Water Culture in Roman Society

Ancient History 1.1 (2018) 1–118 brill.com/brp Water Culture in Roman Society Dylan Kelby Rogers American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Greece [email protected] Abstract Water played an important part of ancient Roman life, from providing necessary drinking water, supplying bath complexes, to flowing in large-scale public fountains. The Roman culture of water was seen throughout the Roman Empire, although it was certainly not monolithic and it could come in a variety of scales and forms, based on climatic and social conditions of different areas. This discussion seeks to define ‘water culture’ in Roman society by examining literary, epigraphic, and archaeological evidence, while understanding modern trends in scholarship related to the study of Roman water. The culture of water can be demonstrated through expressions of power, aesthetics, and spectacle. Further there was a shared experience of water in the empire that could be expressed through religion, landscape, and water’s role in cultures of consumption and pleasure. Keywords water culture – Roman archaeology – aqueducts – baths – sanitation – fountains – spectacle – religion – identity – pleasure – landscape 1 Introduction Water is transmutable and transformative. Human fascination with water often derives from the fact that water, governed by the laws of physics and other natural forces, changes form and state,1 as well as transforms other entities by 1 Strang 2005, 98; Oestigaard 2011, 38. © Dylan Kelby Rogers, 2018 | doi 10.1163/25425374-12340001 Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 08:32:47AM via free access 2 Rogers providing life and inflicting death, as a natural force in its own right.2 Water is also part of an inherently shared, cross-cultural experience, as all humans must use it. Given the endless variety of ways in which humans interact with water on a daily basis, all waterforms (whether natural or artificially created) have the ability to link “social groups physically and topographically.”3 One needs to find clear and clean water for drinking and bathing. A person can experience a waterscape, or all of the natural water features of the environ- ment, including rivers, lakes, springs, and seas, along with the various forms of precipitation, such as rain and snow—making water an integral part of one’s interaction with the world.4 Or one can find oneself in front of an artificial fountain, which displays water and demonstrates the power and grandeur of water that has been harnessed, even in the case of the smallest of water- displays. Regardless of an individual’s encounter with water, there is always an associated lived experience with this vital and versatile element. The Romans were fascinated and obsessed with water on a variety of levels. The term ‘water culture’ is used here in an attempt to bring together the various aspects and nuances of the relationship between water and Roman society. The idea behind water culture is not a novel one, and appears widely across modern scholarship. One of the first major studies on water culture in the ancient Greco-Roman world was Renate Tölle-Kastenbein’s 1990, Antike Wasserkultur. Her monograph offers a general overview of water collection, distribution, and disposal, in addition to a discussion of water’s use in notions of power and as an aesthetic element. Alain Malissard’s 1994 monograph, Les romains et l’eau, explored water usage of the Romans, including utilitarian- and pleasure-related uses, engineering issues, and the notions of power associated with the control of water (specifically through aqueducts and the formal administration of water). In 1996, Maria Ricciardi and Valnea Santa Maria Scrinari published a volume documenting all of the elements of the hydraulic systems of Ostia, under the title, La civiltà dell’acqua in Ostia Antica. The authors, however, do not attempt to define the notion of a water civiliza- tion implied in the title. Betsey Robinson, in her 2001 PhD dissertation explor- ing the culture of water at Corinth, uses the term ‘culture’ over ‘cult,’ in order to widen her discussion of not only religious elements of water, but also social implications of water usage.5 In Hennig Fahlbusch’s 2008 edited volume on the water features of Hadrian’s Villa, Wasserkultur is used as a broad term in 2 Chirassi Colombo 2004, 305; Strang 2005, 105. See especially Kamash (2008). 3 Strang 2005, 108. 4 Rogers 2013, 2, 6. 