Fall of roman empire
An essay on the effect of acqueducts in ancient Rome A basic fact of life: humansneed water to survive. Therefore, it is not surprising that water has played animportant role in history. All of the ancient civilizations, including Rome, had to dealwith the problem of a steady water supply. Rome's solutions had both positive andnegative results. At first glance, one would think that Roae would have no problemsupplying water to her people. After all, the city was built on a river. Why wouldwater have to be brought into the city? There were several reasons: first of all, riverwater is not known for its cleanliness. It may do for irrigation, but not for drinking.Drinking water would either have be drawn up from wells, or brought in to the citiesfrom pure sources in the mountains. However, digging wells enough for several tenthousand people is not practical, as wells need to be spaced far apart. Thus, the needfor aqueducts. Bringing water in from the mountains was no simple matter. Theeasiest method of transporting water was gravity feed via a sloped channel or pipe.However, there were hills and valleys which must be crossed. The Roman engineers
This points out how important the public baths wereto the ancient Romans, if they were to always be guaranteed water. Suetonius suggests that Claudius undertook the project for personalglory. For one they taxed the hell out of the poor people. Vetruvius said that each channel "must be leveledwith a fall of not less than half a foot in 100 feet. Frontinus also states that water grants topublic baths were for perpetuity. They could also be used to curry politicalfavor. Using geometry and trigonometry, this is a relativelysimple problem of triangulation. These licenses, or grants as Frontinus called them, were for a set period of time andcould not be sold by the holder or passed on to his heirs. Now if I was in thereposition I would rebel also. Nowthat you know how much the romans used water its easy to see that lead poisoning isa very easy theory to believe. They also speak speaks of the drainage channel to Lake Fucine. As expensive as aqueducts were to build, they were also asource or continuing revenue for the emperor. when thishappens people tend to lose interest in the government and dispise there leaders.
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