by Frontinus
[96] The care of the several aqueducts I find was regularly let out to contractors, and the obligation was imposed upon these of having a fixed number of slave workmen on the aqueducts outside the City, and another fixed number within the City; and of entering in the public records the names also of those whom they intended to employ in the service for each ward of the City. I find also that the duty of inspecting their work devolved at times on the aediles and censors, and at times on the quaestors, as may be seen from the resolution of the Senate which was passed in the consulate of Gaius Licinius and Quintus Fabius.
[97] How much care was taken that no one should venture to injure the conduits, or draw water that had not been granted, may be seen not only from many other things, but especially from the fact that the Circus Maximus could not be watered, even on the days of the Circensian Games, except with permission of the aediles or censors, a regulation which, as we read in the writings of Ateius Capito, was still in force even after the care of the waters had passed, under Augustus, to commissioners. Indeed, lands which had been irrigated unlawfully from the public supply were confiscated. Whenever a slave infringed the law, even without the knowledge of his master, a fine was imposed. By the same laws it is also enacted as follows: “No one shall with malice pollute the waters where they issue publicly. Should any one pollute them, his fine shall be ten thousand sestertii.” Therefore the order was given to the Curule Aediles to appoint two men in each district from the number of those who lived in it, or owned property in it, in whose care the public fountains should be placed.
[98] Marcus Agrippa, after his aedileship (which he held after his consulship) was the first man to become the permanent incumbent of this office, so to speak — a commissioner charged with the supervision of works which he himself had created. Inasmuch as the amount of water now available warranted it, he determined how much should be allotted to the public structures, how much to the basins, and how much to private parties. He also kept his own private gang of slaves for the maintenance of the aqueducts and reservoirs and basins. This gang was given to the State as its property by Augustus, who had received it in inheritance from Agrippa.
[99] Following him, under the consulate of Quintus Aelius Tubero and Paulus Fabius Maximus, resolutions of the Senate were passed and a law was promulgated in these matters, which until that time had been managed at the option of officials, and had lacked definite control. Augustus also determined by an edict what rights those should possess who were enjoying the use of water according to Agrippa’s records, thus making the entire supply dependent upon his own grants. The ajutages, also, of which I have spoken above, were established by him; and for the maintenance and operation of the whole system he named Messala Corvinus commissioner, and gave him as assistants Postumius Sulpicius, ex-praetor, and Lucius Cominius, a junior senator. They were allowed to wear regalia as though magistrates; and concerning their duties a resolution of the Senate was passed, which is here given:-
[100] “The consuls, Quintus Aelius Tubero and Paulus Fabius Maximus, having made a report relating to the duties and privileges of the water-commissioners appointed with the approval of the Senate by Caesar Augustus, and inquiring of the Senate what it would please to order upon the subject, it has been RESOLVED that it is the sense of this body: That those who have the care of the administration of the public waters, when they go outside the City in the discharge of their duties, shall have two lictors, three public servants, and an architect for each of them, and the same number of secretaries, clerks, assistants, and criers as those have who distribute wheat among the people; and when they have business inside the City on the same duties, they shall make use of all the same attendants, omitting the lictors; and, further, that the list of attendants granted to the water-commissioner by this resolution of the Senate shall be by them presented to the public treasurer within ten days from its promulgation, and to those whose names shall be thus reported the praetors of the treasury shall grant and give, as compensation, food by the year, as much as the food-commissioners are wont to give and allot, and they shall be authorized to take money for that purpose without prejudice to themselves. Further, there shall be furnished to the commissioners tablets, paper, and everything else necessary for the exercising of their functions. To this effect, the consuls, Quintus Aelius and Paulus Fabius, are ordered, both or either one, as may seem best to them, to consult with the praetors of the treasury in contracting for these supplies.