5 Robinson 2001, 14. AncientDownloaded History from Brill.com10/01/20211.1 (2018) 1–118 08:32:47AM via free access Water Culture in Roman Society 3 order to illustrate the impact of water on the villa itself, but the volume is only limited to the practical aspects of the water collection and distribution net- work there. Brian Campbell’s 2012 monograph on rivers of the Roman world demonstrates how water impacted Roman culture at large, albeit he does not specifically discuss Roman water culture per se.6 Wolfram Martini explores the Wasserkultur of Perge’s fountain and gate system; yet again, this term is used to suggest the importance of water at the site, without offering much in terms of definitions.7 This failing is also true of the recent conference volume Fountains and Water Culture in Byzantium (2016), the contents of which thoroughly in- vestigate the role of water in Byzantium, but without formulating an explicit definition of water culture. Recent scholarship in Roman studies has attempted to define elements of Roman culture. Scholars advocate reexamining modes of cultural influence, especially in the Roman period, moving away from charged terms, such as Hellenization and Romanization.8 ‘Culture’ simply put is how a society’s practices and beliefs differentiate it from another society.9 The so-called ‘cultural revolution’ of the Romans, a phenomenon tied to their imperial project, is seen in “the conversion of wealth into social prestige that [allows for] new forms of culture [to] emerge.”10 Indeed, as will be demonstrated below, there was a fluid cultural exchange when it came to water in the Roman world. While Rome early on invested in water-related building projects, such as the construction of the Aqua Appia in 312 BCE, over time these projects became more refined and grew in scale and complexity. But even though elements of Roman water culture were adopted and implemented throughout the empire, there were still variations based on region and local social practices. Water culture, and perhaps Roman culture at large, should not be considered monolithic. Water culture is a broad concept. First and foremost, because water is a naturally-occuring element employed by humans in innumerable artificial forms, water culture comprises the intersection of natural and artificial elements in society, the exchange between human and natural realms. Secondly, water culture is composed of the specific, and sometimes idiosyncratic, forms of water manipulation through which a society achieves seemingly limitless 6 For example, see his section on the appearance of rivers in Roman literature, religion, and art (2012, 118–59). 7 Martini 2016. 8 See Wallace-Hadrill (2008, 17–28) for a full discussion of these issues. 9 Wallace-Hadrill 2008, 28–9; Spawforth 2012, 4. See Wallace-Hadrill’s discussion of ‘culture’ (2008, 28–32). 10 Wallace-Hadrill 2008, 37. Ancient History 1.1 (2018) 1–118 Downloaded from Brill.com10/01/2021 08:32:47AM via free access 4 Rogers goals: hydration, agricultural irrigation, decoration, public and personal hy- giene, hydraulic power, and so on. Finally, any given water culture will bear different social implications throughout all levels of a society. Water is omni- present, and therefore, whether visible or invisible, impacts all aspects of culture writ large. Thus, water culture, defined simply yet succinctly, is the set of water-related practices that both express and shape a society’s perception of its place within the natural order, in relation to foreign societies, and concern- ing its own constituent participants. Romans had an expansive and diverse water culture, which stretched throughout the empire, linking all of the various inhabitants over time. In order to understand better the water culture of the Romans, the following discussion employs a wide body of evidence. First, ancient literary sources are presented to demonstrate Roman attitudes on water, especially in terms of the inherent positive and negative qualities of water. Second, ancient water administration and legal policies associated with water are presented to illustrate the ways in which Romans themselves distributed water in public and private contexts throughout the empire. Third, a variety of archaeological evidence is presented to show the ubiquity of water in the Roman world, including aqueducts, baths, sanitation, water-displays, and hydraulic power. Fourth, regional trends of water usage will be offered, in order to demonstrate that, while water was employed in all parts of the empire, it could be used in different ways, according to social and climatic reasons. Finally, Roman water culture will be explored more holistically, in efforts to understand the ways in which water permeated different aspects of Roman society. The modern scholarship on Roman water is extensive, yet the ensuing discussion is meant to illustrate the wide body of evidence (archaeological, literary, epigraphic, etc.) that is con- stantly changing and impacting conceptions of water in the Roman world. The approaches of different scholars, trained in different schools of thought across the world, come together here—demonstrating the complicated nature of Roman water culture. 2 Ancient Roman Sources on Water Stemming from a long Greek tradition of observing the properties of water, such as that of the Presocratics, the Romans knew much about water and were able to tap into its resources in a variety of ways.11 The Romans classified 11 For more on the Presocratics and their thoughts on water, first see Vitruvius (De arch.

Load more