Ancient Roman Well
This period marks the beginning in Greece and Rome of a school of architects and engineers whose works have left a lasting impression on art and engineering science, and to this day are monuments of proportion and beauty of design that are studied by all students of architecture and engineering. It is quite probable that Greece supplied the first engineers that constructed aqueducts in Carthage and Rome. The similarity in design of these various works points forcibly to the conclusion that they were all designed by disciples of one school.
Whether the first aqueducts were built in Carthage or in Rome is a matter of some uncertainty, although the fact that an aqueduct supplied Carthage with water at the time it was destroyed by the Romans would point to the Carthagenian aqueduct as the prior. The first Roman aqueduct was built in the year 312 B. C., and the city of Carthage, which, after a protracted struggle of 118 years, from 265 B. C. to 147 B. C., was finally conquered and destroyed by the Romans, was at that time supplied with water from distant springs through an aqueduct.
It is quite probable that Carthage was supplied with water from two different sources. The cisterns already mentioned provided a supply of rain water for industrial and most domestic uses, while the aqueduct, the channel of which had a cross-section of 10 inches square, brought drinking water from springs in the Zaghorn Mountains, some 60 kilometers distant. The aqueduct contoured the hillside for a considerable distance, at times went under ground, and on approaching the city was carried on arches of magnitude seemingly out of proportion to the size of the channel. At present it is suffering the fate of most ancient ruins. It is used as a quarry from which stones are taken to construct buildings in nearby towns and villages.
While the ruins of aqueducts and tunnels at Jerusalem, Athens and Carthage give some idea of the skill and knowledge of hydraulic and sanitary matters possessed by the engineers of that period, we must turn to Rome and study their system of water supply, drains for sewage and the ruins of their magnificent baths to form a true conception of the skill of the early school of Roman engineers and the lavish expenditures of treasure by the inhabitants to secure an adequate water supply for Rome. No aqueducts were built in Rome before the year 312 B. C. Prior to that time the inhabitants supplied themselves with water from the Tiber or from wells, cisterns or springs. The first aqueduct was begun by Appius Claudius, the censor, and was named after him the Aqua Appia. This aqueduct had an extreme length of 11 miles, and almost all of the work was entirely under ground. Remains of this work no longer exist. After the Aqua Appia was completed the building of aqueducts seems to have become almost a habit of the Romans, and it was not long—272 B. C.—before M. Aurius Dentatus began a second one called the Anio Vetus, which brought water from the river Anio, a distance of 43 miles. This aqueduct was constructed of stone and the water channel was lined with a thick coat of cement—no doubt Pozzolana cement—made from rock of volcanic origin, which, upon being pulverized and mixed with lime, possessed the hydraulic property of setting under water. Indeed, there can be but little doubt that were it not for this natural cement the construction of Roman aqueducts would have been more difficult to accomplish.
Ruins of a Roman Aqueduct
The water furnished by the Anio Vetus was of such poor quality that it was almost unfit for drinking. A further supply being found indispensable, the Senate commissioned Quintus Marcius Rex, the man who had superintended the repairs of the two already built, to undertake a third, which was called after him the Aqua Marcia. This was the most pretentious aqueduct undertaken. It was 61 miles long, about 7 of which were above ground, carried on arches, and of such height that water could be delivered to the loftiest part of Capitoline Mount. A considerable number of the arches of this aqueduct are still standing. Remains are also standing of the Aqueduct Tepula (127 B. C.) and the Aqua Julia (35 B. C.), which, if we except the Herculea branch, are next in point of date. Near the city of Rome the three aqueducts were united in one line of structure, forming three separate water courses, one above another, the lowermost of which formed the channel of the Aqua Marcia and the uppermost that of the Aqua Julia.