Water For The Citizens Of Rome example essay topic

Part A: Basilica Julia In 54 BC Julius Caesar began constructions on a basilica that would out shine all others in Rome, the Basilica Julia. Construction was still underway when Julius Caesar was assassinated two years later, and the work had to be finished by his heir, Augustus. A fire in 12 AD severely damaged the new basilica, but the emperor Augustus had it rebuilt at a grandiose scale. After Basilica Julia had been rebuilt it was dedicated to the grandsons of Augustus: Gaius and Lucius. The Basilica Julia was built on the site of the old Basilica Sempron ia. The basilica was a rectangular building with a central nave flanked by aisles on either side, separated off by columns.

The Basilica Julia was of huge proportions, it was the largest basilica at the forum. It was 101 metres by 49 metres in size, bounded on all sides by streets, the Sacra via, the vicus Lug arius, the vicus Tus cus, and a street on the south connecting the last two. It was situated on the south side of the forum. The central hall, 82 metres long and 18 metres wide, was surrounded on all sides by two aisles, 7.5 metres wide, over which were the galleries of a second storey.

These aisles were formed by the pillars of the facade, which were of marble, and by inner rows of similar pillars made of brick and faced with marble. The first floor of the basilica was therefore an open arcade, divided by the marble balustrades which joined the pillars. Of these pillars there were eighteen on each of the longer sides, and eight, counting the ends of the spur walls, on the shorter. The entire outside of the building was constructed originally of white marble, and on the outer faces of its pillars were engaged columns of the Doric order. The floor sloped slightly towards the north east corner, and was paved with slabs of marble, coloured in the central court and white in the aisles. The central area was covered with a wooded roof which rose above the roof of the side aisles and admitted light through its side windows.

From the Via Sacra, one climbed steps up to the vestibulum. On the pavement of the portico, diagrams of games scratched into the white marble are still visible today. The basilica was a centre of business, it housed public meetings but it was mainly a court of justice. The basilica Julia housed the court of the centumviri (literally one hundred men, although the number changed to one hundred and eighty).

These one hundred and eighty magistrates passed judgement in civil cases. They were divided up into four groups of forty five, separated by screens or curtains. Each chamber worked individually. Just in the case of major and very important trials the chambers worked together. The public was allowed attend the sessions. That is why lawyers organised the paid support of a lot of people trying to influence the judges.

These supporters booed the lawyer of the other party and they cheered the lawyer who had paid them. Emperor Caligula had money thrown from the roof because he liked watching the people fighting for the money. The spectators who frequented the basilica Julia whiled away the time between trials by playing games on boards inscribed in the steps and aisles. Domus Aurea There was no more visible way for an emperor to publicise his strength and good will to the roman people than by erecting impressive and remarkable buildings that glorified himself.

Apart from sponsoring the building of aqueducts, temples, markets, theatres and fora, they also built lavish palaces for their own living quarters and employed the most distinguished architects and artists in all the roman empire. The construction of the Domus Aurea (the Golden House) was considered to be one of the most crazy projects of the city. Construction of the palace began after the great fire of Rome in 64 AD, emperor Nero used this free space for the new accommodation. Some say he allowed the fire to spread so he would have the land for this magnificent structure. The palace (it was not so much a palace as a series of buildings scattered over a landscape), spanned the Esquiline and Palatine Hills, but also occupied most of the Caelian Hill as well. It even replaced the Temple of Claudius the God, which Nero demolished.

The whole area of the property was 985 feet long by 295 feet width. Among other things there was an amphitheatre, a market, a bath-gymnasium complex, served by an aqueduct 75 km long. Baths were served by a flow of both salted water and sulphurous one from the Abul ae springs. On the Caelian Hill there were beautiful gardens, zoos, woods and parks where cattle roamed. There were hundreds of statues, grottoes, nymphaeums, porticoes painted with romantic landscapes. One of the most noticeable (and arrogant) features of the Domus Aurea was the Colossus Nero nis, a 36 metre bronze statue of Nero placed just outside the entrance, it was carved by the Greek Zenodoros.

