8/28/06 ! Ashton Allan Ancient Roman Water A look at the Roman relationship to water as a parallel to the development of the civilization Ashton Allan 12/10/2005 765a, YSOA Development of Ancient Rome: water as three natures John Dixon Hunt, in the third chapter of his book Greater Perfection, defines a tripartite for landscape. The three types of landscape, numbered consecutively, outline a distinction between, first, the natural and wild world; second, the tamed and productive landscape; and finally, third, manipulated nature seeking artistic ends.1 This concept of the natural tripartite contains many elements, but one element in particular is fleeting yet essential, devastating yet predictable: water. The development of Rome can be traced through the Romans’ relationship to water in the terms of first, second and third nature. At its outset, the city was a group of hills surrounded by marshland and flanked by a perpetually flooding river. The civic move to raise and terrace the areas between the hills in conjunction with the building of a sewer system to predictably channel runoff water and waste into the Tiber laid an essential 1 Hunt, John Dixon. Greater Perfections, chapter 3, “the idea of a garden and the three natures.” (Philadelphia, 2000), pp. 52-64 1 8/28/06 ! Ashton Allan foundation for the civilization to be built. The subsequent introduction of mechanisms to bring plentiful running water into the city not only improved the quality of life, but forced the legal system to grapple with issues of ownership, morality, and civic responsibility. Finally, once the Romans could efficiently control their ample supplies of water, it was used for entertainment and pleasure, from private gardens and fountains to naumachia. The Roman’s ability to transform its most temperamental obstacle into its most valuable resource is true testimony to the greatness of the civilization. For reasons of narrowing this potentially broad topic, this essay will, wherever possible, focus on the, so to say, “second half” of water’s journey to the Tiber. In other words, drains, nadirs, watersheds, hydrology, and sewers will be favored over the supply- end. In the same light, this is by no means a comprehensive study of the topic, but rather an examination of several specific and interesting instances that show how the relationship to water changed in Rome and changed Rome during its earlier history. Founding of Rome: water as first nature Rome was founded by a shepherd, the son of a god, a twin returned from a malign fate; it was also founded in a wilderness, and the wilderness was wet.2 Water played a key role in the origins of Rome, and that water was in the form of flooding rivers that were natural barriers, boggy wetlands, and the natural nadirs at the bases of the Roman hills. Titus Livius (59 B.C. - 17 A.D.), historian and friend of Augustus Caesar, wrote extensively on the origins of the city. Throughout his books, major milestones in the development of the city were connected to water. examples from his first book are particularly telling of the relationship between the Romans and the wild waters around them. 2 Purcell, Nicholas. Rome and the management of water: environment, culture and power. Human Landscapes in Classical Antiquity, ed. Graham Shipley and John Salamon. (London, 1996), p. 180 2 8/28/06 ! Ashton Allan The settlement of the land that would become Rome is first referenced as the settlement below the Alban Mount, along the shore of the River Alba, which would acquire the name Tiber after King Capetus Tiberinus drowned crossing the river a few generations later. The first use of the river that Livy states is as a natural barrier agreed to by the Etruscans and Latins in a peace treaty.3 The story of Romulus and Remus capitalizes on the notion of water as a wild force of first nature. The story goes that when King Numitor’s wife gave birth to twins, he furiously named the god Mars as the father and ordered that the sons be committed to the river. But: It happened by singular good fortune that the Tiber having spread beyond its banks into stagnant pools afforded nowhere any access to the regular channel of the river, and the men who brought the twins were led to hope that being infants they might be drowned, no matter how sluggish the stream... In those days, this was a wild and uninhabited region.4 The first nature imagery is maintained throughout the story of the she-wolf who finds the twins, lets them suck from her teats, then brings them back to her shepherd.5 Aside from the Tiber, there was a second fundamental natural presence of water in the new city; the swampy bog-land