1. LAVORO SCIENZE
The water has always been, for all the population of the world, a basic element for the
welfare of the cities. Until the 6th century, the Romans used water from the Tiber and from
other natural sources. The Tiber was also used for the movement of the Romans, it is about
250 miles long and its deep varies from 7 and 20 feet and it is the second river of Italy, it
rises from the Apennines at the Mount Fumaiolo thought Rome. With the growth of the
cities that sources wasn’t sufficient for all the population and it has been unhealthy. So the
Romans built a great water main, as famous as Rome, that was called “regina aquarum”,
“the queen of the water”. It was called in this manners because no other place in the
world had something like this. Interestingly, the Romans didn’t give themselves that name
at the water main, because they gave to all the water main an own name but after a
long time the people call with “regina aquarum” all the water main. This water main
represent the prosperity of Rome.
We can read about water main in lot of historian works. In particular we know all
information about history and the operating principle of water main thanks to Frontino,
“curator aquae” and he wrote the famous work “de aquis urbis Romae”.
The first water main was built in the 312 a.C. and it was called Appio. The whole
subterranean route measured about 16 km and it had a daily payload of 34 000 m3. After
that 11 others water main were built in the next 500 years. The water main were owned by
the state but they were available to population. Even today some of them are used to
assign water to the population. The availability per person of water was twice as it is today
so the Romans built thermal bath. Before them there were the baths (balnea) that were
very frequent by the Romans and then all the emperors competed with each other to
build the most beautiful thermal bath. At the end there were a total of 11 thermal baths.
Thermal baths were also important venue, were Romans could talk about politics or
chatting. Rome had 1300 public fountains, 15 monumental fountains, 900 pool and 5
artificial lakes too, some used for public games, that were very important for Romans
culture.
Romans used to take water from faraway source to supply the cities, the fountains and
private homes. Romans water main kept up one million people and thanks to them the
population of Rome increased. In total water main had a length between 790 and 800
km. It was illegal pollute the water main or connect yourself at the drain without paying a
tribute. Romans were the first to built a water main, but the technique of the transport of
the water was created by Egyptians and Babylonians. They used to take the water from
the river to fertilize the field, where they grew the foodstuffs, then their water mains were
more easy then Romans’ water mains.
