ancient Rome developed a network of aqueducts to supply water to all large towns and population centres and had indoor plumbing, with pipes that terminated in homes and at public wells and fountains. The Roman public baths were called thermae. The thermae were not simply baths, but important public works that provided facilities for many kinds of physical exercise and ablutions, with cold, warm, and hot baths, rooms for instruction and debate, and usually one Greek and one Latin library. They were provided for the public by a benefactor, usually the Emperor. Other empires of the time didn't show such an affinity for public works, but this Roman practice spread their culture to places where there may have been more resistance to foreign mores. Unusually for the time, the thermae were not class-stratified; being available to all for no charge or a small fee. With the fall of the Roman Empire, the aqueduct system fell into disrepair and disuse. But even before that, during the Christianization of the Empire, changing ideas about public morals led the baths into disfavor.
Watermill
Although to date only a few dozen Roman mills are archaeologically traced, the widespread use of aqueducts in the period suggests that many remain to be discovered. Recent excavations in Roman London, for example, have uncovered what appears to be a tide mill together with a possible sequence of mills worked by an aqueduct running along the side of the River Fleet.
History of Athens
He built the first aqueduct as an underground tunnel. Its sources were most likely on the slopes of Mount Hymettos and along the Ilissos river. It supplied, among other structures, the fountain house in the southeast corner of the Agora, but it had a number of branches. In the 4th century BC it was replaced by a system of terracotta pipes in a stone-built underground channel, sometimes called the Hymettos aqueduct; many sections had round, oval or square access holes on top of about .
Pipe segments of this system are displayed at the Evangelismos and Syntagma Metro stations.
Aqueduct (bridge)
Bridges were a distinctive feature of Roman aqueducts which were built in all parts of the Roman Empire, from Germany to Africa, and especially in the city of Rome, where they supplied water to public baths and for drinking. Roman aqueducts set a standard of engineering that was not surpassed for more than a thousand years.
Lugdunum
Lugdunum seems to have had a population of several thousand at the time Roman foundation. The citizens were administratively assigned to the Galerian tribe. The aqueduct of the , completed around 20BC, was the first of at least four aqueducts supplying water to the city.
History of water supply and sanitation
The Roman Empire had indoor plumbing, meaning a system of aqueducts and pipes that terminated in homes and at public wells and fountains for people to use. Rome and other nations used lead pipes; while commonly thought to be the cause of lead poisoning in the Roman Empire, the combination of running water which did not stay in contact with the pipe for long and the deposition of precipitation scale actually mitigated the risk from lead pipes.
Arts in Rome
Aqueducts built during Roman times include the Appius, the Vetus Anio, the Aqua Marcia, the Aqua Tepula, the Aqua Iulia, the Aqua Virgo, the Aqua Alsietina, the Aqua Claudia, the Anio Novus, the Aqua Traiana and the Aqua Alexandrina. In the modern age, the Popes restored the ancient Roman aqueducts and had more built, such as Acqua Felice. The Acquedotto del Pescheria-Capore and the Acquedotto Appio-Alessandrino were built in the 20th century.
Arch bridge
Roman arch bridges were usually semicircular, although a number were segmental arch bridges (such as Alconétar Bridge), a bridge which has a curved arch that is less than a semicircle. The advantages of the segmental arch bridge were that it allowed great amounts of flood water to pass under it, which would prevent the bridge from being swept away during floods and the bridge itself could be more lightweight. Generally, Roman bridges featured wedge-shaped primary arch stones (voussoirs) of the same in size and shape. The Romans built both single spans and lengthy multiple arch aqueducts, such as the Pont du Gard and Segovia Aqueduct. Their bridges featured from an early time onwards flood openings in the piers, e.g. in the Pons Fabricius in Rome (62 BC), one of the world's oldest major bridges still standing.