[101] “Furthermore, inasmuch as the superintendents of streets and those in charge of the distribution of grain occupy a fourth part of the year in fulfilling their State duties, the water-commissioners likewise shall adjudicate (for a like period) in private and State causes.” Although the treasury has continued down to the present to pay for these attendants and servants, they have, as far as appearance goes, ceased to belong to the commissioners, who through laziness and indolence neglect their duties. Moreover, when the commissioners went out of the City, provided it was on official business, the Senate had commanded the lictors to accompany them. For myself, when I go about to examine the aqueducts, my self-reliance and the authority given me by the sovereign will stand in place of the lictors.
[102] As I have followed the matter down to the introduction of the commissioners, it will not be out of place now to subjoin the names of those who followed Messala in this office up to my incumbency:- To Messala succeeded, under the consulate of Silius and Plancus, Ateius Capito; to Capito, under the consulate of Gaius Asinius Pollio and Gaius Antistius Vetus, Tarius Rufus; to Tarius, under the consulate of Servius Cornelius Cethegus and Lucius Visellius Varro, Marcus Cocceius Nerva, the grandfather of the Deified Nerva, who was also noted as learned in the science of law. To him succeeded, under the consulate of Fabius Persicus and Lucius Vitellius, Gaius Octavius Laenas; to Laenas, under the consulate of Aquila Julianus and Nonius Asprenas, Marcus Porcius Cato. To him succeeded, after a month, under the consulate of Servius Asinius Celer and Aulus Nonius Quintilianus, Aulus Didius Gallus; to Gallus, under the consulate of Quintus Veranius and Pompeius Longus, Gnaeus Domitius Afer; to Afer, under the fourth consulate of Nero Claudius Caesar, and that of Cossus, the son of Cossus, Lucius Piso; to Piso, under the consulate of Verginius Rufus and Memmius Regulus, Petronius Turpilianus; to Turpilianus, under the consulate of Crassus Frugi and Lecanius Bassus, Publius Marius; to Marius, under the consulate of Lucius Telesinus and Suetonius Paulinus, Fonteius Agrippa; to Agrippa, under the consulate of Silius and Galerius Trachalus, Albius Crispus; to Crispus, under the third consulate of Vespasian, and that of Cocceius Nerva, Pompeius Silvanus; to Silvanus, under the second consulate of Domitian and that of Valerius Messalinus, Tampius Flavianus; to Flavianus, under the fifth consulate of Vespasian, and the third of Titus, Acilius Aviola. After Aviola, under the third consulate of the Emperor Nerva, and the third of Verginius Rufus, the office was transferred to me.
[103] I will now set down what the water-commissioner must observe, being the laws and Senate enactments which serve to determine his procedure. As concerns the draft of water by private consumers, it is to be noted: No one shall draw water without an authorisation from Caesar, that is, no one shall draw water from the public supply without a licence, and no one shall draw more than has been granted. By this means, we shall make it possible that the quantity of water, which has been regained, as we have said, may be distributed to new fountains and may be used for new grants from the sovereign. But in both cases it will be necessary to exert great resistance to manifold forms of fraud. Frequent rounds must be made of channels of the aqueducts outside the City, and with great care, to check up the granted quantities. The same must be done in case of the reservoirs and public fountains, that the water may flow without interruption, day and night. For this the commissioner has been directed to provide, by a resolution of the Senate, the language of which is as follows:
[104] “The consuls, Quintus Aelius Tubero and Paulus Fabius Maximus, having made a report upon the number of public fo
untains established by Marcus Agrippa in the City and within structures adjacent to the City, and having inquired of the Senate what it would please to order upon the subject, it has been RESOLVED that it is the sense of this body: That the number of public fountains which exist at present, according to the report of those who were ordered by the Senate to examine the public aqueducts and to inventory the number of public fountains, shall be neither increased nor diminished. Further, that the water-commissioners, who have been appointed by Caesar Augustus, with the endorsement of the Senate, shall take pains that the public fountains may deliver water as continuously as possible for the use of the people day and night.” In this resolution of the Senate, I think it should be noted that the Senate forbade any increase as well as any decrease in the number of public fountains. I think this was done because the quantity of water, which at that time came into the City, before Claudia and New Anio had been brought in, did not seem to permit of a greater distribution.
