THIS IS PLUMBING
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so expensive, the city's plumbing system is a good proxy
for Rome's fortunes. As endless war sucked gold from
the state’s coffers, and there was no money to build new
aqueducts nor to repair existing ones.
Around that time, the researchers saw a dramatic decrease
in the amount of lead-contaminated water in the Ostia
harbour – in fact, it drops about 50% from previous years.
Once the city had recovered from the hardships of the
wars, the researchers saw a steady increase in lead over
the years that span the Empire’s height during the 1st and
2nd centuries CE. This was when Frontinus led an effort to
rebuild the city's plumbing system while wealthy Romans
added crazy water features to their homes. Second-century
Emperor Hadrian reportedly had a fountain in his villa that
flowed into a reservoir next to the dinner table; he would
serve guests food from little boats floating on it.
Write the researchers: “[This] provides the first evidence
of the scale of the contemporaneous reduction in flows
in Rome's lead pipe distribution system – of the order of
50% – resulting in decreased inputs of lead-contaminated
water into the Tiber. [Augustus]... progressive defeat of his
rivals during the 30s BCE allowed his future son-in-law,
Agrippa, to take control of Rome’s water supply by 33 BCE.
Over the next 30 years, they repaired and extended the
existing aqueduct and fistulae system, as well as built an
unprecedented three new aqueducts, leading to renewed
increase in [lead] pollution of the Tiber river.”
Public toilets in the Roman port city of Ostia once had running water under the seats.
Ostia is where the researchers took a soil core sample to analyse lead pollution from
pipe runoff.
There was a strong drop in lead after the mid-3rd century CE,
when the researchers note: “No more aqueducts were built,
and maintenance was on a smaller scale”. They add that
this phase of “…receding [lead] contamination corresponds
to the apparent decline of [lead] and [silver] mining and of
overall economic activity in the Roman Empire.”
The Tiber was connected with the Cloaca Maxima, the
sewer system of Rome, which was said to have been first
built by the king Tarquinius Priscus (616–579 BCE) in
the 6th century BCE. Tarquinius had the existing stream
expanded and lined with stone in an attempt to control
storm water – rain flowed downhill to the Tiber through the
Cloaca, and it regularly flooded. In the third century BCE,
the open channel was lined with stone and covered with a
vaulted stone roof.
University
The Tiber as a sewer
The hexagonal Portus, slightly above the mouth of the Tiber.
The Cloaca remained a water control system until the reign
of Augustus Caesar (ruled 27 BCE to 14 CE). Augustus
had major repairs made to the system, and connected
public baths and latrines, turning the Cloaca into a sewage
management system.
Today, the Cloaca is still visible and manages a small
amount of Rome’s water. Much of the original stonework
has been replaced by concrete. PA
November 2019 Volume 25 I Number 9
‘Cloare’ means ‘to wash or purify’ and it was a surname
of the goddess Venus. Cloalia was a Roman virgin in the
early 6th century BCE who was given to the Etruscan king
Lars Porsena and escaped his camp by swimming across
the Tiber to Rome. The Romans (at the time under the rule
of the Etruscans) sent her back to Porsena, but he was so
impressed by her deed that he freed her and allowed her to
take other hostages with her.
Aqueducts of Rome.
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