Sanitation in ancient Rome
It is estimated that the first sewers of ancient Rome were built between 800 and 735 BC. Drainage systems evolved slowly, and began primarily as a means to drain marshes and storm runoff. The sewers were mainly for the removal of surface drainage and underground water. The sewage system as a whole did not really take off until the arrival of the Cloaca Maxima, an open channel that was later covered, and one of the best-known sanitation artifacts of the ancient world. Most sources believe it was built during the reign of the three Etruscan kings in the sixth century BC. This "greatest sewer" of Rome was originally built to drain the low-lying land around the Forum. It is not known how effective the sewers were, especially in removing excrement.
Aqua Appia
Although there were no formal Roman predecessors for the Aqua Appia, there were plenty of examples that existed in the Greek and Etruscan world. Greek influence came from their use of terracota pipes that were laid along the bottom of a channel or a large tunnel. This technique relates to the Roman technique in that it uses a water channel within a larger tunnel. The difference between the two is the fact that the Romans began to favour masonry conduits rather than the terracotta pipes which were generally used by the Greeks throughout the history of their aqueducts. A. Trevor Hodge, in his book "Roman Aqueducts and Water Supply", mentions the possibility that the Romans could indirectly have been influenced by the Iranian qanat which is a tunnel driven into a hillside to tap an aquiferous stratum deep inside it. It is believed that the Etruscan water channel system, the "cuniculi" is a form of the qanat and Hodge asserts that since the Romans had contact with the Etruscans and openly adopted other aspects of their culture they could have been implementing techniques and skills that were originally of Eastern descent. Etruscan water channels are also generally believed to have a great amount of influence on the Roman Aqua Appia. Their expertise in underground tunnelling served the function of draining water rather than supplying water. Nevertheless, undoubtedly the Romans gained much practical knowledge in underground water channelling from the Etruscans. "After all, the earliest aqueduct at Rome, The Aqua Appia, was itself entirely underground and in engineering if not in purpose of function, can have differed little from an Etruscan "cuniculis"
Roman Empire
The Romans built many dams and reservoirs for water collection, such as the Subiaco Dams, two of which fed the Anio Novus, one of the largest aqueducts of Rome. They built 72 dams just on the Iberian peninsula, and many more are known across the Empire, some still in use. Several earthen dams are known from Roman Britain, including a well-preserved example from Longovicium (Lanchester).
The Romans constructed numerous aqueducts. A surviving treatise by Frontinus, who served as "curator aquarum" (water commissioner) under Nerva, reflects the administrative importance placed on ensuring the water supply. Masonry channels carried water from distant springs and reservoirs along a precise gradient, using gravity alone. After the water passed through the aqueduct, it was collected in tanks and fed through pipes to public fountains, baths, toilets, or industrial sites. The main aqueducts in the city of Rome were the Aqua Claudia and the Aqua Marcia. The complex system built to supply Constantinople had its most distant supply drawn from over 120 km away along a sinuous route of more than 336 km. Roman aqueducts were built to remarkably fine tolerance, and to a technological standard that was not to be equalled until modern times. The Romans also made use of aqueducts in their extensive mining operations across the empire, at sites such as Las Medulas and Dolaucothi in South Wales.
Roman aqueduct
Aqueducts moved water through gravity alone, along a slight overall downward gradient within conduits of stone, brick, or concrete; the steeper the gradient, the faster the flow. Most conduits were buried beneath the ground and followed the contours of the terrain; obstructing peaks were circumvented or, less often, tunneled through. Where valleys or lowlands intervened, the conduit was carried on bridgework, or its contents fed into high-pressure lead, ceramic, or stone pipes and siphoned across. Most aqueduct systems included sedimentation tanks, which helped reduce any water-borne debris. Sluices and "castella aquae" (distribution tanks) regulated the supply to individual destinations. In cities and towns, the run-off water from aqueducts scoured the drains and sewers.
