The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Roman Empire (32 page)

Roman roads generally followed the contours of the land, and large-scale excavation was impractical. Yet there were times when mountainous or rugged terrain necessitated excavation. When they needed to, the Romans cut into the hillsides to carve out a roadway, and it appears in places that they cut wheel grooves into the pavement to keep the wagons on the road at critical spots.

In certain places, it was better to go
through
the mountain rather than around it. The Romans were expert tunnelers (Rome conquered Veii by tunneling under its walls in 396
B
.
C
.
E
.), a skill that they also applied to the construction of aqueducts. You can find Roman tunnels (they're not difficult to spot—you can drive through some of them) along the
Via Flaminia
at Furlo Pass and at the
Via Appia
at Cumae and at Pozzuoli. These two roads also feature impressive road cuts into the mountains and along the sea near Terracina.

At some points, the road had to cross valleys or rivers. The Romans used their skills with piers and arches to create bridges to span these obstacles. An arched bridge is an amazingly strong structure, and many Roman bridges remain in use today even with the weight and vibration of modern traffic!

The strength of the bridge depended upon a stable foundation. In valleys or in spots where an arch could span the water, the Romans dug down to bedrock and cemented in the foundations of the piers upon which the arches supporting the roadway were constructed. When these piers had to be in the middle of the river or in marshy soil, things were a little more complicated. Pilings were driven down around where the pier would go until a temporary dam could be built. The water was pumped out (the Romans had water pumps) and the earth dug down to bedrock where the Romans cemented massive foundations in place (fortunately, their cement hardened in wet conditions). Piers rose from the foundation to the beginning of the arches.

 
Roamin' the Romans
Hundreds of picturesque Roman bridges in various stages of repair from ruin to active use litter the Roman Empire. One of the most famous is at Alcantara (The Bridge) in Spain. The magnificent six arches rise 140 feet above the water, an enduring example of both Roman engineering and persistence. The remains of the old bridge, built by the engineer who created Trajan's famous column, were washed away by the wild Tagus river. The new bridge was built by Gaius Julius Lacer (whose spirit still looks on in admiration from his tomb nearby) in
C
.
E
. 105.

In places where there was a great deal of wetlands to cross, the Romans elevated their roadways. Timber piles were driven into the ground, and the frame for the road was built upon these. Limestone flagstones were laid on top of the wooden frame and the road was filled on top. In other places, causeways were constructed by pounding parallel lines of pilings and filling in between them to a height above flood stage.

In some places, a river was just too deep or too far across for the Romans to build a bridge, so ferries had to be used. One such place was at Forum Appii, where the last 20-mile stretch of the
Via Appia antiqua
had to be made by a ferry (pulled from the shore by donkeys) to Terracina. Other ferry crossings were broader. For example, ferries carried travelers over the Adriatic from the end of the
Via Appia
in Brudesium (from Rome) to the beginning of the
Via Egnatia
(to Greece) at Dyrrachium. After Caesar, Britain was put on the Roman road map, so to speak. It's a tribute to Roman road building that, in the Empire, a traveler could go from Hadrian's Wall to Rome and need only to take one ferry—and that was over the English channel.

 
Roamin' the Romans
Tavernae
were pretty much the dive end of the accommodation line, but some were famous. The
Via Appia
had several well-known taverns; St. Paul stayed at one on his way to Rome, and the poet Horace spent an evening at another on his way to Brundesium with Maecenas.

The major highways were thronged with travelers and transport, and became clogged at rush hour near steep inclines and cities, especially in Rome. Yes, just as now, Rome had terrible traffic problems. Julius Caesar decreed that heavy transport use the streets only at night, but the noise at night brought almost as much complaining as the traffic. Near and in cities, roads were lined with raised sidewalks for pedestrians and some roads featured stepping-stone crosswalks for dry pedestrian crossing. At the entrances to cities, major roads featured public baths, toilets, and places to stay.

 
Lend Me Your Ears
“Carriages in narrow streets and the bellowing of gridlocked drivers keeps even Rip Van Winkle awake! Mr.
Rich
(civic duty calls!) whisks by in his limo-litter over the yielding heads of the deferential crowd.
He
blithely reads, or sleeps all tucked-in with the windows shut for darkness.
He
sleeps and gets there before
me!
The surge blocks
me
no matter how hard I swim against it, a tidal wave of humanity pushes from behind. One idiot gouges me with his elbow, another with a stiff pole; one smacks me in the head with a beam and another with a barrel. My legs are sprayed with mud and soon I'm completely trampled under by huge feet and some soldier's boot crushes my toes.”

—Juvenal,
Satire 3
(
Against Rome
), 234–248

On extended road trips, wealthy travelers often had their own (or friends') villas in which to stay. An official, who carried a
diploma
(travel permit), could also stop at various official stations (
villulae
) for a rest, and post-houses (
cursus publici
) for fresh horses. Other travelers had to depend upon travel inns (
mansiones
) and taverns (
tavernae
). The
mansiones
were built and maintained by local taxes and were required by law to provide food and shelter. Those who couldn't afford
mansiones
sought out the
tavernae
for their meals and overnight stays. Around all these accommodations stables, high-priced repair garages (what are you going to do—walk the 60 miles back to Rome for a wheel spoke?), fast-food outlets, and merchant shops sprang up.

 
Great Caesar's Ghost!
The poet Horace, in
Satire
1.5, describes a journey that he made with friends Maecenas and the poet Virgil along the
Via Appia,
complete with road stops, friendships, travel disasters, and diseases. Maecenas and company were probably on the way to try to smooth out the relationship between Antony and Octavian during the rocky days of the second triumvirate (43–34
B
.
C
.
E
.).

