I Have Already Observed The Great Number Of
Baths Which He Opened For The People, And The Magnificent
Thermae, With Spacious Gardens, Which He Bequeathed To Them As A
Legacy.
But these benefactions, great and munificent as they seem
to be, were not the most important services he performed for the
city of Rome.
The common-sewers were first made by order of
Tarquinius Priscus, not so much with a view to cleanliness, as by
way of subterranean drains to the Velabrum, and in order to carry
off the stagnant water, which remained in the lower parts, after
heavy rains. The different branches of these channels united at
the Forum, from whence by the cloaca Maxima, their contents were
conveyed into the Tyber. This great cloaca was the work of
Tarquinius Superbus. Other sewers were added by Marcus Cato, and
Valerius Flaccus, the censors. All these drains having been
choaked up and ruinous, were cleared and restored by Marcus
Agrippa, who likewise undermined the whole city with canals of
the same kind, for carrying of the filth; he strengthened and
enlarged the cloaca maxima, so as to make it capable of receiving
a large cart loaded with hay; and directed seven streams of water
into these subterranean passages, in order to keep them always
clean and open. If, notwithstanding all these conveniences,
Vespasian was put to great expence in removing the ordure from
the public streets, we have certainly a right to conclude that
the antient Romans were not more cleanly than the modern
Italians.
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