Sanitation in ancient Rome, acquired from the Etruscans, was very advanced compared to other ancient cities and provided water supply and sanitation services to residents of Rome. Although there were many sewers, public latrines, baths and other sanitation infrastructure, disease was still rampant. The baths are known to symbolise the "great hygiene of Rome".
Infrastructure
Sewer systems
History It is estimated that the first sewers of ancient Rome were built around 500 BCE by the Romans, in imitation of the Etruscans. These early drainage systems were underground channels made to drain rainwater as it might wash away topsoil. Also, ditches were used to drain swamps such as the Pontine Marshes and subterranean channels were used to drain marshy channels. Drainage systems evolved slowly and began primarily as a means to drain marshes and storm runoff. The sewers were mainly for the removal of surface drainage and underground water. The sewage system as a whole did not dramatically improve until the arrival of the Cloaca Maxima, an open channel that was later covered, and one of the best-known sanitation artifacts of the ancient world. Most sources believe it was built during the reign of the three Etruscan kings in the sixth century BCE. This "greatest sewer" of Rome was originally built to drain the low-lying land around the Forum. Some scholars believe that there is not sufficient evidence to accurately determine the effectiveness of the Cloaca Maxima. However other scholars believe that one million pounds of human feces and water was transported through the Cloaca Maxima. Alongside the development of the Cloaca Maxima, other sewers were built. Many of them linked to each other. A law was eventually passed to protect innocent bystanders from assault by wastes thrown into the street. The violator was forced to pay damages to whomever his waste hit, if that person sustained an injury. This law was enforced only in the daytime, it is presumed, because one then lacked the excuse of darkness for injuring another by careless waste disposal. During Agrippa's time as Aedile in 33 BCE the Cloaca Maxima was largely reconstructed and renovated. Strabo, a Greek author who lived from about 60 BCE to 24 CE, admired the ingenuity of the Romans in his Geographica, writing:
The sewers, covered with a vault of tightly fitted stones, have room in some places for hay wagons to drive through them. And the quantity of water brought into the city by aqueducts is so great that rivers, as it were, flow through the city and the sewers; almost every house has water tanks, and service pipes, and plentiful streams of water...In short, the ancient Romans gave little thought to the beauty of Rome because they were occupied with other, greater and more necessary matters. Around 100 CE, direct connections of homes to sewers began, and the Romans completed most of the sewer system infrastructure. Sewers were laid throughout the city, serving public and some private latrines, and also served as dumping grounds for homes not directly connected to a sewer. It was mostly the wealthy whose homes were connected to the sewers, through outlets that ran under an extension of the latrine.
Construction The Romans had a complex system of sewers covered by stones, much like modern sewers. Waste flushed from the latrines flowed through a central channel into the main sewage system and thence into a nearby river or stream. However, it was not uncommon for Romans to throw waste out of windows into the streets (at least according to Roman satirists). Despite this, Roman waste management is admired for its innovation. A system of eleven Roman aqueducts provided the inhabitants of Rome with water of varying quality, the best being reserved for potable supplies. Poorer-quality water was used in public baths and in latrines. Latrine systems have been found in many places, such as Housesteads, a Roman fort on Hadrian's Wall, in Pompeii, Herculaneum, and elsewhere that flushed waste away with a stream of water.
Public latrines The latrines (public toilets) are the best-preserved feature at Housesteads Roman Fort on Hadrian's Wall. The soldiers sat on wooden boards with holes, which covered one big trench. Water ran in a big ditch at the soldiers' feet. In general, poorer residents used pots that they were supposed to empty into the sewer, or visited public latrines. Public latrines date back to the 2nd century BCE. Whether intentionally or not, they became places to socialise. Long bench-like seats with keyhole-shaped openings cut in rows offered little privacy. Some latrines were free, for others small charges were made.
According to Lord Amulree, the site where Julius Caesar was assassinated, the Hall of Curia in the Theatre of Pompey, was turned into a public latrine because of the dishonor it had witnessed. The sewer system, like a little stream or river, ran beneath it, carrying the waste away to the Cloaca Maxima. The Romans recycled public bath waste water by using it as part of the flow that flushed the latrines. Terra cotta piping was used in the plumbing that carried waste water from homes. The Romans were the first to seal pipes in concrete to resist the high water pressures developed in siphons and elsewhere. Beginning around the 5th century BCE, aediles, among their other functions, supervised the sanitary systems. They were also responsible for the efficiency of the drainage and sewage systems, the cleansing of the streets, prevention of foul smells, and general oversight of baths. In the first century CE, the Roman sewage system was very efficient. In his Natural History, Pliny remarked that of all the things Romans had accomplished, the sewers were "the most noteworthy things of all". After defecating in the latrine, users would use a xylospongium (though newer research suggests it was a toilet brush) to wipe their butt.
Aqueducts
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