Aqua Appia
Over the years more aqueducts were built with increasing sophistication and the Aqua Appia was neglected for some time. Nevertheless, the Appia was still kept in use with a few renovations were made and it was expanded by Augustus to allow it to supply more water. In 144 BC the Senate ordered Quintus Marcius Rex to repair the leaks that were forming in the channel and to reclaim the water that was being illegally redirected by citizens who had tapped into the aqueduct. Agrippa made minor repairs again in 33 BC. This phase of renovation is thought to be part of the promise made by Augustus to renovate all of the older aqueducts and add to the Appia by building a new branch called the "ramus Augustae" whose source was near the source of the Appia "at the sixth milestone, on the Via Praenestina, on a crossroad, 980 paces to the left, near the Via Collatina". The "ramus Augustae" ran an independent course of 6,380 paces to the "spes setus" where it joined the Appia. It is this point that Frontinus refers to as "Gemelli" (the Twins).
Eifel Aqueduct
Archaeological research on the Eifel aqueduct started in the 19th century. C.A. Eick was the discoverer of the farthest source from Cologne at "Grüner Pütz" near Nettersheim (in 1867). Systematic study of the aqueduct was carried out from 1940 to 1970 by Waldemar Haberey . His 1971 book is still a suitable guide along the course of the construction. In 1980, archaeologist Klaus Grewe completely mapped out the location line and added it to the official German topographic map. His "Atlas der römischen Wasserleitungen nach Köln" (Atlas of Roman Aqueducts to Cologne, 1986) is a standard work for researchers in Roman architecture.
Pope Nicholas V
His first care was practical, to reinforce the city's fortifications, cleaning and even paving some main streets and restoring the water supply. The end of ancient Rome is sometimes dated from the destruction of its magnificent array of aqueducts by 6th-century invaders. In the Middle Ages Romans depended for water on wells and cisterns, and the poor dipped their water from the yellow Tiber. The Aqua Virgo aqueduct, originally constructed by Agrippa, was restored by Nicholas and emptied into a simple basin that Alberti designed, the predecessor of the Trevi Fountain.
Berytus
Indeed, four large bath complexes as well as numerous private baths increased the city’s water consumption: the Romans constructed an aqueduct fed by the Beirut River whose main source was located 10 km from the city. The aqueduct crossed the river at Qanater Zbaydeh and the water finally reached the place of actual Riad Al Solh Square; there, at the foot of the Serail Hill, it was stored in large cisterns. An intricate network of lead or clay pipes and channels distributed the water to the various pools of the Roman Baths.
Aqua Alexandrina
The Aqua Alexandrina () was a Roman aqueduct located in the city of Rome. The 22.4 km long aqueduct carried water from Pantano Borghese to the Baths of Alexander on the Campus Martius. It remained in use from the 3rd to the 8th century AD.
Fontana delle Tartarughe
The Acqua Vergine had been one of the first Roman aqueducts, opened by Marcus Agrippa, a chief aide of emperor Augustus, in 19 b.c.. It carried water from the village of Salone in the Alban Hills, nine miles north of Rome, and ended in a fountain near the Pantheon. It was known for the purity of its water. The aqueduct was destroyed by the Visigoths in the 6th century, then partially restored by Pope Adrian I (772-795) in the 8th century. Through the Middle Ages it was the only aqueduct supplying drinking water to Roman fountains; the rest of the city's drinking water came from the Tiber River.
Roman aqueduct
The Romans constructed aqueducts throughout their Republic and later Empire, to bring water from outside sources into cities and towns. Aqueduct water supplied public baths, latrines, fountains, and private households; it also supported mining operations, milling, farms, and gardens.
Fountain
Ancient Rome was a city of fountains. According to Sextus Julius Frontinus, the Roman consul who was named "curator aquarum" or guardian of the water of Rome in 98 AD, Rome had nine aqueducts which fed 39 monumental fountains and 591 public basins, not counting the water supplied to the Imperial household, baths and owners of private villas. Each of the major fountains was connected to two different aqueducts, in case one was shut down for service.
Sanitation in ancient Rome
The aqueducts provided the large volumes of water that—after serving drinking, bathing, and other needs—flushed through the sewers. A system of eleven aqueducts supplied the city with water from as far away as the river Anio. Anio Novus and Aqua Claudia were two of the biggest systems. The distribution system was carefully designed so that all waste water drained into the Cloaca Maxima.
