We can learn a lot from reading the works by Pollio Vitruvius (De Architectura) and Sextus Julius Frontinus (De aquaeductu urbis Rome) who lived 40-103 A. D. So during his writings the first nine aqueducts built in Rome were still being used. Frontinus was a retired military officer who in A. D. 97 took over as director of the Rome Metropolitan Waterworks. Frontinus’s work reflects the first nine aqueducts to Rome which existed during his time. So when he became the director the oldest aqueduct (Appia) was 215 years old and the newest was 45 years old. By any modern standards most of these aqueducts would be very old structures. Water loss due to theft and official negligence was a major concern. Water was stolen through illegal taps using branching pipes for illegal diversions. Large amounts of water were also lost from leaks in the aqueducts.
Frontinus was responsible for locating the illegal taps and repairing the leaks. He wrote that the recovered amount of water was virtually the same as finding a new source of water (Frontinus, translation by Charles Bennett, 1925). He also wrote (BookI.7):
One hundred and twenty-seven years later, that is in the six hundred and eighth year from the founding of the City, in the consulship of Servius Sulpicius Galba and Lucius Aurelius Cotta, when the conduits of Appia and Old Anio had become leaky by reason of age, and water was also being diverted from them unlawfully by individuals, the Senate commissioned Marcius, who at that time administered the law as a praetor between citizens, to reclaim and repair these conduits; and since the growth of the city was seen to demand a more bountiful supply of water, the same man was charged by the Senate to bring into the
City other waters so far as he could. He restored the old channels and brought in a third supply, more wholesome than these which is called Marcia after the man who introduced it.
We read in Fenestella, that 180,000,000 sesterces were granted to Marcius for these works, and since the term of his praetorship was not sufficient for the completion of the enterprise, it was extended for a second year. ...
Several thoughts come to mind in reading this. Because of the age of the aqueducts Appia and Anio Vetus and the lack of maintenance they leaked extensively and needed repair. One might ask how many of our present day water supply structures will be in use in the next 150 plus years?
According to Frontinus (Book I.9) by the time Julia was constructed the aqueducts of Appia, Anio Vetus (Old Anio), and Marcia had almost worn out and Tepula so Agrippa restored these. Julia had branch pipes by which the water was “secretly plundered.” By destruction of the branch pipes the aqueduct maintained its “normal quantity even in times of most extraordinary drought.”
Frontinus (Book I.120) described that the necessity of repairs to the aqueducts was the result of damage “by the lawlessness of abutting proprietors, by age, violent storms, or by defects in the original construction, which has happened quite frequently in the case of recent works.” Frontinus (Book I.121) recognized the troublesome aspects of the aqueduct:
As a rule, those parts of the aqueducts which are carried on arches are placed on side-hills and, of those on arches, the parts that cross rivers suffer most from the effects of age or of violent storms. These, therefore, must be put in order with care and dispatch. The underground portions, not being subjected to either heat or frost, are less liable to injury. Defects are either of the sort that can be remedied without stopping the flow of the water, or such as cannot be made without diverting the flow, as, for example, those which have to be made in the channel itself.
Frontinus (Book I.122) discussed the accumulation of deposits and the damage to the concrete linings of the aqueducts. He discussed the fact that repairs to the channels should not be made during the summers, but should be during the spring and autumn and only a single aqueduct should be considered at a time because of the demands. Frontinus (Book II.120) wrote that the Aqua Claudia was badly built. This aqueduct had to be rebuilt and restored many times. In the end it had become practically a different aqueduct.
The strength and efficiency of the Roman aqueduct system directly affects the strength and efficiency of the Roman people and their government (Tradieu, 1986). But then as the Roman government declined so did the water supply system. One might conclude that one of the major accomplishments that helped to make them great also was a factor in their decline. Rome’s aqueduct system, by modern day standards, was defective in that it leaked significantly as evidenced by the large deposits of lime and most likely during many times the aqueducts did not function properly. Unfortunately Rome’s technology of building aqueducts did not change over time.
World History
