The Sewers of Rome

Since the dawn of civilization, man has been faced with one major problem: waste. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why -- it smells, it's unsightly, and it's a fact of life. If humans hadn't striven to find newer ways to get rid of waste, we probably wouldn't have advanced very far up the ladder of life (in fact, waste is one of the things that separates us from the apes -- monkeys will often fling their dung during territorial disputes, mating rituals, and as a gesture of general displeasure).

For thousands of years, waste was dealt with by digging "cess pits", or big holes in the ground. Once the pits were filled, they were covered over and a new hole was dug. This worked, but as can be imagined, the surrounding land became a little bit rank, so it was pretty hard to build upon. When Rome started to get big, and many people started living in closer spaces, dealing with each other's waste began to get annoying.

The main Roman sewer wasn't built by the Romans at all; it was built by the Etruscans, Rome's first inhabitants. In fact, the Cloaca Maxima (literally 'big sewer') wasn't even intended to be a sewer for waste -- its first purpose was to drain the area that became the forum (the main meeting place in Rome), for Rome was originally mostly covered by swamp. Eventually, the area was drained out, and the Cloaca Maxima remained. The Romans decided to start throwing waste into it, and eventually maintained and kept using it. It was roughly 600 yards long, and emptied into the Tevere river (which, unfortunately, happened to be a river that an aqueduct tapped into....). Since there was no ventilation for the sewer, all of the smell was channeled and sent along with the waste, so one can only imagine what the smell at the other side of the tunnel was like.


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