Environmental History
Urban Environments
In Ancient Rome
Population
The city of Rome had around 1 million residents in the first century CE
It is likely that the lifespan of people in urban areas was shorter than rural areas
Domus: an independent house, an old-fashioned mansion or townhouse for the wealthy
Insula: an apartment building
opus craticium: wood-frame wickerwork that made up many apartment buildings before the 2nd century BCE
An insula dating from the early 2nd century CE in the Roman port town of Ostia Antica
Fire
Building owners responsible for putting out fires
Some wealthy Romans either stepped up to buy the burning buildings to profit from them OR helped to extinguish the fires
cohorts vigilum: watchmen responsible for preventing and fighting fires
There were seven of these cohorts and each of the seven was responsible for two of the city’s regions
Fire in Rome, by Hubert Robert (1733 – 1808)
Water & Aqueducts
Aqua Appia: Rome’s first aqueduct – built 312 BCE
200 BCE: introduction of fistulae (lead pipes)
Aqueducts were made from a series of pipes, tunnels, canals, and bridges: gravity was the only force powering the water’s progress
Rome was supplied by aqueducts totaling 315 miles in length
Only 46 miles ran aboveground
The Aqua Marcia was the longest aqueduct at 56 miles long
Use of arches
Filled public baths and fountains
97 CE: Sextus Julius Frontinus appointed water commissioner of the city. He wrote The Aqueducts of Rome
Pont du Gard aqueduct, 1st century CE Nemausus (Nîmes)
Model of Rome & Aqua Claudia
Sanitation
Cloaca Maxima: the great sewer
Foricae: public toilets
Latrina: private toilet
The fulling business often provided terracotta jars for public urination
Tersorium: sponge-stick
Running water under toilet seats
Baths
Baths were an important part of Roman life
Public baths appeared in around the 2nd century BCE
The earliest were the Stabian Baths (1st c. BCE), but the elements of the Forum Baths (early years CE) will be described here
Roman baths
Bath, England (Roman Aquae Sulis)
Baths begun around 70 CE
Markets
People in urban areas increasingly relied on shops
Tabernae: shops
Macellum: large collection of shops established in 179 BCE (akin to a covered bazaar)
Market of Trajan: “shopping center”
housed 150 individual shops on six floors rising a total of some one hundred feet
was completed between 109 – 113 CE
Taverns
Thermopolium: “take-out” restaurant
Dolia: large jars for holding food
Taberna: shop-and-bar combination
Popina: "greasy spoon" type establishment
Burial of the dead
Burials always outside town/city walls
“Good location” = near city walls and road
Sepulcrum Eurysacis, the tomb of the baker Marcus Vergilius Eurysaces, erected around 30 BCE
Cremation = the tradition method, but inhumation burial became more common from the 2nd century CE on
Jews and Christians preferred inhumation
Catacombs