294 Roman waterworks 



XXXVIII. FRONTINUS. 



Sextus Julius Frontinus, a good specimen of the competent de- 

 partmental officers in the imperial service, was not only a distinguished 

 military commander but an engineer and a writer of some merit. His 

 little treatise 1 on the aqueducts of Rome has for us points of interest. 

 From it we can form some notion of the importance of the great water- 

 works, not only to the city but to the country for some miles in certain 

 directions. For water-stealing by the illicit tapping of the main channels 

 was practised outside as well as within the walls. Landowners 2 did it 

 to irrigate their gardens, and the underlings of the staff (aquarii) con- 

 nived at the fraud : to prevent this abuse was one of the troubles of the 

 curator. But in certain places water was delivered by branch supplies 

 from certain aqueducts. This of course had to be duly licensed, and 

 license was only granted when the flow of water in the particular aque- 

 duct was normally sufficient to allow the local privilege without re- 

 ducing the regular discharge in Rome. The municipality of Tibur 8 

 seems to have had an old right to a branch of the Anio vetus. The 

 aqua Crabra had been a spring serving Tusculum 4 , but in recent times 

 the Roman aquarii had led off some of its water into the Tepula, and 

 made illicit profit out of the supply thus increased in volume. Frontinus 

 himself with the emperor's approval redressed the grievance, and the 

 full supply of the Crabra again served the Tusculan landlords. The 

 jealous attention given to the water-works is illustrated by the decrees 5 

 of the Senate in the time of the Republic and of emperors since, by 

 which grants of water-rights can only be made to individuals named 

 in the grant, and do not pass to heirs or assigns : the water must only 

 be drawn from the reservoir named, and used on the estate for which 

 the license is specifically granted. 



The office of curator aquarum was manifestly no sinecure. It was 

 not merely that constant precautions had to be taken against the steal- 

 ing of the water. An immense staff 6 had to be kept to their duties, 

 and the cleansing and repair of the channels needed prompt and con- 

 tinuous attention. And it seems that some of the landowners through 

 whose estates the aqueducts passed gave much trouble 7 to the admin- 

 istration. Either they erected buildings in the strips of land reserved 

 as legal margin on each side of a channel, or they planted trees there, 



1 Written 97 AD, under Nerva. 



2 de aquis 75. Formerly this offence was punished by confiscating the land so watered, 

 ibid 97. 



8 de aquis 6. 4 de aquis 9. 



5 de aquis 107-10. But according to Digest XLIII 20 i 89 " 43 (Ulpian) the grant was some- 

 times not persom 's \>\tf. praediis , and so perpetual. 



6 de aquis 105, n6-8. 7 de aquis 120, 124-8. 



