Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Rome's first aqueduct, the Aqua Appia is named after the censor Appius Claudius Caecus, the same man
who built Via Appia Antica.
The Roman use of columns was also Greek in origin, even if the Romans favoured the
more slender Ionic and Corinthian columns over the plain Doric pillars - to see how the
columnar orders differ, study the exterior of the Colosseum, which incorporates all three
styles.
To supply water to the Terme di Caracalla, a special aqueduct was built, the Aqua Antoniniana, linking
the baths to the Aqua Marcia, which brought water in from hills near Subiaco.
Aqueducts & Sewers
One of the Romans' crowning architectural achievements was the development of a
water-supply infrastructure, based on a network of aqueducts and underground sewers. In
the early days, Rome got its water from the Tiber and natural underground springs, but as
its population grew so demand outgrew supply. To meet this demand, the Romans con-
structed a complex system of aqueducts to bring water in from the hills of central Italy
and distribute it around the city.
The first aqueduct to serve Rome was the 16.5km Aqua Appia, which became fully op-
erational in 312 BC. Over the next 700 years or so, up to 800km of aqueducts were built
in the city, a network capable of supplying up to one million cubic metres of water a day.
This was no mean feat for a system that depended entirely on gravity. All aqueducts,
whether underground pipes, as most were, or vast overland viaducts, were built at a slight
gradient to allow the water to flow. There were no pumps to force the water along so this
gradient was key to maintaining a continuous and efficient flow.
At the other end of the water cycle, waste water was drained away via an underground
sewerage system known as the Cloaca Maxima (Greatest Sewer) and emptied downstream
into the river Tiber. The Cloaca was commissioned by Rome's seventh and last king, Tar-
quin the Proud (r 535−509 BC), as part of a project to drain the valley where the Roman
Forum now stands. It was originally an open ditch, but from the beginning of the 2nd cen-
tury BC it was gradually built over.
The Romans used a variety of building materials. Wood and tufa, a soft volcanic rock, were used initially
but travertine, a limestone quarried in Tivoli, later took over as the favoured stone. Marble, imported from
across the empire, was used mainly as decorative panelling, attached to brick or concrete walls.
 
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