Water supply in the Roman Empire

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The Pont du Gard , which supplied Nîmes with water.

The water supply in the Roman Empire with its water pipes via aqueducts is a typical component of Roman culture . They carried water up to 100 km (for example the Eifel aqueduct ) mostly underground, but sometimes also over bridges to larger cities of the Roman Empire. Rome alone was supplied by eleven aqueducts. In many cities the water was also disposed of through a sewer system.

Overview

Sintered Eifel aqueduct

Rome's first aqueduct, Aqua Appia , was built in 312 BC. Built by Appius Claudius Caecus . It began on Via Praenestina, flowed about 17 kilometers underground and was directed via Porta Capena into the city to Campus Martius .

In Rome in particular, the pipes made it possible to consume gigantic drinking water: according to a count around AD 400, there were eleven aqueducts, eleven thermal baths , 856 private baths and 1,352 fountains in Rome alone . On the basis of deposits on the walls of the water pipes and other archaeological findings, one can estimate the per capita consumption. According to Heinz Otto Lamprecht , who estimates the population size to be significantly lower than most other archaeologists, this was between 370 and 450 liters a day (in Germany it was 126 liters / day in 2005). Even today, three aqueducts are still in operation in Rome: the Aqua Virgo , today Acqua Vergine (feeds the Trevi Fountain ) and another 70 fountains, the Aqua Alexandrina , today Acqua Felice (it feeds the Moses Fountain ) and the Aqua Traiana , today Acqua Paola (it feeds the Fontana dell'Acqua Paola ). Remains of seven aqueducts can be seen in the Parco degli Acquedotti .

Numerous other cities were also supplied with aqueducts, such as Augusta Treverorum (Trier), Mogontiacum (Mainz), Colonia Ulpia Traiana , ( Xanten ), Lugdunum (Lyon), Aspendos , Nemausus (Nîmes), Tarraco (Tarragona) or Segovia . In German, the term aqueduct is usually only understood to mean the pipes that are routed over arched structures; in Latin , the word refers to any water pipe , regardless of whether it runs underground or above ground.

Sextus Iulius Frontinus , who was Curator aquarum in AD 97 , reports on the nine aqueducts leading to Rome, which were built by the end of the first century AD. Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa had three of them built in the 1st century BC and some older ones restored. In the 2nd and 3rd centuries, two more aqueducts were added, which Frontinus has not yet been able to report. The ancient metropolis of Rome was thus supplied with water via eleven aqueducts. The numerous branches in the supply and discharge are not taken into account.

Surname Construction year Length
[m] 		Height of the source
above sea level 		Height in Rome Cross section in the
lower reaches [W × H in m] 		Capacity at the source
[m³ / year] 		Water quality
Appia 312 BC Chr. 16,445 030th 20th 0.7 x 1.7 21,848,900 excellent
Anio Vetus 272-269 BC Chr. 63,705 280 48 0.9 x 2.3 52,652,856 bad, cloudy water
Marcia 144-140 BC Chr. 91,424 318 59 1.5 x 2.6 56.148.680 excellent
Tepula 125 BC Chr. 17,745 151 61 0.8 x 1.1 05,327,540 warm spring water
Julia 33 BC Chr. 22,854 350 64 0.6 x 1.5 14,438,232 excellent
Virgo 19 BC Chr. 20,697 024 20th 0.6 x 1.8 29,977,888 excellent
Alsietina (Augusta) 10–2 BC Chr. 32,848 209 17th 1.8 x 2.6 04,693,024 only used as domestic water
Claudia AD 38–52 68,751 320 67 0.9 x 2.0 55.155.004 excellent
Anio Novus AD 38–52 86,964 400 70 1.2 x 2.7 56,723,336 bad, cloudy water
Traiana 109 ad 59,200 250 30th 1.3 x 2.3 - -
Alexandrina 226 AD 22,531 Approx. 500 20th - - -

Water pipes

While in the early days of the Roman Empire, apart from wells, mainly nearby rivers and springs were used for the water supply, however, due to the growing population, the quality and the quantity were no longer sufficient. At this point a natural growth limit would have been reached, so that water from other sources now had to be drawn into Rome.

Lines outside the city

A pressure pipe (siphon)

Vitruvius describes in his book de architectura how to look for water sources:

"Before sunrise, you lie down with your face on the ground and put your chin on your chin and look at the surroundings [...] if you see rippling and humid steam rising into the air, you should dig there."

- Vitruvius : De architectura libri decem 8,1,1.

The springs were usually enclosed with water-permeable walls through which the water seeped and was therefore easily cleaned. The largest distance from the source is covered by the water underground in gravity pipes made of bricks or Opus Caementitium . About 430 kilometers of a total of 504 kilometers of water pipeline to Rome ran underground, that is 85%. This kept the water cool in summer and frost-free in winter. The gradient was astonishingly small in places: at the Pont du Gard it is 0.035%, i.e. H. 35 centimeters per kilometer, with the aqua Marcia 0.29% (2.9 meters per kilometer), and with the aqua Claudia 0.37% (3.7 meters per kilometer).

