Water for a Crowded City
1By the first century CE, historians estimate that about a million people lived in Rome. Most of their water arrived by aqueduct, a channel that carried water downhill from springs and rivers in the hills. Much of each channel ran underground, and parts crossed valleys on tall stone arches. The first aqueduct was built in 312 BCE. By 97 CE, Rome had nine.
2Water flowed through the aqueducts day and night. Most Romans collected it at public fountains and basins on street corners and carried it home in jars. Public baths used huge amounts, and the overflow from fountains and baths ran on through the sewers, washing them out. A small number of wealthy Romans received a grant, or permission, to run a pipe from the public supply into their own homes. A grant belonged to the person, not to the house. When the holder died or sold the house, the water went back to the public supply to be granted again.
3Building a new aqueduct took years of work by thousands of laborers, along with great amounts of stone and money. So the city could not simply build more whenever people wanted more water. Leaks and cracked channels also wasted water, and every repair took workers and money that could have gone to other projects. Every jar of water used in one place was water that could not be used somewhere else.
4In 97 CE, Emperor Nerva named Sextus Julius Frontinus, a former general and governor, as Rome's water commissioner. Frontinus inspected the aqueducts, measured how much water each one carried and wrote a book, On the Aqueducts of Rome, about what he found.