Aqueduct of Segovia

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  Daily Life in the Roman City

  Rome, Pompeii, and Ostia

  • Gregory S. Aldrete(Author)
  • 2004(Publication Date)
  • Greenwood

    (Publisher)

  This has led to endless academic arguments about how to translate his figures, resulting in estimates of the total volume of water supplied to the city that range from 300,000 cubic meters per day to well over 1 million cubic meters per day. The Romans built aqueducts not only for the capital city, but all over the empire as well, and these provincial aqueducts feature some of the most impressive architecture. The Pont du Gard in southern France is an aston- ishing engineering feat consisting of a multilevel arcade 50 meters high built to carry an aqueduct across a gorge. The town of Segovia in Spain has a lengthy section of well-preserved and imposing aqueduct, and the city of Vienne in Gaul was served by no fewer than 11 aqueducts, although they are considerably smaller than Rome's. Overall, the Roman water-supply system was a truly impressive achieve- ment and one that the ancients themselves marveled at. Frontinus asked, "How could you compare such an array of indispensable structures carry- ing so much water with the idle pyramids or the useless although famous works of the Greeks?" (Frontinus, De Aquis Urbis Romae 16). Pliny the Elder wrote, "If we take into careful account the plentiful supply of water to pub- lic buildings, baths, pools, canals, homes, gardens, and villas near the city; if we contemplate the distances traveled by the water before it arrives, the raising of arches, the tunneling through mountains, and the construction of level courses across deep valleys, we will have to concede that nothing more remarkable has ever existed in all the world" (Pliny the Elder, Natural His- tory 36.24.123). ROMAN SEWERS The second consideration in urban planning regarding water is provid- ing a mechanism to get rid of unwanted water. In the most simple case, this entails constructing a drainage system sufficient to carry away or divert rainwater.

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  Water Engineering in Ancient Civilizations

  5,000 Years of History

  • Pierre-Louis Viollet(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • CRC Press

    (Publisher)

  Such towers are useful when, in an inverted siphon, there are elbows or high points favorable to the formation of air pockets. The Tourillon de Craponne, on one of the aqueducts of Lyon that we describe further on, could serve as an example. Possible remains of others can be found at Aspendos, in the south of Anatolia. Table 6.1 presents a synthesis of data for a number of known aqueducts in the Roman Empire. It shows that the aqueducts could reach quite significant lengths, often up to 50 or 100 km. But the length of an aqueduct is not, by itself, a good indicator of its grandeur. The construction of bridges, arcades, tunnels, etc. in effect reduces the length of an aqueduct, limiting the numerous detours that would be necessary if the structure had to follow the local topography along the ground surface. Certain aqueducts are actu-ally shortened during renovation, thanks to the construction of such projects. This is notably the case for the Aqua Marcia , one of the aqueducts of Rome: “But now, whenever a conduit has succumbed to old age, it is the practice to carry it in cer-tain parts on substructures or on arches, in order to save length, abandoning the subterranean loops in the valleys.” 20 138 Water Engineering in Ancient Civilizations 18 Vitruvius, On Architecture, VIII, VI, 5 and 6, translated by Joseph Gwilt, London: Priestley and Weale, 1826. http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Vitruvius/8*.html 19 See Fahlbusch, 1979, 1987. 20 Frontinus, “The Aqueducts of Rome”, 18, Translation of Charles E. Bennett in the Loeb edition, 1925 http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Frontinus/De_Aquis/text*.html head tank exit basin On a supporting wall on arches bridge-aqueduct underground tunnel bridge-siphon head loss dip lead pipes inverted siphon Figure 6.7 The types of works found on Roman aqueducts: bridge, arches, tunnel, inverted siphon

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  Great Waterworks in Roman Greece

  Aqueducts and Monumental Fountain Structures: Function in Context

  • Georgia A. Aristodemou, Theodosios P. Tassios, Georgia A. Aristodemou, Theodosios P. Tassios(Authors)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Archaeopress

    (Publisher)

  They are all impressive curved covered conduits, rectangular in cross-section, usually subterranean – the visible terminal point of the aqueduct of Dion is an exception. 14 In Dion, water was collected from sources in the foothills of Mount Olympus, about 6 miles away from the city and was flowing by gravity through an underground vaulted stone built conduit (Figure 3 a-b). In its terminal part it was built on an arcade and carried the water to the main distribution tank ( castellum ) located in the west side of the city wall. This compact aboveground water construction contained five arched openings, three of which correspond to two roads – one of them being bidirectional. The other two openings are above fortification ditches (Figure 3 c). From the main distribution tank, water was supplying the city via three secondary castella and pipes of clay or lead. 15 The aqueduct of Edessa has been identified in different plots within the modern city. Its arched stone canal, well waterproofed, was constructed at the end of the 3rd century AD (Figure 4). 16 On the other hand, Philippi, due to the poor water quality of the area, received water mainly from karstic springs, about 8km northwest. A barrel vaulted aqueduct channel with cleaning manholes was carrying water in a central tank located at the city’s southwestern slope. It was a quite expensive construction of the 2nd century AD (Figures 5, 6). 17 Similar structural features have been recognized in the remains of the Roman aqueduct of Amphipolis, with the vaulted covering of the channel detected both in situ, in a fragmentary preserved section of the pipeline (Figure 6). 18 A series of vaulted water conduits have been revealed in the Kalamaria valley, southeast of the city of Thessaloniki, indicating the existence and operation of an important and extensive aqueduct (Figures 7, 8). Its location and function were benefited by the soft soil slopes of the region.

