Coliseum Water Supply - Assignment Example

The Coliseum water supply also catered to the requirements of the toilets, which consisted of two large toilets with rows of open seating holes having a tunnel beneath them through which passed a stream of flowing water (Colosseum Water and Sewer System). There were four underground tunnels for collecting the drained water, including that from the arena, and connected to these tunnels were four wells 1.3 by 3.8 meters in the foundation of the building (Colosseum Water and Sewer System). This system was connected to a large circular drain around the Coliseum, which was connected, by tunnels, to the Cloaca Maxima, which was the River Tiber (Colosseum Water and Sewer System).

The Coliseum also needed water for stage effects, such as water fountains, sprinklers, and streams (Colosseum Water and Sewer System).
The main water supply to the Coliseum, and indeed to Rome in general, was through the River Tiber (Colosseum Water and Sewer System). Other smaller streams, some seasonal in nature, were also utilized. The system through which water was conducted to the city and to Coliseum comprised of aqueducts, which were impressive concrete water channels supported by pillars and arches (Colosseum Water and Sewer System). The coliseum was supplied by the Aqua Claudia, commissioned by Emperor Claudius, the first aqueduct to be built, running eleven miles, in the year 312 B. C. (Ancient Roman Aqueducts). The source was the river.

The channels were concrete in nature, supplemented by viaducts which were multi-tiered structures to help the water cross low areas (Colosseum Water and Sewer System). The aqueducts led to large covered basins which served as modern-day sedimentation tanks to collect the silt and dirt of the River water before it was supplied to the public (Colosseum Water and Sewer System). Once cleaned, channels led from these catch basins to storage reservoirs in the city, either in the form of open free-flowing canals or through led and terra-cotta pipes (Colosseum Water and Sewer System). From the reservoirs, water was supplied to the building through led pipes (Colosseum Water and Sewer System). These pipes were embedded in the walls and floor of the structure Coliseum during its structure (Colosseum Water and Sewer System). It is estimated that five hundred thousand barrels of water flowed through these channels in twenty-four hours (Ancient Roman Aqueducts).

Another method of water provision was through the collection of rainwater (Colosseum Water and Sewer System). This was collected by concentric ducts and led through vertical pipes down the walls of the Coliseum to the ground floor (Colosseum Water and Sewer System). Since the floor was doubly inclined, some of the water was led to the arena inside, and some were led to a brick conduit outside surrounding the building two meters below the ground level beneath the first step leading to the Coliseum (Colosseum Water and Sewer System). It was sixty centimeters wide and a hundred and sixty centimeters deep (Colosseum Water and Sewer System).

For drinking purposes, around a hundred drinking fountains were built around the arena and in the complex of the Coliseum so that there was free access to water by the spectators (Colosseum Water and Sewer System). However, the exact method of this provision is still not clear. it could have been through a system of four towers with two huge cisterns that contained perfumed water and acted as water storage reservoirs (Colosseum Water and Sewer System). Pipes could have led to the fountains from these cisterns, or water could have been sprinkled on the spectators during the hot months of summers (Colosseum Water and Sewer System). Historians know of this system since it was employed in the Pula Arena of Croatia, and there are chances that a similar system was employed in Coliseum as well (Colosseum Water and Sewer System).
Read More