Great Waterworks in Roman Greece Aqueducts and Monumental Fountain Structures Function in Context

Great Waterworks in Roman Greece Aqueducts and Monumental Fountain Structures Function in Context Access edited by Open Georgia A. Aristodemou and Theodosios P. Tassios Archaeopress Archaeopress Roman Archaeology 35 © Archaeopress and the authors, 2017. Archaeopress Publishing Ltd Gordon House 276 Banbury Road Oxford OX2 7ED www.archaeopress.com ISBN 978 1 78491 764 7 ISBN 978 1 78491 765 4 (e-Pdf) © Archaeopress and the authors 2018 Cover: The monumental arcade bridge of Moria,Access Lesvos, courtesy of Dr Yannis Kourtzellis Creative idea of Tasos Lekkas (Graphics and Web Designer, International Hellenic University) Open All rights Archaeopressreserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owners. Printed in England by Oxuniprint, Oxford This book is available direct from Archaeopress or from our website www.archaeopress.com © Archaeopress and the authors, 2017. Contents Preface �� iii Georgia A. Aristodemou and Theodosios P. Tassios Introduction I� Roman Aqueducts in Greece ��1 Theodosios P. Tassios Introduction II� Roman Monumental Fountains (Nymphaea) in Greece ��10 Georgia A. Aristodemou PART I: AQUEDUCTS Vaulted-roof aqueduct channels in Roman Macedonia ��15 Asimina Kaiafa-Saropoulou The aqueduct of Actian Nicopolis ��26 Konstantinos L. Zachos and Leonidas Leontaris The water supply of Roman Thessaloniki ��50 Manolis Manoledakis Access The Hadrianic aqueduct of Athens and the underlying tradition of hydraulic engineering ��70 Eustathios D. Chiotis The Hadrianic aqueduct in Corinth ��98 Yannis Lolos Open The Roman aqueduct of Mytilene ��109 Yannis Kourtzellis, Maria Pappa and George Kakes Roman aqueduct of Samos ��131 Τelauges Ν. Dimitriou A Roman aqueduct through the Cretan highlands – securing the water supply for elevated Lyttos � 147 Amanda Kelly PART II: NYMPHAEA Archaeopress Shifting tides: approaches to the public water-displays of Roman Greece ��173 Dylan Kelby Rogers Fountain figures from the Greek provinces: monumentality in fountain structures of Roman Greece as revealed through their sculptural display programs and their patrons �� 193 Georgia Aristodemou The monumental fountain in the Athenian Agora: reconstruction and interpretation�� 218 Shawna Leigh New water from old spouts: the case of the Arsinoe fountain of Messene ��235 Mario Trabucco della Torretta Reflecting the past: the nymphaeum near the so-called Praetorium at Gortyn �� 246 Brenda Longfellow i © Archaeopress and the authors, 2017. Access Open Archaeopress © Archaeopress and the authors, 2017. ii A Roman aqueduct through the Cretan highlands – securing the water supply for elevated Lyttos Amanda Kelly Abstract In this paper I wish to examine the difficulties encountered in securing the water supply for the Roman city of Lyttos in east central Crete. The city, set on an elevated spur in the western foothills of the Lasithi range, represents one of the relatively few examples of a flourishing upland Roman city on the island. Lyttos was both an inland centre and one of the most prosperous cities of Roman Crete. Its lofty position, simultaneously overshadowing the Pedhiadha plain and controlling the main pass into the Lasithi plateau, secured its control over a wide agricultural area. At this inland, and relatively inaccessible site, economics (as manifested in viticulture), as opposed to geographical accessibility per se, connected the city with the broader Roman world. Despite the relative inconvenience of the city’s topography, the city remained on its perch in order to control the pass into the lucrative Lasithi plain. The city’s strategic placement undoubtedly presented a challenge for its Roman planners, yet the city survived (and continued to flourish into the Byzantine period), by virtue of its hydraulic surveyors taking full advantage of the city’s mountainous surrounds in designing its aqueduct. Keywords: Roman Crete, inverted siphons, aqueducts, Lyttos, Lasithi Access Introduction Lyttos is widely held as one of the most prosperous RomanOpen cities in Crete despite its relative physical inaccessibility, high in the mountain ranges of east central Crete (Figure 1). Broader onomastic studies suggest that Lyttos featured alongside other major Cretan cities (such as the capital