De Aquaeductu - Water Supply of Rome

Water Supply of Rome

The work presents a history and description of the water-supply of Rome, including the laws relating to its use and maintenance. He describes the history of all of the nine aqueducts of Rome at the time at which he was writing at the turn of the 1st century AD. The aqueducts included Aqua Marcia, Aqua Appia, Aqua Alsietina, Aqua Tepula, Anio Novus, Aqua Virgo, and Aqua Claudia. They are described with details of the sizes of the channels and discharge rates. Frontinus describes the quality of water delivered by each, mainly depending on their source, be it river, lake, or spring.

One of the first jobs he undertook when appointed water commissioner was prepare maps of the system so that he could assess their condition before undertaking their maintenance. He says that many had been neglected and were not working at their full capacity. He was especially concerned by diversion of the supply by unscrupulous farmers, tradesmen, and domestic users, among others. They would insert pipes into the channel of the aqueducts to tap the supply without official approval, or insert pipes of larger diameter than approved. Roman lead pipe inscriptions bearing the name of the owner were meant to prevent such water theft.

He, therefore, made a meticulous survey of the intake and the supply of each line, and then investigated the apparent discrepancies. His assessment was based on the cross-sectional area of the pipes or channels, and he did not take water velocity into consideration.

He was well aware of the seminal work De Architectura by Vitruvius, which mentions aqueduct construction and maintenance of the channels, published in the previous century, classing him at one point with "the plumbers".