Cura Annonae
A steady supply of water was needed for watermills and this came from the Aqua Traiana, an aqueduct bringing water some from springs near Lake Bracciano to Janiculum hill just outside the walls of the city of Rome. The aqueduct was inaugurated in 109 CE and the water it carried was used initially as drinking and bathing water. A famine (and resultant riots) in 190 CE caused by corruption in the grain distribution system influenced the Roman government under Emperor Septimus Severus to intervene and convert the distribution of grain to the populace into the distribution of flour. The watermills constructed at Janiculum "were intended to centralize, regularize, and perhaps even deprivatize the city's milling operations." Estimates of the date when the watermills came into operation vary, but it was probably in the early 3rd century.
List of Roman canals
Greek engineers were the first to use canal locks, by which they regulated the water flow in the Ancient Suez Canal as early as the 3rd century BC. The Romans under Trajan too secured the entrance to the Red Sea with sluice gates, while they extended the canal south to the height of modern Cairo in order to improve its water inflow. The existence of ancient pound locks to bridge height gaps has been proposed by a number of authors, but in the absence of clear archaeological evidence the question seems to be permanently undecided.
Aqua Tepula
The Aqua Tepula's waters were, as stated by Frontinus, lukewarm. In 33 BC, M. Viscus Agrippa attempted to cool its waters by mixing the Aqua Tepula's waters with that of a recent aqueduct, the Aqua Julia. The water was mixed in a clearing basin then was split into two lines that reached separate termini. Both were superimposed on the Marcia, the Tepula being the highest, thus able to deliver water over many parts of the city. The cost of the Tepula and the poor quality of its water limited its success. The smallest aqueduct, it delivered 17,800 cubic meters per day, a scant amount in Roman times.
Roman aqueducts of Toledo
Only the base of the aqueduct bridge by which water entered Toledo survives. From its position above the Tagus gorge, it has been suggested the Romans used an inverted siphon to bring the water into the city. Such technology is known to have been used elsewhere in the Iberian Peninsula, for example Cádiz, although it is not directly evidenced at Toledo.
Aqua Traiana
The inauguration of the Aqueduct was recorded in the Fasti Ostienses on 24 June 109 AD, which stated that the water was "tota urbe salientem" - a pan-urban network of streetside outlets and basins reaching every part of Rome.
How this distribution was achieved is mostly subject to speculation, but the author Rabun Taylor, in his book "Public Needs and Private Pleasures" suggests that the Aqueduct crossed the River Tiber on a high bridge in the area of the modern Ponte Sublicio, and curved around the Aventine before heading north to the Oppio.
Dam
The Romans were the first to build arch dams, where the reaction forces from the abutment stabilizes the structure from the external hydrostatic pressure, but it was only in the 19th century that the engineering skills and construction materials available were capable of building the first large-scale arch dams.
Valens Aqueduct
The Valens Aqueduct ( or "Bozdoğan Kemeri", meaning "Aqueduct of the Grey Falcon"; , "Agōgós tou hýdatos", meaning simply "aqueduct") is a Roman aqueduct which was the major water-providing system of the Eastern Roman capital of Constantinople (modern Istanbul, Turkey). Completed by Roman Emperor Valens in the late 4th century AD, it was maintained and used by the Byzantines and later the Ottomans, and remains one of the most important landmarks of the city.