at Gortyna, the colony at Knossos and the vibrant western hubs of Chania and Aptera) as a centre best known to the outer world and, therefore, also potentially one of the largest on the island.1 Epigraphic evidence demonstrates that Lyttos was just as receptive to Roman influence as the poleis of Gortyna, Hierapytna and Knossos.2 Due specifically to its elevated position (rather than in spite of it) the city gained great prominence, as this siting clinched its dominance over a wide agricultural area, simultaneously overlooking the plain and controlling the pass into Lasithi.3 By the mid-1st century AD its fertile hinterland produced much of the wine prominent in theArchaeopress trade network of the wider Empire, with the city’s insignia stamped on the amphora being shipped to Pompeii and Herculaneum in Campania.4 In addition to its early access to the north coast, originally via the port at Chersonisos,5 the city possibly gained access to the south coast via Keratokambos where a pottery production facility was in operation,6 producing the type of amphora found in Pompeii in the 1st century AD.7 Crete maintained its leading position in the wine trade for the first three centuries of Empire with Cretan amphorae representing more than a third of the Aegean and Eastern imports so far discovered in Ostia in the 2nd century AD.8 1 Baldwin Bowsky 1995: 53; Pumain 1997: 99. 2 Baldwin Bowsky 1995: 54; Baldwin Bowsky 2006. 3 While its far-flung amphorae attest that Lyttos prospered in viticultural terms, the city’s territory may also have been significant for herbiculture under Augustus. See, Rouanet-Liesenfelt 1992: 184, 187-188; Chaniotis 1999: 209-210; Baldwin Bowsky 1999: 338, note 47; Baldwin Bowsky 2006: 410, note 18; Vogeikoff-Brogan 2012: 91. 4 Chaniotis 1988: 75; De Caro 1992-1993: 307-312; Baldwin Bowsky 1995: 50 and 57; Marangou-Lerat 1995: 131-134. 5 Viviers 1994: 252-254, for the city’s early association. 6 Baldwin Bowsky 1999: 339; Coutsinas 2013: 261, map 20. 7 Empereur et al. 1991: 510-511; Baldwin Bowsky 2006: 410. 8 Marangou 1999: 271, 278. 147 © Archaeopress and the authors, 2017. Great Waterworks in Roman Greece Access Figure 1. Aerial photograph overlaid with Oikonomakis’ trajectory (after Oikonomakis 1984: 68) Open Lyttos: a ghost town or developed cityscape Van Effenterre and Gondicas refer to pre-Roman Lyttos as a ‘ville fantôme’,9 yet the city’s dominant role in the broader east Cretan region during the Archaic to Classical period is attested by the ceramic record in the principal shrine in the area: Kato Simi.10 Furthermore, excavations conducted by the Greek Archaeological Service have revealed an active civic centre in the Hellenistic period, albeit earlier activity may have been intermittent, as the city’s ceramic record for the 6th, 5th, and 4th centuries BC would suggest.11 Any Hellenistic activity on the acropolis of Lyttos, however, affirms a continuum of place in terms of civic development, presenting a spatial persistence which is fundamental to the appraisal of the Roman aqueduct presented here. That a sense of geographical connectivity was entrenched in the psyche of Lyttos’ citizenryArchaeopress is expressed in the Late Hellenistic tradition of annually celebrating the city’s re-foundation in the late 3rd century BC (after its destruction in 221 BC).12 It was specifically during the Roman imperial period that the city entered its floruit, a florescence which we can now document architecturally. Archaeological investigations conducted during 1981-1986 indicate an urban design of some magnitude, where the core of the Roman civic centre is marked by the city’s bouleuterion lying north of the Byzantine church of Haghios Georgios. The complex included a large room (13.90m x 11.40m), paved with grey limestone slabs, incorporating a platform along its west side.13 Notable among the finds were three honorary imperial inscriptions dedicated to Hadrian and Sabina.14 Both epigraphic evidence and architectural style confirm that the structure was in use in the early 2nd century 9 Van Effenterre and Gondicas 2000: 129-139. 10 Erickson 2002: 82-86. 11 Catling 1976: 30; Catling 1984: 64-65; French 1991: 69; Also, Erickson 2002: 48, note 20. 12 Chaniotis 2009: 33. 13 Rethemiotakis 1984: 49-65; Chaniotis

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