Aqueduct in Segovia

Ventilation and inspection shafts were installed at regular intervals. The canals were mostly rectangular and covered by a brick vault. Depending on the amount of water, they were between half a meter and two meters wide. Inside, they were plastered with lime or opus signinum to make them impermeable to water .

When underground laying was not possible, as in the case of valley cuts, the water was usually directed over a bridge structure, often multi-storey. A pressure pipeline ( siphon or culvert ) based on the principle of communicating pipes was built for valley depths of over 50 m (as in Aspendos ). If the line cut a hill that could not be bypassed, a tunnel with ventilation shafts was usually driven using the qanat method.

Inner city lines

Once in the city, the water was usually directed centrally into the castellum (also known as the Wasserschlösschen). This was a large basin in which all the water was collected, purified and distributed to the various customers. Especially in dry areas, the water was stored in huge cisterns, such as the Fildami cistern near Istanbul , which held a good 100,000 cubic meters for dry periods.

Castellum in Nîmes.
Lead pipe with inscription of the Legio XIIII Gemina from Wiesbaden ( Aquae Mattiacorum ) .

Sextus Iulius Frontinus , who was Curator aquarum in 94 , recommends creating three drains at different heights from the basin: One below, where water almost always flows, for the public wells, a second higher for other public buildings such as the thermal baths or the nymphaeans and the third highest, through which often no water could come, for private customers who pay a fixed water fee for it. However, this system was only rarely used as in Pompeii , mostly the drains were at the same level.

Within the city, the water was then distributed using clay or lead pressure pipes (fistulae) , and in some cases even precast concrete parts were used. Especially in larger cities such as Pompeii, seven-meter-high water towers were distributed in between to keep the water pressure high, but also so that the water supply was not lost during repairs. Very large amounts of lead were required for the pipes . A lead pipe with a diameter of about ten centimeters required about one ton of lead for a pipe length of 37.5 m. Such a 20 digiti pipe represented only an average size in the uniform pipe thicknesses named by Vitruvius . The pipe, the largest described with 100 digiti , would have a weight of about 133 kg / m.

Water theft

Most Romans had to fetch their water from the public well, but in many cases the lead made of lead pipes was "pierced" in order to irrigate their own fields.

“[...] a large number of the landowners, whose fields the aqueducts lead past, are tapping into the lines; therefore the public water supply by private individuals actually comes to a standstill just so that they can irrigate their gardens. "

- Frontinus, de aquis 2.75

Since the pipe often did not carry water for private individuals, illegal pipes were sometimes even laid underground within the city and the pipes for the public wells tapped.

“In large areas, hidden lines run under the pavement at various places. I found that these pipes supplied water through special junctions to all those who had commercial buildings in the areas concerned, the public pipes being 'pierced' here and there for this purpose. How much water was stolen in this way can only be estimated by the fact that a considerable amount of lead was brought in through the removal of such branches. "

- Frontinus, de aquis 2,115

The Roman practice of lead pipe inscriptions offered a certain protection against private abuse .

Water quality

The quality of the water sent to Rome differed greatly in terms of purity and taste. The poorer water was only used as service water. For the water quality of individual lines, see the table above .

The source of the Anio Novus lost its previous quality with every rain. After the attempt to mix the water with other things failed, an attempt was made to channel it into a basin where the impurities should settle. However, this also failed. Finally, the problem was solved by channeling the water through the Subiaco reservoirs built for this purpose . There the sediments settled and the water became considerably more pure.

Although Vitruvius had already warned of the negative health effects of lead pipes, almost everywhere pipes were made of this practical, easy-to-work, waterproof metal.

Maintenance and administration

The Aqua Claudia on the Palatine

While the censors were primarily responsible for the construction and maintenance of the lines in the republic, the curator aquarum had been in office since the imperial era . According to Frontinus, a freed man, later a knightly procurator aquarum, and various supervisory and administrative officers as well as a group of state fitters (aquarii) were under his control . In some cases, there were also independent companies that had concluded contracts for construction or maintenance with the authorities.

There were often problems with maintenance, especially with the sections that led over bridges. Archaeological findings and written sources testify that the construction work was often not carried out carefully enough and therefore required frequent repairs, for example with the Aqua Claudia. Basic deficiencies had to be remedied just ten years after completion. This repair alone took nine years, but after four more years the repairs had to be touched up again. The remains of the aqueduct that have been preserved indicate that botched things were done both in the construction and in the repairs.

Water channel of the Roman aqueduct near Brey
Water pipes from the Saalburg Museum Bad Homburg vdH Lead pipes above, wooden pipes below right, reconstruction and iron dyke rings on the left.