Lindum Colonia
Roman Lincoln had a very sophisticated water supply. It was fed by the ‘‘Roaring Meg’’ spring to the North East of the city and then ran parallel with the Nettleham Road towards the N.E corner of the Upper Colonia. The ceramic pipes were encased in concrete that provided a waterproof seal and allowed the water to pass through the pipes under pressure. The course of the aqueduct had been well known from the start of the 18th century. William Stukeley had shown the line of the aqueduct on his plan of Lincoln in 1722. The Lincoln antiquary Thomas Sympson had written in the mid 18th century "There must have been some contrivance for raising the water a good deal above its natural level before it would run to Lindum; the spring being evidently lower than the Town: and indeed there are some traces of a Tower, or some such building at the end of the Aquaeduct by the Spring, which one may suppose would have had a reservoir on its Top." In 1782 the artist Samuel Hieronymus Grimm drew sections of the sheathed pipe and also where it emerged from the ground at the spring. Over the years further lengths of the aqueduct have been uncovered and the base for a watertank fed by the aqueduct discovered just inside the Roman Wall to the east of the Newport Arch. This is just to the north of Cottesford Place, where excavations in the 1960s revealed a probable Roma Bathhouse, which could have been supplied with water from this source. Another pipeline, encased in concrete was found in 1857 by the Greestone Stairs, to the east of the wall, and this pipeline had presumably branched off from the aqueduct and supplied water to the Lower Colonia. Thompson calculated that it would be necessary to raise the water about 70 feet at the source at the ‘‘Roaring Meg’’ for there to be sufficient pressure for the water to reach the tank at the East Bight by the Newport Arch. This may imply that there was some form of water tower and the Romans may either have used some form of pump to raise the water, or a revolving bucket and chain system.
Aniene
The confluence of the Aniene and Tiber was controlled by Antemnae, a Latin settlement on a hill just to its south. Rome's foundation myths numbered them among the Sabines seized by Romulus but that his wife Hersilia convinced him to make its people Roman citizens after their defeat and annexation around 752 .
In antiquity, three principal aqueducts of Rome—the Aqua Anio Vetus, Aqua Anio Novus and Aqua Claudia—had their sources in the Aniene valley. Together with the Aqua Marcia, they were regarded as the "four great aqueducts of Rome." The Aqua Anio Vetus (Latin for "Old Anio aqueduct") was constructed around 270 . The Aqua Anio Novus ("New Anio aqueduct") was begun under Caligula around  38 and completed under Claudius in 48. A third aqueduct, the Aqua Marcia, was constructed by Q. Marcius Rex between 144 and 140  using the proceeds from the destructions of Corinth and Carthage in 146 .
Estrablin
Located near the Gallo-Roman city of Vienne, Estrablin was long occupied and exploited by men. Thus, the Roman times have left many traces. First, it is important to note that in Roman times, Estrablin, together with Eyzin-Pinet, was the main source of water supply for the city of Vienne. Indeed, four of the eleven aqueducts bringing water in Vienne came from the territory of the current commune of Estrablin. Three of these aqueducts took their water from the aquifer of the Gère river (two in the hamlet of "Gemens", one in the hamlet of "Gabetière"). The last aqueducts took its water directly in the Suze stream thanks to a reservoir dam that the Romans had built between the hamlet of "Malissol" upstream, and the Gère river, downstream.
Aqua Virgo
The aqueducts at first were financed mainly through wealth collected from war and the patronage of wealthy individuals. Taxes also served to help finance the building by taxation on conquered people because the aqueducts were never meant to pay for themselves but serve as a benefit to the people of Rome. In Republic times the private use of aqueduct water was not common, only the overflow water was sold to individuals. In Imperial times the construction of more aqueducts meant that more water was available to be sold for private use.
Rome
Rome is a city famous for its numerous fountains, built in all different styles, from Classical and Medieval, to Baroque and Neoclassical. The city has had fountains for more than two thousand years, and they have provided drinking water and decorated the piazzas of Rome. During the Roman Empire, in 98 AD, according to Sextus Julius Frontinus, the Roman consul who was named "curator aquarum" or guardian of the water of the city, Rome had nine aqueducts which fed 39 monumental fountains and 591 public basins, not counting the water supplied to the Imperial household, baths, and owners of private villas. Each of the major fountains was connected to two different aqueducts, in case one was shut down for service.
Aqua Augusta (Naples)
There were ten branches, seven of which were for cities while three were for some of the numerous luxurious villas in this area popular with rich Romans, such as the Villa Pollio at Posillipo. Including the branches, the total length of the aqueduct was approximately , making it the longest Roman aqueduct, with the possible exception of the Gadara Aqueduct, until the 5th century AD when the Valens Aqueduct was extended in Constantinople. The Aqua Augusta was one of the most difficult and costly aqueducts ever constructed by an ancient civilisation. Despite its size and complexity, the Augusta is today largely unknown as a major monument because most of it is underground.