[105] Whoever wishes to draw water for private use must seek for a grant and bring to the commissioner a writing from the sovereign; the commissioner must then immediately expedite the grant of Caesar, and appoint one of Caesar’s freedmen as his deputy for this service. Tiberius Claudius appears to have been the first man to appoint such a deputy after he introduced Claudia and New Anio. The overseers must also be made acquainted with the contents of the writing, that they may not excuse their negligence or fraud on the plea of ignorance. The deputy must call in the levellers and provide that the calix is stamped as conforming to the deeded quantity, and must study the size of the ajutages we have enumerated above, as well as have knowledge of their location, lest it rest with the caprice of the levellers to approve a calix of sometimes greater, or sometimes smaller, interior area, according as they interest themselves in the parties. Neither must the deputy permit the free option of connecting directly to the ajutages any sort of lead pipe, but there must rather be attached for a length of fifty feet one of the same interior area as that which the ajutage has been certified to have, as has been ordained by a vote of the Senate which follows:
[106] “The consuls, Quintus Aelius Tubero and Paulus Fabius Maximus, having made a report that some private parties take water directly from the public conduits, and having inquired of the Senate what it would please to order upon the subject, it has been RESOLVED that it is the sense of this body: That it shall not be permitted to any private party to draw water from the public conduits; and all those to whom the right to draw water has been granted shall draw it from the reservoirs, the water-commissioners to direct at what points, within the City, private parties may suitably erect reservoirs for the purpose of drawing from them the water which they had received at the hand of the water-commissioner from some public reservoir; and no one of those to whom a right to draw water from the public conduits has been granted shall have the right to use a larger pipe than a quinaria for a space of fifty feet from the reservoir out of which he is to draw the water.” In this resolution of the Senate it is worthy of note that the resolution does not permit water to be drawn except from reservoirs, in order that the conduits or the public pipes may not be frequently cut into.
[107] The right to granted water does not pass either to the heirs, or to the buyer, or to any new proprietor of the land. The public bathing establishments had from old times the privilege that water once granted to them should remain theirs for ever. We know this from old resolutions of the Senate, of which I give one below:- (Nowadays every grant of water is renewed to the new owner.)
[108] “The consuls, Quintus Aelius Tubero and Paulus Fabius Maximus, having made a report upon the necessity of determining in accordance with what law those persons, to whom water had been granted, should draw water inside and outside the City, and having inquired of the Senate what it would please to order upon the subject, it has been RESOLVED that it is the sense of this body: That a grant of water, with the exception of those supplies which have been granted for the use of bathing establishments, or in the name of Augustus, shall remain in force as long as the same proprietors continue to hold the ground for which they received the grant of the water.”
[109] As soon as any water-rights are vacated, this is announced, and entered in the records, which are consulted, in order that vacant water-rights may be given to applicants. These waters they formerly used to cut off immediately, in order that between times they might sell them either to the occupants of the land, or to outsiders even. It seemed less harsh to our ruler, in order not to deprive estates of water suddenly, to give thirty days’ grace, within which those whose interests were involved [might make suitable arrangements]. I did not find anything set down about the water granted to an estate belonging to a syndicate. Nevertheless, the following practice is observed, just as though prescribed by law, “that as long as one of those who have received a common grant of water survives, the full amount of granted water shall flow upon the land, and the grant shall be renewed only when every one of those who received it has ceased to remain in possession of the property.” That granted water must not be carried elsewhere than upon the premises to which it has been made appurtenant, or taken from another reservoir than the one designated in the writing of the sovereign, is self-evident, but is forbidden also by ordinance.
