Page 30 - Urban water supply handbook

URBAN WATER INFRASTRUCTURE: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

URBAN WATER INFRASTRUCTURE 1.29

(Frontinus, 4.1) supplied by a high water table, household cisterns, and water
from the Tiber were probably adequate for several centuries, so the first aque-
duct to bring water into the city from outside, Appia, was not completed until
312 B.C. Some of the springs of Rome were said by Frontinus (4.2) to have cura-
tive powers, “The memory of the springs is still considered holy and revered;
indeed they are believed to retore sick bodies to health, such as the spring of the
Camenae, and…that of Juturna.” (See Evans, 1994.)
Table 1.3 lists the number of castella for each of the aqueducts and the volume
in quinariae according to Frontinus’s statistics (Evans, 1994). Unfortunately, we
do not know the definition of the quinaria. As pointed out by Evans (1994),
1
Frontinus quinaria cannot be converted into modern units of measurement:
“Frontinus regarded it as an accepted unit internally consistent and applicable to
the statistics he reports in De aquaeductu (34.2–3).” The quinaria can only be
used to compare relative capacities and deliveries within Rome’s water system as
a whole (Bruun, 1991). Table 1.4 provides standardized measures of pipes, pro-
viding some insight to the quinaria.
The total distribution is 14,018 quinariae, with 4063 quinariae outside the city
1
and 9955 /2 quinariae within the city through 247 castella. Of the 4063 quinariae
distributed outside the city, 1718 quinariae were in Caesar’s name and 2345
1
quinariae in private customer names. The 9955 /2 quinariae distributed within the
city had the following purposes according to Frontinus (Evans, 1994):
In Caesar’s name 1707 /2
1
To private consumers 3847
For public functions 4401
To 18 camps 279
To 95 public works 2301
To 39 fountains 386
To 591 basins 1335

Frontinus (18) discussed elevations of the aqueducts:
All the aqueducts arrive in the city at different elevations. As a result, certain ones
serve higher places, and others cannot be raised to more lofty areas; indeed even the
hills have grown up little from rubble on account of the great number of fires. The
height of five aqueducts permits them to be raised into every part of the city, but of
these, some are forced by greater pressure, others by less. The highest of all is the
Anio Novus, the next highest, the Claudia; the Julia holds third place, the fourth the
Tepula, and after this the Marcia, which even equals the height of the Claudia at its
source. But the old aqueduct builders constructed their lines at lower elevation,
either because the fine points of the leveling art had yet been ascertained or because
they deliberately made it their practice to bury aqueducts underground to prevent
them from being cut easily by enemies, since a good many wars were still being
fought against the Italians.

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