Architecture of Provence
The Roman aqueduct of Pont du Gard (1st century AD), built during the time of the Emperor Claudius, is one of the most impressive examples of Roman civil engineering. Fifty meters above the River Gard, it is the highest existing Roman aqueduct. The aqueduct carried water a distance of fifty kilometers.
The Triumphal Arch of Orange at Orange, Vaucluse, was probably built to honor the veterans of the 11th legion in about twenty BC, during the time of the Emperor Augustus, and was later dedicated to the Emperor Tiberius. It was designed to show travellers to the new Roman province the superiority and power of Rome.
The triumphal arch near the Roman town of Glanum, just outside Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, shows Roman soldiers leading away defeated prisoners. It was constructed between 10 and 25 AD, sometime after the Romans had conquered the town, which was inhabited by Celto-Ligurians. Glanum was destroyed in 260 AD. by the Alamanni, a Germanic tribe, as the Roman Empire began to crumble.
The Roman theater in Orange, Vaucluse, was constructed by the Emperor Augustus in the early 1st century BC, is the best-preserved Roman theater in Europe. It was closed by the authorities of the Christian church in 391 because of its "barbaric spectacles," and not re-opened until the 19th century. Today it is the home of music and theater festivals.
The amphitheatre in Arles was built in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, when Arles was the capital of Roman Provence. It was used for combat by gladiators and other spectacles. It has a diameter of 102 meters, and could hold twelve thousand spectators.
The Maison Carrée in Nîmes, built in 16-19 BC, is one of the best-preserved Roman temples in the former Roman Empire. It survived intact because it was converted into a Christian church in the 4th century AD. It was built according to the principles of Vitruvius, the chief theorician of Roman architecture. In the early 19th century, it was chosen as the model for the church of the Madeleine in Paris.
Cisterns of the Roman Baths, Beirut
The Romans constructed an aqueduct fed by the Beirut River whose main source was located 10 km from the city. When the water reached Riad Al Solh Square, it was stored in large cisterns and then distributed to the pools of the Roman Baths. The cisterns were built in order to store water for a city of nearly 50,000 inhabitants and in the Roman centuries this was a big engineering accomplishment.
Roman bridge
Roman arch bridges were usually semicircular, although a few were segmental (such as Alconétar Bridge). A segmental arch is an arch that is less than a semicircle. The advantages of the segmental arch bridge were that it allowed great amounts of flood water to pass under it, which would prevent the bridge from being swept away during floods and the bridge itself could be more lightweight. Generally, Roman bridges featured wedge-shaped primary arch stones (voussoirs) of the same in size and shape. The Romans built both single spans and lengthy multiple arch aqueducts, such as the Pont du Gard and Segovia Aqueduct. Their bridges featured from an early time onwards flood openings in the piers, e.g. in the Pons Fabricius in Rome (62 BC), one of the world's oldest major bridges still standing.
Roman engineers were the first and until the industrial revolution the only ones to construct bridges with concrete, which they called "opus caementicium". The outside was usually covered with brick or ashlar, as in the Alcántara bridge.
Chaponost
The Roman aqueduct of the Gier, estimated to be 75 km long, was built under Hadrian's reign during the second century CE to enable water supply of the Roman city of Lugdunum (Lyon) from Mont Pilat (source of the river Gier). Arches of the aqueducts (around 92 arches on 550 m) are located on the territory of the commune, at the site of "Le Plat de l'Air".
Ancient Roman architecture
Rome's first aqueduct supplied a water-fountain sited at the city's cattle market. By the third century AD, the city had eleven aqueducts, sustaining a population of over a million in a water-extravagant economy; most of the water supplied the city's many public baths. Cities and municipalities throughout the Roman Empire emulated this model, and funded aqueducts as objects of public interest and civic pride, "an expensive yet necessary luxury to which all could, and did, aspire."
