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# 72 •nOvemBER 16 , 2015
it’s hard to imagine how
historians and students
could effectively study history in Italy!
Aqueducts: Ancient Roman Feat of Engineering
both private and public
buildings in an impressive network. Ultimately,
the design was so successful that hundreds of
aqueducts, both above
and below ground, were
constructed all across the
Empire. Students in Rome
can visit one of the best
preserved examples, called Nero’s Aqueduct, which stretches from Porta
Maggiore to the Palatine
Hill.
Students enrolled in art
history schools in Rome
will marvel at the beautiful architecture of the
aqueducts. These feats
of engineering were built
with practical purposes in
mind, but were also designed to impress and show Appian Way: World’s First
off the power of the Ro- Superhighway?
man Empire.
Students completing their
Roman aqueducts were classical studies in Rome
constructed to help su- can walk along the fastain the capital’s massi- mous Appian Way – one
ve population, which by of the first major roads
some estimates had swel- ever built by the Romans.
led to one million resi- Constructed in 312 BC,
dents. Rome’s population the Appian Way once
needed a large supply of spanned 330 miles from
fresh, clean water in order Rome to the port of Brinto thrive. To automate the disi on the Adriatic coast.
delivery process, Roman Perhaps the most famous
engineers designed the “highway” in the world, it
aqueducts to use gravity was traveled by many of
to channel water from ele- history’s biggest names,
vated sources downward, including Julius Caesar
toward the city of Rome.
and St. Peter. It was also
the site where Spartacus’s
Lead pipes connected wa- defeated army was cruter from the aqueducts to cified and displayed as a
gruesome, very public reminder of what happened
to those who opposed the
Empire.
The Appian Way – like
most roads in the Roman
Empire – was built for the
purpose of moving troops
quickly from one region to
another. It helped Rome
maintain order across its
vast lands, but also played
a crucial role in the speedy
delivery of news. Couriers
traveling along Roman roads could exchange horses at several points along
their route, allowing them
to cover great distances
without interruption. In
a sense, the Appian Way
was a “superhighway” for
both the transmission of
information and people
across the Empire’s expanding sprawl.
Want to check it out for
yourself? Today, the remarkably well-preserved
road starts at the Aurelian
wall, at the Porta San Sebastiano. Along the way you
can admire numerous reminders of Ancient Rome,
including tombs and catacombs from the first Christian communities.
WE THE ITALIANS | 71
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