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  History of Sanitation

  • J. J. (John Joseph) Cosgrove(Author)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Perlego

    (Publisher)

  Many other aqueducts besides those mentioned were built at different periods to add to the water supply of Rome. A table is given below showing the date of the constructions and their lengths.

  The magnificence displayed by the Romans in the construction of aqueducts was not confined to the capital. Wherever Roman colonies were established, it would appear that vast sums were expended in providing the community with a suitable supply of water. Ruins of aqueducts built by the Romans may still be seen at many points in Spain, France, Africa, Greece, and even England can point to the ruins of a water tower built by this prolific school of Roman engineers. At the present time there are probably one hundred or more structures of this kind in existence, some of which are in daily use, supplying water to inhabitants of communities for whose ancestors they were built centuries ago.

  ROMAN AQUEDUCTS, ARRANGED IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

  Name of Aqueduct	Date of Construction	Length Miles
  Appia	313 B. C.	11
  Anio Vetus	273 B. C.	43
  Marcia	145 B. C.	61
  Herculea branch		3
  Tepula	127 B. C.	13
  Julia	35 B. C.	15
  Virgo	21 B. C.	14
  Augusta	10 A. D.	6
  Absietina	10 A. D.	22
  Claudia	50 A. D.	46
  Anio Novus	52 A. D.	58
  Neronian branch	97 A. D.	2
  Trajana	111 A. D.	42
  Hadriana	117-1585 A. D.	15
  Aurelia	162 A. D.	16
  Severiana	200 A. D.	10
  Antoniniana branch	212 A. D.	3
  Sabina-Augusta	130-300 A. D.	15
  Alexandrina	230 A. D.	15
  Jova	300 A. D.

  (The miles above given are Roman miles, of 4,854 feet. The entire length of aqueduct in English miles would be 398.)

  Aqueduct of Segovia, Spain

  The Aqueduct of Segovia, Spain, is one of the most perfect and magnificent works of the kind remaining. It is built without mortar, is entirely of stone and of great solidity. The piers are 8 feet wide by 11 feet deep, and where the aqueduct approaches the city it attains a height of about 100 feet. This aqueduct is over 2,400 feet long, is built in two tiers of arches and although almost eighteen hundred years old, still supplies water to the city. Of the 109 arches, however, 30 are of modern construction, being reproductions of the ancient arches.

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  Rome: A Sourcebook on the Ancient City

  • Fanny Dolansky, Stacie Raucci(Authors)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Bloomsbury Academic

    (Publisher)

  You will read about the building and upkeep of the aqueducts, the problems associated with them, and the significance of the system. Dodge (2000: 171) provides an excellent chart on the eleven ancient aqueducts, which includes their sources and technical details (such as length, slope, and distribution in the city). For a discussion of the technical aspects of aqueducts, read Trevor Hodge’s Roman Aqueducts and Water Supply (2002), though his work is not limited to the aqueducts of the city of Rome. Further reading: Aicher 1995; Bruun 1991; Bruun 2013; Dodge 2000; Evans 1997; Hodge 2002; Stambaugh 1988: 129–30; Taylor 2001. Strabo, Geography 5.3.8 These people [the Romans] thought ahead, especially about things that those people [the Greeks] thought little about: the paving of roads, aqueducts, and sewers that were able to wash out the dirt of the city into the Tiber … The sewers, vaulted with cut stone, left some roads [big enough to be] passable for wagons of hay. So much is the water brought in by the aqueducts that rivers flow through the city and the sewers and nearly every house has a cistern and pipes and plentiful watercourses. Marcus Agrippa paid the most attention to these things. Urban Infrastructure 157 Frontinus, On the Aqueducts of Rome 4 From the foundation of the city, for 441 years, the Romans have been content with the use of the waters, which they drew either from the Tiber or wells or springs. The memory of the springs still exists and is cultivated with honor. They are believed to bring health to sick bodies, just as the springs of the Camenae and Apollo and Juturna. Now, moreover, the following flow into the city: the Aqua Appia, Anio Vetus [Old Anio], Marcia, Tepula, Julia, Virgo, Alsietina which is called also the Augusta, Claudia, and Anio Novus [New Anio].

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