Rome's Sewer Systems

Fountain in Pomepii Overflowing
(Photo by Author)

                Water was used for more than just drinking and creating decorations in ancient Rome, in fact it had a major role to play in the sanitation of the city. With a population of over a million people, waste is created in massive amounts very quickly. And because there is no modern plumbing system, most Romans were left with containers full of waste that they had to dispose of. How? By dumping it in the street of course! This may seem counter-productive, but the sewer system of Rome was the most efficient of its time and the ability to transport sewage from the city to this level kept it clean and healthy, one of the major factors in allowing for it to reach the size that it did.

Outlet of the Cloaca Maxima to the Tiber
River
(http://ancientrome.ru/art/artworken/img.htm?id=65)

                How could they do this when a buildup of waste in the streets no doubt breeds disease? Well, the key features to remedying this are public fountains. Due to aqueducts stemming from non-stop natural water resources they cannot be turned off and on. That means if there is too much water in the system, the fountains will overflow. The frequent overflowing of the fountains from rain or from not enough use, generated wastewater that swept through the streets and took the refuse down the many drains into the sewers located under the city. The sewer pipes would then transport the sewage away from the city via the Cloaca Maxima, which emptied its contents into the Tiber – much like most of our modern sewer systems minus the treatment step.

                Though Rome had an operating system as early as the ninth century BCE, it is truly under the Emperors that the system sees its peak, as with most monuments. Many of them understood the importance of keeping the city clean and invested large sums of money into developing and maintaining the system.

Bibliography

Dodge, Hazel. "Greater than the Pyramids': The Water Supply of Ancient Rome." Edited by

Hazel Dodge. In Ancient Rome: The Archaeology of the Eternal City, edited by Jon Coulston, 166-209. Oxford: Oxford University School of Archaeology, 2000.