Rome: The Water Story
Read this one before my very right after my very long Rome post, as it is applicable to other things I will be writing about in coming days. It's sort of funny, as it is a topic that I have bitched about several times on this trip. Water.
The story of Rome is also a story of water, which is also a very timely and modern topic. Kim and I have been fascinated by Roman waters systems since our honeymoon in 1992. At that time, we were in Provence, which has its own great Roman relics, most notably in Nimes and Arles. In Provence, there is an ancient Roman aqueduct bridge, the Pont du Garde. The Ponte du Garde was a giant Roman bridge spanning a huge valley that was functional into the 900's. Yes, the 900's. Since we learned of the Pont du Gard, we've read stuff on Roman water, most recently a historic novell called Pompeii, set in Pompeii in the days before the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. It's a mystery surrounding a normal working guy responsible for keeping the water aqueducts into Pompeii running---well worth reading.
In any case, the rise and fall of Rome seems to be predicated on waters. In my last post, I talked about the Baths. In the heyday of Rome, with over 1 million people in the city, there was enough water coming into the city to provide everyone with 125 gallons of fresh water per day. There were baths, fountains, sewage systems, drainage. The public toilets had communal potties that sat up to 80+ people at a time, flushed with a constant flow of fresh water. Over time, as the city was attacked and sacked, the aqueduct system was attacked as well. When it finally collapsed, the city of Rome shrunk to 20,000 people, living among the ruins of the past, and with dirty water from the river. Yuck.
The water coming into Rome came from springs in the hills surrounding Rome, some up to 40+ KM away, 25 miles. In one instance we read about, two groups of workers drilled into opposite sides of a mountain for an aqueduct. When they met in the center of the mountain, the X and Y errors were almost zero. Since we asked about water, and the life of real people, Alan took us to one of the main water distribution facilities for Rome. For the fountains, the baths, public toilets, and the water supply for all the private villas and public spaces. At the peak, there were seven major aqueducts coming into Rome to 'distribution facilities' like the one below, that then distributed the water into more than 40 'subsystems'. There must have been a huge cadre of very skilled people that kept the water flowing. Something I would like to learn more about over time.
These buildings were HUGE. In a sort of ironic twist, there was a labor union strike with the banner above…
Off to Venice!
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