Nancy Jardine Author: What Did Those Ancient Romans Ever Do For Me?

Good morning everyone!

It's been a few days since I posted and here's a bit of why...

Rome Aqueduct - Wikimedia Commons

I've decided that living in rainy Scotland isn't such a bad deal after all. Though we've had intermittent downpours and sometimes continuous drizzle for days and days we are lucky compared to many areas of the globe that are having horrendous wildfires, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and hurricanes. My part of Aberdeenshire just missed the effects of Hurricane Ophelia who was downgraded to a severe storm by the time she reached southern Scotland. For many of us in Scotland, a storm with winds of 70 mph was just a wee blow, nothing special, and a 'good drying day' for the washing (laundry) hanging outside in between downpours! For sure, some roofs lost their coverings but not many, and those damaged were possibly not the best maintained anyway! Or, not built to last over the decades, or centuries, or even millennia...like the Roman aqueduct above!

Enough of weather, and I'm not going near politics since that's something that's also taking up some of my precious day's reading time. Politics in the UK, and also in Europe, is a definite hot potato right now. They say there is more than one way to skin a cat and what is needed now are sensible options being taken up by blinkered voters and incompetent governmental leaders in the UK.

So, I'll return to my title topic What Did The Ancient Romans Ever Do For Us? and explain why it's been a great reason for me being too busy to post on here.

I posted on my regular slot yesterday (18th Oct) at Writing Wranglers and Warriors Blog about What Did The Ancient Romans Ever Do For Us? but here I'll expand my notes a little further!

That phrase in bold above might bring to mind many different scenarios. For me growing up watching UK television in the 1960s and 1970s, the first image would be of an irreverently funny show called Monty Python’s Flying Circus. The weekly show itself had many spin offs, one of which was a definitely irreverent feature film "The Life of Brian". In the film, a character (John Cleese) derisively asks “What have the Romans ever done for us?” The answers from those assembled reply: err…sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system via aqueducts, public health…and our peace.

From Youtube.

It's a very funny film though not to everyone's taste as it challenges some established theories of religion, dogma and the like...

Ancient Rome was an amazing place. It is a city that I’m learning more about every day during my FutureLearn Course - Rome: A virtual Tour of the Ancient City.

Aqua Claudia by Pietro Sassi - Wikimedia Commons

It’s only Week 2 of my course and I’ve already learned about some of the list above. It’s incredible to think of how inventive the original engineers of Rome were back in 312 B.C. when the first short aqueduct of 16 km (c. 10 miles), the Aqua Appia, brought a constantly running supply of fresh water into the city of Rome. The Aqua Appia was an underground channel but by 140 B.C. the Aqua Marcia (55 miles) had a about 6 miles of its total running over arches. By the first century A.D. there were around 11 aqueducts feeding the city’s 1 million inhabitants with fresh water.

This site has information on another ancient Roman aqueduct built in the first century A.D.

https://www.tarragonaturisme.cat/en/monument/les-ferreres-aqueductpont-del-diable-bridge-mht

The Ancient Romans didn’t only appreciate the fresh water coming into their city for drinking purposes. They also used it for:

continuous flushing out of their communal lavatories
supplying water to their communal bathhouses
for other domestic, trade and industry reasons
for sluicing down their streets and sewers
and for feeding the many fountains around the city.

Trevi Fountain, Rome -Wikimedia Commons

The famous Trevi Fountain in Rome is still partially fed from the Aqua Virgo which was initially constructed in 19 B.C. during the time of the Emperor Augustus. The Aqua Virgo brought in the fresh water from hills and streams some 18 km (11 miles) away from the city and was used as a source for 400 years till it fell into disuse around the time of the Fall of Rome in approx 397 A.D. during the ensuing 1000 years, some attempts were made to restore the aqueduct but it wasn’t till 1453 that it was properly restored to feed a fountain on the site of the present Trevi Fountain.

By 1762 a fabulous new baroque fountain was created, the one we can view today in Rome known as the Trevi Fountain. The Trevi is famous for various reasons, one of which is the 1954 film “Three coins in the Fountain” that title song sung by Frank Sinatra, though he got no credit for it.

This site has some info on where the name Trevi probably originates from and gives details of the fantastic sculptures around the Trevi fountain.

http://www.trevifountain.net/iconography.htm

BTW - I’ve also learned about the sewers of Rome but I'll leave that topic for another day!

The architecture of the buildings of the Roman Forum are now holding my attention much more, although I confess to being fascinated that had the Ancient Romans settled in my part of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, my surroundings might have been very different from they are now.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:783RomaFontanaTrevi.JPG

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aqua_Claudia_15.jpg