This massive statue was built in imitation of the Colossus of Rhodes, and reminded the Romans of the outlandish extravagance of Nero's regime. Unfortunately, very little of the Domus Aurea exists today, however, comments from ancient historians and archaeological evidence allows us to visualise the palace. Some depiction of the palace is described by Suetonius: A huge statue of Nero, 120 feet high, stood in the entrance hall; and the pillared arcade ran for a whole mile. An enormous pool, more like a sea than a pool, was surrounded by buildings made to resemble cities and by a landscape garden consisting of plowed fields, vineyards, pastures and woodlands.

Here every variety of domestic and wild animal roamed about. Parts of the house were overlaid with gold and studded with precious stones and mother of pearl. All the dining rooms had ceilings of fretted ivory, the panels of which could slide back and let a rain of flowers, or of perfume from hidden sprinklers, fall on his guests. The main dining room was circular, and its roof revolved slowly, day and night, in time with the sky. Sea water, or sulfur water, was always on tap in the baths. -- Suetonius, Nero 31 1-2 The gemstones, perfumes and rotating ceiling have long since vanished, but archaeologists have uncovered an octagonal room with smaller rooms radiating from it.

The roof was a dome with a huge "oculus" or hole in the centre to let light in. slits in the sides of the room also let light in, but they were positioned behind supports so that subtly hid the light source from the visitor to the room. There were magnificent paintings, fountains, ceiling decorations and elaborate furnishings. Romans were indeed impressed with this incredible palace, but they did not approve of it. Nero's lifestyle made his house an easy target for criticism. The Domus Aurea became a symbol of the decadence that motivated Nero's immoral acts. Just as Nero became a monster, so too did his house encroach shamelessly on the city of Rome.

In his epigrams Martial summarised: One house took up the whole city of Rome. -- Liber de Spectaculis 2.4 Suetonius reported a popular warning about the oppressive nature of the house itself: Rome has become a house; citizens, emigrate to Veii. But watch out that the house does not extend that far too. -- Suetonius, Nero 31 Serv us and Celer, the best architects of the day, designed the complex. Their work on the Domus Aurea shows that they rejected traditional roman architecture in favour of a radically new architecture which utilised arches and which focused on interior spaces.

Championed by a ruler defiant of tradition, the architecture of Severus and Celer flourished. No earlier building approached the technical and artistic solutions found in the Domus Aurea. They exhibited a genuine originality that moved them beyond earlier precedents and which allowed them to create a masterful statement about the possibilities of vaulted space. Part B: Insulae One of the great achievements of Augustus was to transform Rome into a truly imperial city, with the majestic marble buildings we associate with ancient Rome today.

However, despite the opulence of political and historic Rome, the lives of its citizens were sometimes less than ideal. The common roman lived in a functional multi-party apartment block called insula. The average insula was 3-4 storeys hight and had differently sized apartments. Some consisted only of one tiny room, while others took up a whole floor in the apartment house. Usually the insula had a courtyard to let in air and light.

One or two common staircases led to the upper floors, where the less desirable rooms where located. Running water, if available, would only reach the lower levels, and in case of a fire, the tenants on the highest floor were in the most danger. In a census count from 300 AD, between 44 000 and 46 000 insulae were counted in the town of Rome. Like all towns, Rome consisted of poorer and richer quarters, but there were no quarters with insulae only.

An often named example for a lower class quarter is the subra. Located north east of the forum it was an active quarter with the busy street argiletum running through it. In this part of Rome there were lots of stores, workshops and inns, but also town houses of wealthier roman citizens (Julius Caesar's parents were living in the subra). Several authors complain about the continuous noise and the constantly jammed streets in the subra.

Houses often collapsed or burnt down. The insulae consisted of little rooms. In a small room lived a whole family. Light came through open windows, these windows had no glass.