that was the uninhabitable city between the hills. Nicholas Purcell wrote in his article “Rome and the management of water,” that the term Campus, as in the Campus Martus, carries with it more meaning than simply “field,” as it is typically translated. He believes that the term also carries an implication of wetlands.6 When reading through Livy, Purcell’s analysis is verified, where references to various 3 Livy, Titus. I books I and II, translated by B.O. Foster. (London, 1976), pp. 15-17. III 4-9 4 Op. Cit. pp. 17-19, IV 4-6 5 The shepherd’s name was Faustulus, and he gave the children to his wife Laretina to rear. According to Livy, “some think that Laretina, having been free with her favors, had got the name of “she-wolf” among shepherds, and that this gave rise to this marvelous story.” Op. Cit, p. 19, IV 7-8. 6 Purcell, Nicholas. Rome and the management of water: environment, culture and power. Human Landscapes in Classical Antiquity, ed. Graham Shipley and John Salamon. (London, 1996), p. 184 3 8/28/06 ! Ashton Allan Campus’ are made in relationship to swamps; one such example is when Livy is describing the ascension of Romulus at the Swamp of Capra at the Campus Martus.7 Water in the early Roman Kingdom was a fleeting element, unpredictable and destructive. It eroded and flooded the low-lands, isolating the city’s settlements to the surrounding hilltops. Water, that potent and vital element, was by definition a thing from elsewhere, going elsewhere, of which your experience, unless you took steps to prolong it, was a fleeting encounter with the alien.8 Rome set itself apart from its neighboring towns when it would begin to significantly alter the landscape to both prolong the water’s presence where it was needed, and likewise efficiently confine and expel the water where it needed. These changes would permanently alter the lowlands of the city from an uninhabitable interstitial space between hilltops into the great urban spaces of the world’s first superpower. fig 1: Map of the Hydrology of Rome 7 Livy, Titus. I books I and II, translated by B.O. Foster. (London, 1976), p. 57. XIV 1 8 Purcell, Nicholas. Rome and the management of water: environment, culture and power. Human Landscapes in Classical Antiquity, ed. Graham Shipley and John Salamon. (London, 1996), p. 200 4 8/28/06 ! Ashton Allan Settling of Rome: water as second nature For all things els which we have handled herefore even to this booke, may seem in some sort to have been made for man; but as for mountains, Nature has framed them for her owne selfe, partly to strengthen (as it were) certain joints within the veins and bowels of the earth, partly to tame the violence of the great rivers, and to break the force of surging waves and inundations of the sea; and in one word, by that substance and matter whereof they stand, which of all others is most hard, to restraine and keep within bounds that unruly element of the water.9 - Pliny the Elder This passage from the thirty-sixth book, “Treateth of marble and stone for building,” of Pliny the Elder’s Natural History, 77 A.D, expresses the author’s view of the civilizing force of stone, and specifically of man’s use of stone, on water. When the Romans began having control over water, they transformed their relationship to it from one of a wild first nature into one of a productive second nature. One of the first Roman actions to civilize the presence of water in the city was not through a glorious use of stone as Pliny evokes, but rather the terracing of the lowland between the Capitoline and Palatine hills which would transform this area from a constantly flooding bog-land into the cultural heart of the Roman city, the Forum. Rabun Taylor in his book on Roman Builders writes about two other reasons why architects terraced their sites, as was done not just at the Forum, but throughout the city and out into the Empire: first, because it created a flat base on which building was easier (similar to villa podium, which also had the advantage of raising the building out of the reach of floodwaters), and second, because “the Roman love of formal gardens, where shallow rooted plants required irrigation, and a nearly level watershed for water retention.”10 9 Pliny the Elder. Pliny's Natural History; a selection from Philemon Holland's translation, ed. Newsome, J. (Oxford, 1964), p. 293 10 Taylor, Rabun. Roman builders : a study in architectural process. (Cambridge 2003), p. 63 5 8/28/06 ! Ashton Allan Evidence of the first pavement on the floor of the forum dates to approximately 575 B.C, or nearly 150 years after Romulus and Remus were found at on the banks of the Tiber.