The Romans learned early how to move water over and through the land, but it wasn't to get water—it was to get
rid
of it. Roman farmers used sophisticated drainage channels to manage soil conditions and reclaim land around the city. Later, the construction of the
Cloaca Maxima
by the Etruscans introduced the channel to the arch and created the great sewer.

It was only a matter of time until the Romans, in need of a drink and a bath, reversed the process—found water and brought it
to
the city. It was Appius Claudius the Blind who proposed the first aqueduct, the
Aqua Appia
in 312
B
.
C
.
E
. It was a little over 10 miles long. The next, the
Anio Vetus,
in 272
B
.
C
.
E
., was
50
miles long. Five hundred years brought 10 more aqueducts—one major water expansion every 50 years.

The principles and ideas behind an aqueduct aren't complex. You find water somewhere and collect it in a huge basin. From the basin, you let it run downhill in a big pipe to the city. There, you collect it again in a big basin, from which many little pipes distribute it around the neighborhood so that people can spend Saturday morning washing the chariot. Well, okay, it's a
little
more complicated than that (and washing vehicles wasn't a Roman obsession).

 
Roamin' the Romans
Earlier peoples used aqueducts, too, but it was the Romans who developed them into a signature architectural feature. The most famous aqueduct is probably the
Pont du Guard
in Provence (built by Trajan), but many other beautiful aqueducts grace the Roman Empire from east to west and north to south. Some, such as an aqueduct for the Vatican and one in Segovia, Spain, are still in use today!

 
Great Caesar's Ghost!
The Romans knew how to use pressurized pipe. They developed pumps, sophisticated pipe sizes, water valves, mixing valves, and other pipe fittings that any plumber would recognize today. Immense factories made and distributed pipes and fittings for municipal and domestic use.

Once a source of water was found (such as a lake or springs), surveyors calculated the rise in elevation between it and the planned terminus of the aqueduct in the city. A route was then carefully planned and staked out to insure a continuous and gentle downward grade. Although people appreciate aqueducts for their graceful, arching elevations, most of the aqueducts were in fact underground. Burying the aqueduct not only kept water from evaporating, it kept it cool and protected it from potential tampering by enemies.

Beginning at the point of collection, a catch basin was built to collect the water. The delivery route was trenched if possible. Otherwise, shafts were then sunk every 20 yards or so along the route to the required depth, and tunnels dug from shaft to shaft using the
chorobates
to check for grade. These shafts could be reopened and used to enter the aqueduct at a later time for repairs, cleaning, and maintenance. Once the threat of enemies had been eliminated, the shafts were marked and numbered for ease of maintenance. A closed (usually arched) water conduit (
rivus
or
specus
) was created in the tunnels using stone and finished with concrete. The
specus
was made as tall as a man to accommodate adequate water supplies and to make it easier to clean and to inspect.

Pools (called fishponds or
piscinae
) along the route cleaned the water by allowing sediments and debris to filter out. Additional water was brought into the aqueduct from other sources through branch lines (
rami
), or water was drawn off into a distribution tank (
castellum
) for distribution through pipes (
fistulae
) to towns or individuals who had special water contracts. Tying into an aqueduct without permission would be akin to tying your farm into the electrical grid without permits. There were serious fines for such public theft.

When the topography didn't accommodate underground digging, the
specus
was elevated on earthworks, upon arches, or built into structures such as bridges or over-passes. These are the structures that inspire so much admiration. But they, and the underground structures and tunnels, are all the more impressive for their use of hydrostatic pressure and siphoning to get over rises and to distribute water in the cities once the aqueduct had reached its terminus.

The “Pont du Guard” near Nîmes in southern France, built under the emperor Trajan (98–117).

Roman cities used an incredible amount of running water. There were no faucets—water ran (at a measured amount) continuously. When the aqueduct entered the city, water was collected in an enormous distribution tank (
castellum
). From the
castellum
delivery pipes (
fistulae
) of lead, wood, or tile took water to different parts of the city.

The Roman engineer Vetruvius (ca 50–26
B
.
C
.
E
.) lays out a hierarch of water distribution managed by three tanks in his treatise on architecture (
de Architectura
). The first tank supplied public fountains for drinking and personal use; the second supplied the public baths (which provided public hygiene and income to the state); and the third, which could run only when the other two had more than enough water, supplied private homes. Public water was available on most blocks, and many of these small running fountains are still a good source of a cool drink in Rome today.

 
Great Caesar's Ghost!
An abundance of running water and the technological know-how made for remarkably modern civic and domestic plumbing. Well-to-do Romans had water closet-type toilets, private fountains, and baths. Public sanitation (baths and toilets) was helped by using the outlet water from the baths to continuously flush public toilets. You can find an example of this sanitation plan along the main city street in Ephesus (Turkey).

 
Roamin' the Romans
When in Naples, be sure to visit the massive subterranean
castellum
that served as the fresh water tank for the Roman Navy and as a bomb shelter in World War II.

 
Great Caesar's Ghost!
The earliest public amphitheater was built for a colony of Sullan veterans at Pompeii around 80
B
.
C
.
E
. Its builders called it the
spectacula.
(Nowadays, it would be called the “DictatorFelix.com Spectacula.”)

The priority that public water distribution took in the aqueducts underscores that these public works were, in part, examples of Roman civic values and, in part, ways for political figures to win broad popular support. Agrippa, for example, won great acclaim for his repair of the aqueducts that were damaged by war and by “deferred maintenance” during the end of the Republic. Aqueducts also provide clues to population and economic growth in various parts of the city to archeologists.