Unlike most domi, the insulae didn't have running water. The residents had to obtain their water from public fountains which were copious in the streets of Rome. If the tenants were lucky the insula had group lavatories on the ground floor. For all other dwellers there were public lavatories. For the daily needs of the Romans there were various shops. The tenants neither had a cellar nor an oven, which made them reliant on wine shops, bakeries and various other shops.

If we compare Rome to a third world country we would probably get a better understanding of what the living conditions were like for the poorer citizens. The city was noisy, it was filled with pack animals leaving their droppings through the city, it was filled with beggars and commotion. Our notion of Rome probably bears little relation to the Rome of everyday life, this is because what is left today are the remains of huge publics buildings, not the filthy insulae which had no plumbing and without any kind of sanitary conditions that ordinary people lived in. Part C: Aqueduct Report Identifying the problem: There are many problems involved in the provision of fresh drinking water to the people of Rome. One of these is the terrain that needs to be traversed to successfully maintain a gravity flow of water into the city from its source, the upper Tiber. The removal of sediments from the water prior to its delivery to the people of Rome is another issue which must be attended to.

This is important as the risk of water borne diseases is high unless good quality drinking water is supplied and the treatment and removal of sewerage remains separate from drinking water. Porous or impermeable rock is another problem which must be addressed. If the rock is porous then the water needs to be sealed some how other wise we will lose it. Our system of water supply needs to be efficient to provide one cubic metre of water per day per person. We have over a million people living in Rome, and our population is growing, so this water supply must be reliable and abundant. An additional matter at hand is how to maintain the water supply system, and how we are to repair the system if there is some sort of trouble.

Distribution of water within the city also needs to be considered. What specific places need water and who will pay for it? Methods: In order to keep the gradient constant, the aqueducts need to take a roundabout route, following the contours of the land, heading along spurs that lead towards Rome. The construction of high arches to support the conduits across valleys and plains must be implemented. Closed pipes could be used to cross valleys by the "inverted syphon" method, that is, the pressure forces the water down and up again on the other side, to a level slightly lower than before. This system may be more costly however, as it requires lead pipes (which means importing it from Spain or Great Britain) and it is very difficult to make joints strong enough to withstand this pressure.

Therefore arches are a better option. Where the closed pipes are used, the channel in which the water flows should be just over three feet wide and approximately six feet high to allow workers to walk throughout its length when the water supply gets cut off for inspection or maintenance. Anywhere the rock is porous and where the conduit runs on arches, a layer of impermeable concrete needs to be applied to form an opus signin um. A sedimentation tank is a necessity to obtain cleaner water. The tank slows the flow of water down and impurities are then deposited. To keep drinking water as pure as possible, water for the aqueducts needs to be taken from the upper Tiber, so that sewerage disposal is released down stream in order to ensure that these two systems remain separate and reduce the prospect of disease.

Where two or more conduits run near another, there must be places in which water can be exchanged between them, to either increase the flow of an aqueduct carrying little water or so that one of the conduits can be emptied for maintenance and repair. Waterproof lining Conclusion: The provision of fresh drinking water for the citizens of Rome will help ensure their continued good health. It has been seen in other cities of our time that contaminated drinking water can lead to major out-breaks of diseases such as cholera typhoid and dysentery, within those cities. A key factor in avoiding such outbreaks is sewerage removal and disposal well away from drinking water supplies i.e. down stream. The benefits of the provision of these two public health services to the citizens of Rome are essential to ongoing development and success of the roman empire. As we understand the important principles of public heath in relation to sanitation, an integral part of their application is the transport of water via aqueducts to supply water where needed.

Not only is the water supply to Rome essential to the sanitary aspects of roman life, the water supply also allows our city to expand and accommodate concentrated populations without danger of epidemics. It advantageous for the city of Rome to increase its population for reasons of defence and security against potential enemies. To provide for such a flourishing population it is vital that an adequate water supply is developed as water is a necessity to the health and survival of the roman people. To a large extent the health of the roman population is in our hands and a failure to provide these necessities could have disastrous results.