360 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1934 



If a firm bed could not be obtained, wooden piles {ftstucationes) were 

 driven into the foundation. The roadbed {gremivmi) was then care- 

 fully shaped and leveled to receive the surfacing materials. Even 

 where the excavation revealed a comparatively firm foundation, the 

 subsoil was always carefully rammed with the favicula before pro- 

 ceeding further. 



Bedding course. — Upon the roadbed, prepared as described above, 

 there was spread a bedding course of sand from 4 to 6 inches in 

 thickness, or mortar about 1 inch thick, made of lime and sand or 

 hassock (soft, calcareous limestone). This bedding course, called the 

 faviTRentuin^ and indicated at [10], accommodated the irregularities 

 in the undressed lower side of the stones used in the first course of 

 masonry called statumen. While spreading the 'pavimentum layer, 

 the mortar worker (cementarius) sat upon a stool (sedecula) the bet- 

 ter to use his long trowel (tndla). Probably mortar was spread first 

 to a uniform thickness with a rake {rasti^tn). The lime {calx) was 

 slaked in a i^it (lacus) [33-b] beside the road and later mixed with 

 sand, by means of a long-handled hoe (rutruTn) [33-a]. Meanwhile, 

 another pit of lime was slaked. The mortar was carried to the road 

 with the aid of a two-man hod. The water for slaking the lime was 

 brought to the pits in earthenware jars carried upon the heads of the 

 water bearers [30]. Sometimes V-shaped wooden troughs were used 

 to conduct the water from the source of supply. 



Statumen.^ — Into the pavimentv/m was bedded the statumen, or 

 first course, as shown at [11]. This course consisted of two layers 

 of flat stones cemented together with well-tempered lime mortar. 

 The smallest stones were sufficiently large to fill a man's hand, and 

 the largest were ranged along the sides of the causeway to act as a 

 retaining wall. When lime mortar was not available, the stones 

 were cemented with clay. The statumen varied in thickness from 

 10 inches in good ground to 2 feet in bad ground. Since the pur- 

 pose of this course was to provide a solid foundation, almost any 

 kind of stone was used. The softer stone used in the statumen and 

 in the two next courses, the rudus and nucleus, was called lapidicinae 

 molles or temperatae, to distinguish it from the lapidicinae durae, 

 or hard stone, reserved for the wearing surface {summwii dorswn). 



Ordinary masons (structores) placed the stones for the statumien 

 course. To cut the stone, they used the chisel (scalprum) and mallet 

 (malleus), iron wedges {cunei), the adz (asda), and the saw (serra). 

 Masons also used the trowel (trulla), the mortar bucket (fldeUa), 

 and the level {lihella). The heavier stones were suspended by cords 



oAll later writers have followed the lead of Nicolas Bergler (IZ), who wrote In 1622, in 

 naming the four principal courses of Roman roads as statumen, rudus, nucleus, and 

 summa cntsta. Bergier states, however, that his only authority was Vitruvius (11), 

 who wrote at the beginning of the Christian era, and who described the four courses 

 in pavements used in the construction of buildings. 