One of the letters from the younger Pliny to Emperor Trajan from Nicomedia in the province of Bithynia et Pontus reports on projects that failed in this way :

“The inhabitants of Nicomedia spent 3,318,000 sesterces for a water pipe, sir, the construction is still unfinished, stopped, even demolished; they again spent 200,000 sesterces on another line. Since this has also been given up, new money must now be raised so that the people who have wasted these sums of money can finally get water. "

Roman water supply in Germany

Remains of Roman water pipes can be found in Germany in:

Water supply to villages, castles and villae rusticae

In rural settlements, wells were mainly used for supply. Buildings with a high demand for water, such as fort baths, were often located close to streams and rivers in order to enable easy inflow and drainage (as with Fort Rückingen and Fort Seligenstadt ), or at springs, as with Fort Kapersburg . Inscribed evidence for the construction and the two-time renewal of a water pipe is available from the western fort of Öhringen.

Shorter distances were covered by covered canals, both bricked and laid out and covered with stones and brick slabs. Above-ground pipes made of wood are also conceivable, but these have only survived under favorable circumstances. Occasionally, they can be proven on the basis of finds of iron drawbar rings . Finds of such clay pipes are well documented.

Many villa rustica also had running water from a nearby spring. However, as farms, they were dependent on the proximity to the water for livestock farming and in any case often owned a stream within their usable area.

Dams

In the entire Roman Empire there were several hundred dams, mostly for collecting service water, rather seldom for obtaining fresh water. Most of the dams were so-called weight dams , which means that the wall can only withstand the water pressure by means of its own weight ( Lake Homs in Syria ).

But the Romans were also innovative in building other, previously unknown types of dams. In Spain, for example, numerous pier dams were built. There are also beginnings of arch dams , where the pressure on the valley flanks is diverted. Examples are the Glanum Dam in Provence or the Dara Dam in Mesopotamia . The mixed type of arch weight wall was also known. The Esparragalejo Dam near Emerita Augusta ( Mérida ) is considered to be the first multi-arch wall .

The largest preserved dams include the 427-meter-long Proserpina Dam and the 28-meter-high Cornalvo Dam , both of which supply Mérida with water. The first and only dam wall built by the Romans in Italy was the massive Subiaco barrage , the tallest dam in ancient times.

Sanitation

Street drain in Ostia Antica

The most famous sewage system of the Roman Empire is the Cloaca Maxima in Rome. Originally it was an open canal that was not covered until the imperial era. The Cloaca Maxima was up to 3 m wide and 4 m high. It ran from the Augustusforum to the Tiber , where it ended at the Pons Aemilius .

Sewers have also been found in other cities. Ten main collectors are recorded in Cologne; the width goes up to 1.5 meters and the height up to 2.45 meters and all flowed into the Rhine. There are also remains of sewers in Augusta Treverorum (today's Trier ), Xanten ( Colonia Ulpia Traiana ) and Lauriacum (today's Lorch (Upper Austria) ).

Many Roman houses had sewage pipes and some toilets. Most of the Roman roads also included drainage. State roads curved from the center to the edge, and in many city streets the water was channeled through drainage holes into the sewer system. In 1842, after a visit to the sewage system in Rome, a royal British commission found them to be more hygienic than those in the then Great Britain.

