Ancient Supply of Water to Towns. 259 



ing water, and was far inferior to Rome, both in its houses, 

 streets, sewers, etc. Dicaearchus, who visited Athens (circ. B.C. 

 400), speaks of it as being " dusty, badly supplied with water, 

 badly laid out on account of its antiquity, most of the houses 

 mean, and only a few good." There were many wells in the 

 city, but the water, being of a saline nature, was not good for 

 drinking, though of course much used for domestic purposes. 

 The ennea hrounos was originally called callirhoe, when the 

 springs were open (Thucyd.. iii. 15), but the Peisistratidae 

 converted this natural spring into an artificial supply, by laying 

 down conduits or pipes, so that ennea hrounos was the architec- 

 tural term, callirhoe that which denoted the natural spring. 

 " The spring flows from the foot of a broad ridge of rocks 

 which crosses the bed of the Ilissus, and over which the river 

 forms a waterfall when it is full, but there is generally no 

 water in this part of the bed of the Ilissus, and it is certain 

 that the fountain was a separate vein of water, and was not 

 supplied from the Ilissus. The waters of the fountain were 

 made to pass through small pipes pierced in the face of the 

 rock, through which they descended into the pool below. Of 

 these orifices seven are still visible. . . . The pool which 

 receives the waters of the fountain would be more copious but for 

 a canal which commences near it, and is carried below the bed 

 of the Ilissus to Vuno, a small village a mile from the city, 

 on the road to Peiraeeus, where the water is received into a 

 cistern, and supplies a fountain on the high road and waters 

 gardens. The canal exactly resembles those which were in 

 use among the Greeks before the introduction of Roman 

 aqueducts, being a channel about three feet square cut in the 

 solid rock."* It certainly does seem somewhat remarkable 

 that the ancient Greeks should have been so completely sur- 

 passed by the Romans in this respect, for it is clear that the 

 Greeks were not deficient in engineering skill, as is witnessed 

 by the two artificial tunnels or emissarii (portions of which 

 are still to be seen), which in very early times were pierced 

 through the rock in order to carry off the water from the 

 lake Copais in Bceotia. The deepest of these tunnels is 

 thought to have been from 100 to 150 feet, and nearly four 

 miles long. 



The early inhabitants of Rome got their water from the 

 Tiber and wells sunk in the city; but as the population in- 

 creased, and as, perhaps, they found the supply from these 

 sources unwholesome for drinking purposes, they had recourse 

 to that magnificent system of artificial supply by means of 



* See Leake's Topography of Athens, and Appendix xiii., " On the Supply 

 of Water at Athens." Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, 

 Art. Athena:. 