Ancient Roman architecture
Factors such as wealth and high population densities in cities forced the ancient Romans to discover new architectural solutions of their own. The use of vaults and arches, together with a sound knowledge of building materials, enabled them to achieve unprecedented successes in the construction of imposing infrastructure for public use. Examples include the aqueducts of Rome, the Baths of Diocletian and the Baths of Caracalla, the basilicas and Colosseum. These were reproduced at a smaller scale in most important towns and cities in the Empire. Some surviving structures are almost complete, such as the town walls of Lugo in Hispania Tarraconensis, now northern Spain. The administrative structure and wealth of the empire made possible very large projects even in locations remote from the main centres, as did the use of slave labour, both skilled and unskilled.
Roman aqueduct
Roman aqueducts required a comprehensive system of regular maintenance. The "clear corridors" created to protect the fabric of underground and overground conduits were regularly patrolled for unlawful ploughing, planting, roadways and buildings. Frontinus describes the penetration of conduits by tree-roots as particularly damaging. The aqueducts conduits would have been regularly inspected and maintained by working patrols, to reduce algal fouling, repair accidental breaches, to clear the conduits of gravel and other loose debris, and to remove channel-narrowing accretions of calcium carbonate in systems fed by hard water sources. Inspection and access points were provided at regular intervals on the standard, buried conduits. Accretions within syphons could drastically reduce flow rates, due to the already narrow diameter of their pipes. Some had sealed openings that might have been used as rodding eyes, possibly using a pull-through device. In Rome, where a hard-water supply was the norm, mains pipework was shallowly buried beneath road kerbs, for ease of access; the accumulation of calcium carbonate in these pipes would have necessitated their frequent replacement.
Nea Sinopi
In Archangelos, there are some remains of the Roman aqueduct of ancient Nicopolis. The Roman aqueduct, 50 km long, carried the water from the springs of Louros to two cisterns in the Nymphaeum of Nikopolis. It was constructed after the foundation of Nikopolis by Octavianus Augustus.
Roman technology
The Romans also made great use of aqueducts in their extensive mining operations across the empire, some sites such as Las Medulas in north-west Spain having at least 7 major channels entering the minehead. Other sites such as Dolaucothi in south Wales was fed by at least 5 leats, all leading to reservoirs and tanks or cisterns high above the present opencast. The water was used for hydraulic mining, where streams or waves of water are released onto the hillside, first to reveal any gold-bearing ore, and then to work the ore itself. Rock debris could be sluiced away by hushing, and the water also used to douse fires created to break down the hard rock and veins, a method known as fire-setting.
Roman aqueduct
Most of Rome's aqueducts drew on various springs in the valley and highlands of the Anio, the modern river Aniene, east of the Tiber. A complex system of aqueduct junctions, tributary feeds and distribution tanks supplied every part of the city. Trastevere, the city region west of the Tiber, was primarily served by extensions of several of the city's eastern aqueducts, carried across the river by lead pipes buried in the roadbed of the river bridges, thus forming an inverted siphon. Whenever this cross-river supply had to be shut down for routine repair and maintenance works, the "positively unwholesome" waters of the Aqua Alsietina were used to supply Trastevere's public fountains. The situation was finally ameliorated when the emperor Trajan built the Aqua Traiana in 109 AD, bringing clean water directly to Trastavere from aquifers around Lake Bracciano.
By the late 3rd century AD, the city was supplied with water by 11 state-funded aqueducts. Their combined conduit length is estimated between 780 and a little over 800 kilometres, of which approximately were carried above ground level, on masonry supports. They supplied around 1 million cubic metres (300 million gallons) a day: a capacity 126% of the current water supply of the city of Bangalore, which has a population of 10 million.Hundreds of similar aqueducts were built throughout the Roman Empire. Many of them have since collapsed or been destroyed, but a number of intact portions remain. The Zaghouan Aqueduct is in length. It was built in the 2nd century to supply Carthage (in modern Tunisia). Surviving aqueduct bridges include the Pont du Gard in France and the Aqueduct of Segovia in Spain. The longest single conduit, at over 240 km, is associated with the Valens Aqueduct of Constantinople (Mango 1995). "The known system is at least two and half times the length of the longest recorded Roman aqueducts at Carthage and Cologne, but perhaps more significantly it represents one of the most outstanding surveying achievements of any pre-industrial society". Rivalling this in terms of length and possibly equaling or exceeding it in cost and complexity, is the provincial Aqua Augusta that supplied an entire region, which contained at least eight cities, including the major ports at Naples and Misenum; sea voyages by traders and the Roman navy required copious supplies of fresh water.
