Panel 8.18 – Roman water management and infrastructure


Organiser/Chair:

  • Norbert Hanel (Ruhr-Universität Bochum)

Paper abstracts

1. Leonardo Radicioni (Sapienza, Università di Roma)

The importance of water infrastructures in Rome: technical-structural analysis of a section of Aqua Claudia and its maintenance and consolidation works
A city like Rome, with an urban population never seen in the ancient world, always needed huge resources. And water is without a doubt one of these. The Aqua Claudia and the Anio Novus were therefore the aqueducts that in the first imperial age went to satisfy this increasingly urgent need, due to the insufficiency of the seven existing aqueducts. With a path of tens of kilometers, the last part of which overlapped on continuous arches that even reach 30 meters high, the two new aqueducts together had a double flow rate, or greater, of all the other aqueducts, and certainly demanded the greatest economic effort, about 350 million of sesterces against the 8 million of the Aqua Marcia. Choose to analyze a single section, although about 160 meters, talking about such an infrastructure may seem reductive, but it useful and necessary if we consider the variety of solutions adopted in a work as big as this. And the part here analyzed is the most outstanding, precisely because of the whole series of maintenance or repair successive, which have widely modified shape, size, and above all static and structural functioning. A great commitment, therefore, economic, organizational, and above all lasting over the centuries, in keeping in function and in good condition an infrastructure so important, of which through the instrumental survey supported by 3D photogrammetry of the entire structure, it was possible to analyze every change and identify the causes that resulted in the necessity.

 

2. Konstantinos Tziampasis

Following the ruins of the aqueduct in ancient Lyttos
An impressive building- and large enough for its time, was the overground Roman aqueduct of Lyttos. It causes great impression to the people and passers-by in the area where, after so many centuries, it still dominates, feeding on the development of local legends, according to which it has been built by Sarantapechi. So far, there is no indication of the exact date of this construction. According to some scholars, the t masonry and the collection tank are considered to be of the middle of the 2nd century BC, very likely to be associated with Hadrian's reign .
The Roman aqueduct of Lyctos starts from the wells of Pano Kournias, which are located in the periphery of Krasi village, specifically from the Kefalovrisi well, and reaches to the eastern outskirts of the city. It passes through the rural areas of the villages of Krasi, Kera, Gonia, Avdou, Kastamonitsa and Xidas (old name of Lyttos). The actual distance is 22 km.
The purpose of the research is to illuminate the path of such a construction and to try to determine the period of its construction. It is also known that the Romans built aqueducts for two reasons:

  • To provide large baths, which were their concentration centers for rest, pleasure and cleanliness.
  • They wanted to impose their power and the sovereignty of Rome everywhere.

This famous aqueduct was put out of operation several centuries ago, but the legends surrounding it are a living monument, unique in Crete.

 

3. Paolo Storchi and Ilaria Trivelloni (Sapienza, Università di Roma)

Rivers of blood: the role of the water in the functioning of ancient Roman buildings for public spectacles.
Apart from the Naumachiae that, of course were a peculiar type of spectacles that needed a lot of water supplies, the role played by this precious natural source has been largely understimated by the scholars.
In fact, water is needed for a multiciplity of necessities such as let the spectators drink, clean the arena and the latrinae; for practical purposes connected both with decorative elements, such as fountains, and wastewater.
In the light of this, the presence of a river, according to our studies, may be considered as a determinant factor in the selection of the area where to erect the building.
As a matter of fact, the analysis of the positioning of these types of buildings reveals their frequent location near a river course. One of the reasons can be found on the fact that this seems to be the most economical and functional way to provide building materials during the construction phase.
These considerations can be applied to amphitheatres, but they involve also other typologies of buildings for spectacles; similar considerations can be suggested for circuses; in fact, the presence of water, attested in the spina, by iconographic sources, certainly could not have only a decorative role.
In conclusion, the connection of those buildings to a water resource should be evaluated in the multiplicity of its meanings. The aim of this paper is to clarify, by specific examples, this relationshp and to include this aspect of the Roman towns in the debate about the urban landscape.