Page 29 - Urban water supply handbook

URBAN WATER INFRASTRUCTURE: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

1.28 HISTORY, PLANNING, OUTSOURCING

1.3.2 Aqueducts of Rome

Rome’s aqueduct system evolved over a 500-year time period. As did most of
our modern-day urban water distribution systems, Rome’s system evolved in a
piecemeal fashion. Frontinus’s treatise De aquaeductu urbis Romae (On the
water supply of the city of Rome), described Rome’s water supply in the form
of a notebook and was written for himself, or for a possible successor, to serve
as a rule or guide (formulas administrationis). This treatise is not a comprehen-
sive discussion of the aqueduct system, but does give us a picture of various
aspects of Rome’s aqueduct system.
The major sources and routes of the aqueducts to ancient Rome are illustrated
in Fig. 1.22. In 312 B.C. the Adile Appius Claudius constructed the first aqueduct,
Aqua Appia, a simple underground channel. The next aqueduct was Aqua Anio
Vetus, constructed in 272 B.C. Eventually there were 11 aqueducts that supplied
water to Rome. Table 1.2 lists the aqueducts in Rome along with other informa-
tion such as the date the aqueduct was built, its length, and its origin. Frontinus
discussed nine of the aqueducts; the two built after his treatise was written are the
Traiana and Alexandrina. The two Anio aqueducts received water directly from
the river, and the Alsietina aqueduct received water directly from Lake Alsietina.
The remaining aqueducts (Appia, Marcia, Tepula, Julia, Virgo, Claudia, Traiana,
and Alexandrina) received water from springs. Several feeder branches were com-
monly necessary to collect enough water for the aqueducts. For example, the Virgo
and Marcia aqueducts used feeder branches to collect water in a collecting basin
where the water entered the main channel.
The location and routes of the aqueducts in ancient Rome are illustrated in Fig.
1.23a, with more details shown in Fig. 1.23b. The area map shown in Fig. 1.24 is
the location (area of Spes Vetus near the two major roads, Via Labicana and Via
Praenestina) where all of the eastern aqueducts entered the city. Figure 1.25a to e
illustrates various views taken near and of the Porta Maggiore (the double-arched
gate which carries the Aqua Claudia and Aqua Novus), with the views (directions
pointed to by the camera) indicated in Fig. 1.24. Figure 1.25a and b shows the
aqueducts Claudia (above) and Anio Novus (lower) on top of the Porta Maggiore.
The gate is reminiscent of a triumphal arch. Figure 1.25c points to the location of
where the two aqueducts changed direction. Figure 1.25d shows the three aque-
ducts [Julia (top), Tepula (center), and Marcia (lower)] located in the Aurelian
Wall. Figure 1.25e shows the branch aqueduct, the Aqua Claudia, that supplied
water to the Trophies of Marius nymphaeum.
As pointed out by Evans (1994), throughout the history of Rome, aqueduct
construction was generally not planned in an orderly manner. During
Republican Rome the city fathers tended to allow needs to become critical
before aqueducts were built, similar to modern-day practice. Available funds for
the construction were also needed as for Anio Vetus and Aqua Marcia as pointed
out by Frontinus (6.1, 7.4). Rome’s natural supply from abundant springs, wells

Downloaded from Digital Engineering Library @ McGraw-Hill (www.digitalengineeringlibrary.com)
Copyright © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved.
Any use is subject to the Terms of Use as given at the website.