Roman art
Roman aqueducts, also based on the arch, were commonplace in the empire and essential transporters of water to large urban areas. Their standing masonry remains are especially impressive, such as the Pont du Gard (featuring three tiers of arches) and the aqueduct of Segovia, serving as mute testimony to their quality of their design and construction.
Vitruvius
His description of aqueduct construction includes the way they are surveyed, and the careful choice of materials needed, although Frontinus (a general who was appointed in the late 1st century AD to administer the many aqueducts of Rome), writing a century later, gives much more detail of the practical problems involved in their construction and maintenance. Surely Vitruvius' book would have been of great assistance in this. Vitruvius was writing in the 1st century BC when many of the finest Roman aqueducts were built, and survive to this day, such as those at Segovia and the Pont du Gard. The use of the inverted siphon is described in detail, together with the problems of high pressures developed in the pipe at the base of the siphon, a practical problem with which he seems to be acquainted.
Aqua Anio Vetus
The Aqua Anio Vetus was an ancient Roman aqueduct, and the second oldest after the Aqua Appia. It was commissioned in 272 BC and funded by treasures seized from Pyrrhus of Epirus. Its flow was more than twice that of the Aqua Appia, and it entered the city on raised arches, supplying water to higher elevations of the city.
Appius Claudius Caecus
Appius Claudius Caecus ("the blind"; c. 340 BC – 273 BC) was a Roman politician from a wealthy patrician family. He was the son of Gaius Claudius Crassus. As censor he was responsible for the construction of Rome's first aqueduct and major road project.
Aqua Virgo
Much research has been done on the aqueducts of ancient Rome, primarily to chart the course of these aqueducts from their sources in Rome and secondarily, tracing their routes from the points of entry to the terminal distribution centers or castella. Complementing the aqueducts already in use not only in terms of geographical distribution but also in functions served, the Aqua Virgo was one of the most specialized main aqueducts of ancient Rome. The Aqua Virgo entered the city from the north over the Pincian and ran 700 paces from a point of entry under the Horti Lucullani to a place in the Campus Martius in front of the Saepta Julia. Easily being traceable today, the 700 paces spanning arches starts in the triangle formed by the modern-day streets of Capo le Case, Due Macelli, and South Giuseppe. From this point, it ran to the Trevi Fountain where it then turned westward and crossed the Via Lata at the Palazzo Sciarra. Crossing many arches from this point still more arches were discovered in 1871 even though Frontinus wrote that they ended at the Saepta, also short of the 700 paces he described for their length. After later interpretation, it has been found that the aqueduct’s arches did continue along the Via del Seminario to a point east of the Pantheon.
Raw Dykes
The official entry in the schedule of monuments maintained by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport states that the remains are those of a Roman aqueduct, stating that "the narrow cut within the centre of the ditch represented the main water channel and was designed to increase the flow of water by concentrating it within a constricted space". A publication by Leicester City Council has speculated that the earthwork may have been a canal, rather than a source of clean water, but concluded that the aqueduct-interpretation is "by far the most likely suggestion". Kathleen Kenyon, among others, argued that the level of the aqueduct (following the modern 60-metre contour) was lower than the Roman bath in Leicester, and that Raw Dykes was therefore a failure. However, J.S. Wacher has argued that the Romans were skilled hydraulic engineers, and that it is possible that they pumped water into the town from the Raw Dykes aqueduct. There is evidence that they employed a pump and a storage tank at Leicester's Roman baths in the 4th century.