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The Water Supply of Pisidian Antioch and the Development of the Roman Colony

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The Water Supply of Pisidian Antioch and the Development of the Roman Colony “BEAUTIFUL AND USEFUL”: THE WATER SUPPLY OF PISIDIAN ANTIOCH AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ROMAN COLONY E.J. Owens and Dr. Mehmet Talıalan Introduction “When I refl ect upon the greatness of your good fortune and spirit, it seems entirely fi tting to point out to you works which are no less worthy of your eternal renown as they are of your glory, and which will be as useful as they are beautiful.”1 Thus, Pliny the younger, the governor of the province of Pontus-Bithynia in Asia Minor, begins a letter to the emperor Trajan, in which he seeks the emperor’s support and approval for the construction of a canal to link Lake Sapanca in the territory of Nicomedia to the sea, and so facilitate the transport of goods across the region. Sextus Julius Frontinus, Rome’s water com- missioner and one time governor of Britain, also used the theme of splendor and utility, when he famously compared Rome’s aqueducts with the Egyptian pyramids and the monuments of the Greeks: “With so many indispensable structures carrying so many aqueducts, you may compare the idle pyramids or the other useless, although famous, works of the Greeks.”2 The arched aqueduct sweeping across the countryside and negotiating river valleys is for many one of the most characteristic features of the Roman empire and a lasting monument to Roman achievements in water technology. 1 Pliny, Epistulae, 10.41, trans. B. Radice (Cambridge, Mass., 1969), vol. 2, p. 330. The fi eld work for the present study formed part of a broader analysis of the water supply of Pisidian Antioch, which was undertaken jointly by the Department of Clas- sics, Ancient History and Egyptology, Swansea University, and the Yalvaç Museum, Turkey. The project was fi nanced by the British Academy and Swansea University. I would also like to thank the Arts and Humanities research Board in the UK, which helped to fi nance study leave to permit the results of the research to be written up. 2 Frontinus, De Aquaeductibus, 1.16, trans. C.E. Bennett, (London, 1925), p. 357. 302 e.j. owens and dr. mehmet ta^lıalan Aqueducts and Urban Water Supplies Although aqueducts increasingly were built to supply water to cities throughout the Roman empire, few cities could or did rely exclusively on a piped supply. First, aqueduct supplies were often prone to seasonal fl uctuations. The majority of aqueducts operated on the principle of “constant fl ow”,3 whereby the water was usually collected in a small tank at the source and was then conveyed to the city by means of a channel or pipeline. Once in the city the water was then distributed to specifi c buildings and for various uses. Few cities formulated a large-scale, water-storage strategy, and public fountains usually ran day and night. Indeed, at Rome, the senate decreed that it was the duty of the city’s water commissioners to ensure that public fountains delivered water as constantly as possible both day and night for the needs of the people.4 However, springs varied in output depending on the season and local rainfall patterns; small springs might even dry up completely at the height of the summer. In consequence, the quantity of water delivered by an aqueduct could vary and at times might even fail totally. Second, aqueducts were expensive to build and maintain. Even when the use of cheaper materials might offset the overall cost of construction, an aqueduct still involved enormous fi nancial outlay, and was probably one of the most expensive public building projects, which a commu- nity undertook. Pliny states that the citizens of Nicomedia expended 3,500,000 sesterces (HS) on two abortive attempts to build aqueducts.5 The 64 kilometers of the Aqua Claudia at Rome cost 350,000,000 HS to build,6 while it has been estimated that the costs of three of Rome’s aqueducts varied between 1,966,000 HS and 2,248,000 HS per kilome- ter.7 The cost of the aqueduct supplying Alexandria Troas in western Asia Minor more than doubled during construction from an initial estimate of 3,000,000 drachmas to 7,000,000 drachmas on comple- tion.8 Once built, regular maintenance meant that fi nancial outlay was not over and inadequate surveying or sub-standard construction, 3 A. Trevor Hodge, Roman Aqueducts and Water Supply, (London, 1992), pp. 1–2. 4 Frontinus, De Aquaeductibus, 2.104. 5 Pliny, Epistulae, 10.37. 6 Pliny, Naturalis Historiae, 36.122–3, trans. H. Rackman, (Cambridge, Mass., 1962), vol. 10, pp. 97–99. 7 Philippe Leveau, “Research on Roman Aqueducts in the Past Ten Years,” in A. Trevor Hodge ed., Future currents in aqueduct studies (Leeds, 1991), p. 153. 8 Philostratus, Vitae sophistarum, 2.1, trans. W.C. Wright (London, 1922), p. 142..
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