swell

literature

  • Erika Brödner: The Roman thermal baths and the ancient baths. A cultural-historical consideration. License issue. Theiss, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-8062-1317-8 .
  • Meinrad N. Filgis: Water and Sewage. Infrastructure for soldiers and citizens. In: Susanne Schmidt, Martin Kempa, André Wais (Red.): Imperium Romanum. Rome's provinces on the Neckar, Rhine and Danube. Theiss, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-8062-1945-1 , pp. 190-194.
  • Heinz-Otto Lamprecht: Opus Caementitium. Construction technology of the Romans. 5th, improved edition. Beton-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1996, ISBN 3-7640-0350-2 .
  • Jürgen Obmann: Water pipes . In: Thomas Fischer (Ed.): The Roman Provinces. An introduction to their archeology . Theiss, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-8062-1591-X , p. 91-93 (literature p. 339).
  • Helmuth Schneider : The water supply in the Imperium Romanum. In: Mamoun Fansa , Karen Aydin (Ed.): Water Worlds. Bath culture and technology. Accompanying publication to the exhibition Water Worlds in the State Museum of Nature and Man, Oldenburg, August 15 - October 17, 2010 (= series of publications by the State Museum of Nature and Man. 77). von Zabern et al., Mainz 2010, ISBN 978-3-8053-4250-6 , pp. 72-87.
  • Helmuth Schneider: Introduction to the ancient history of technology. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1992, ISBN 3-534-08335-0 , pp. 182-189.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Notitia regionum urbis Romae .
  2. ^ Lamprecht: Opus Caementitium. 5th, improved edition. 1996, p. 77. Other authors also make similar statements.
  3. ↑ On the function of the water official "curator aquarum" : Wolfgang U. Eckart : The medicine of the Greek and Roman antiquity. In: Wolfgang U. Eckart: History, theory and ethics of medicine. 7th, completely revised edition. Springer, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-642-34971-3 , pp. 1–36, here p. 35, doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-642-34972-0 .
  4. ↑ a b c d Norman Smith: Man and Water. Irrigation, water supply. From the pharaohs to Aswan. Pfriemer, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-7906-0074-1 .
  5. ^ Frontinus : De aquis urbis Romae . 2.64-73 . 1 Quinaria = 32.8m³ per day (cf. The Quinaria and Frontinus. ).
  6. ↑ Numbers according to Schneider: Introduction to the ancient history of technology. 1992, p. 187.
  7. ↑ Vitruvius , de Architectura 8,6,5
  8. ↑ Fildami Cistern ( Memento from July 7, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ John Gray Landels: Technology in the ancient world. Translated from English. Revised reprint of the 1st edition. CH Beck, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-406-04872-2 , p. 53.
  10. ↑ Vitruvius, de Architectura 8.6.4
  11. ↑ Conversion of the dimensions given by Vitruvius as well as information on the manufacture of lead pipes by John Gray Landels: Technology in the ancient world. Translated from English. Revised reprint of the 1st edition. CH Beck, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-406-04872-2 , pp. 51-54.
  12. ^ Vitruvius: de architectura VIII ( de aquis ) 6, 10f refers to the sick lead workers.
  13. ^ Gerda de Kleijn: The Water Supply of Ancient Rome. City Area, Water, and Population . Amsterdam 2001, pp. 92-100, cit. n. Franziska Lang and Helge Svenshon: The power of flowing water. Hydro systems in imperial Rome . In: Historical magazine Beiheft 63 , 2014, p. 62.
  14. ↑ Pliny: Epistulae 10.37 Latin text on thelatinlibrary.com .
  15. ↑ Christoph B. Rüger : Colonia Ulpia Traiana . In: Heinz Günter Horn (Ed.): The Romans in North Rhine-Westphalia. Licensed edition of the 1987 edition. Nikol, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-933203-59-7 , pp. 635–636 and Figure 543.
  16. ↑ Christoph Ohlig: The water pipe to Colonia Ulpia Traiana (Xanten). Observations, theses, project planning. In: Christoph Ohlig (Ed.): From cura aquarum to the EU Water Framework Directive. Five years of DWhG (= publications of the German Water History Society (DWhG) eV 11, 1). Half-volume 1. Books on Demand GmbH, Norderstedt 2007, ISBN 978-3-8334-8433-9 , pp. 139–208, here p. 186 ff.
  17. ↑ Filgis: Water and Sewage. In: Schmidt, Kempa, Wais (Red.): Imperium Romanum. 2005, pp. 190–194, here p. 193; Anita Gaubatz-Sattler: Svmelocenna. History and topography of the Roman Rottenburg am Neckar according to the findings and finds up to 1985 (= research and reports on the prehistory and early history in Baden-Württemberg. 71). Theiss, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-8062-1492-1 , pp. 249-255.
  18. ^ Schneider: Introduction to the ancient history of technology. 1992, p. 189.
  19. ^ Georg Wolff : castles and baths in the Limes area. In: Report of the Roman-Germanic Commission . 11, 1918/1919, pp. 71-98, here p. 79, doi : 10.11588 / berrgk.1920.0.26344 . Due to the high number of people, riding and draft animals, forts had an increased need for water anyway, which is why the proximity to springs or watercourses was preferred. See Pseudo-Hygin: De munitionibus castrorum 57.
  20. ↑ CIL 13, 11757 ; CIL 13, 11758 ; CIL 13, 11759
  21. ↑ a b Heinrich Jacobi : The irrigation and drainage of our Limes fort. In: Saalburg yearbook. 8, 1934, ISSN  0080-5157 , pp. 32-60.
  22. ↑ For example in the Villae rusticae of Heitersheim , Bondorf and Hechingen-Stein , see Filgis: Water and wastewater. In: Schmidt, Kempa, Wais (Red.): Imperium Romanum. 2005, pp. 190–194, here p. 192 f.
  23. ↑ The circumstance is u. a. Mentioned by Varro : Rerum Rusticarum de Agri Cultura I, 11.2, Cato : de agri cultura 1.6 and 5.9-6.4 and Columella : de re rustica 1.5.
  24. ↑ Hermann Vetters : The planned excavation in the civilian city in 1952. The Centuria I. In: research Lauriacum. Vol. 2, 1954, ZDB -ID 505105-8 , 5-30, here p. 5 f.