[110] Those waters also that are called “lapsed,” namely, those that come from the overflow of the reservoirs or from leakage of the pipes, are subject to grants; which are wont to be given very sparingly, however, by the sovereign. But this offers opportunity for thefts by the water-men; and how much care should be devoted to preventing these, may be seen from a paragraph of an ordinance, which I append:
[111] “I desire that no one shall draw ‘lapsed’ water except those who have permission to do so by grants from me or preceding sovereigns; for there must necessarily be some overflow from the reservoirs, this being proper not only for the health of our City, but also for use in the flushing of the sewers.”
[112] Having now explained those things that relate to the administration of water for the use of private parties, it will not be foreign to the subject to touch upon certain practices, by way of illustration, whereby we have caught these most wholesome ordinances in the very act of being defeated. In a great number of reservoirs I found certain ajutages of a larger size than had been granted, and among them some that had not even been stamped. Now whenever a stamped ajutage is larger than its legitimate measure it reveals designing dishonesty on the part of the deputy who stamped it; but when it is not even stamped, it clearly reveals the fault of all, especially of the grantee, also of the overseer. In some of the reservoirs, though their ajutages were stamped in conformity with their lawful admeasurements, pipes of a greater diameter [than the ajutages] were at once attached to them. As a consequence, the water not being held together for the lawful distance, and being on the contrary forced through the short restricted distance, easily filled the adjoining larger pipes. Care should therefore be taken, as often as an ajutage is stamped, to stamp also the adjoining pipe over the length which we stated was prescribed by the resolution of the Senate. For then and then only can the overseer be held to his full responsibility, when he understands that none but stamped pipes must be set in place.
[113] In setting ajutages also, care must be taken to set them on the level, and not place the one higher and the other lower down. The lower one will take in more; the higher one will suck in less, because the current of water is drawn in by the lower one. To some pipes no ajutages were even attached. Such pipes are called “uncontrolled,” and are enlarged or diminished as pleases them.
[114] There is, besides, this intolerable method of cheating practised by the water-men: When a water-right is transferred to a new owner, they will insert a new ajutage in the reservoir; the old one they leave in the tank and draw from it water, which they sell. This practice especially, therefore, as I believe, should be corrected by the Commissioner; for this concerns not only the protection of the water itself, but als
o the maintenance of the reservoirs, which get to be leaky when they are often and unnecessarily tapped into.
[115] The following mode of gaining money, practised by the water-men, is also to be abolished; the one called “puncturing.” There are extensive areas in various places where secret pipes run under the pavements all over the City. I discovered that these pipes were furnishing water by special branches to all those engaged in business in those localities through which the pipes ran, being bored for that purpose here and there by the so-called “puncturers”; whence it came to pass that only a small quantity of water reached the places of public supply. How large an amount of water has been stolen in this manner, I estimate by means of the fact that a considerable quantity of lead has been brought in by the removal of that kind of branch pipes.
[116] It remains to speak of the maintenance of the conduits; but before I say anything about this, a little explanation should be given about the gangs of slaves established for this purpose. There are two of those gangs, one belonging to the State, the other to Caesar. The one belonging to the State is the older, which, as we have said, was left by Agrippa to Augustus, and was by him made over to the State. It numbers about 240 men. The number in Caesar’s gang is 460; it was organized by Claudius at the time he brought his aqueduct into the City.
[117] Both gangs are divided into several classes of workmen: overseers, reservoir-keepers, inspectors, pavers, plasterers, and other workmen; of these, some must be outside the city for purposes which do not seem to require any great amount of work, but yet demand prompt attention; the men inside the city at their stations at the reservoirs and fountains will devote their energies to the several works, especially in case of sudden emergencies, in order that a plentiful reserve supply of water may be turned from several wards of the city to one afflicted by an emergency. Both of these large gangs, which regularly were diverted by exercise of favouritism, or by negligence of their foremen, to employment on private work, I resolved to bring back to some discipline and to the service of the State, by writing down the day before what each gang was going to do, and by putting in the records what it had done each day.
