Aqueducts were perhaps the greatest achievement of Roman engineers, since they supplied water to the masses, and increased hygiene for all Roman citizens. Aqueducts were constructed as public works throughout the Roman Empire, but the greatest and most plentiful brought their water into Rome. Some people wonder why many European civilizations in the Middle Ages, after the Roman Empire, but this project highlights the level of planning and engineering that had to go into the aqueducts.
We chose to base our blueprints (seen above) on the Aqua Claudia, one of Rome’s most ambitious projects. Our blueprints show the basic dimensions of the Aqua Claudia, as well as the facts and uses for these parts. Some interesting things were the use of siphons. Romans would typically use taller bridges over valleys whenever possible, however it was not always possible with the mountainous regions of Italy. Siphons are still used today; they work by using pressure and gravity, as well as sealed pipes to keep the pressure, to push the water up the other side of the valley. A simple description of the siphon and how it works, but if you are still confused there’s more information here.
In conclusion, Roman aqueducts, and the Aqua Claudia in particular, were breathtaking public works and incredible feats of engineering for the time of Rome. They greatly improved Roman health, quality of life and the beauty and riches of Rome.
My project was on the well-known emperor Augustus Gaius Octavius, and what his impact was to the Roman empire. He was born in the city of Rome, and while he was young, he had delivered a funeral for his grandmother, causing his mother and stepfather to become more involved in the young boys life. From there he was donned the toga virilis, or became a man,four years later. From there he had been sent to be in charge of the Greek games the following year. Later on, Julius Caesar had been killed while he was undergoing military training, so he had resumed his title, and adopted his great nephew, Octavius, making him his direct heir. And from there his legacy had begun.
Project :
Picture of movie sleeve (colorized)
I had originally decided to make a book sleeve, though as I started writing my summary that was meant to go onto the back of the cover, I found that it sounded more like a movie than a book. This lead to changing the book cover to a movie sleeve. I had decided to draw the above scene on the front because it was rumored that his third wife, Livia, had poisoned him during dinner, instead of him passing naturally in his sleep. My summary of the movie is as follows :
Dive into the world of Augustus Gaius Octavius, where you’ll be taken to Rome, and a small town not far from it, named Velletri. Follow him as he brings an end to a violent civil war, literally gets shipwrecked, and deals with troublesome past wives. See how he handled his many responsibilities as an Emperor, including but not limited to, controlling religious ceremonies and punishing those who did wrong. But was his rapidly improving empire as good as it seemed?
Citations :
“Augustus.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 21 May 2018,
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustus.
History.com Staff. “Augustus.” History.com, A&E Television Networks,
2009, www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/emperor-augustus.
“Roman Civil Wars.” Historic World Events, Gale, 2017. Student Resources In Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/BT2359070824/
SUIC?u=sant89825&sid=SUIC&xid=d2774005. Accessed 22 May 2018.
World Eras. Ed. John T. Kirby. Vol. 3: Roman Republic and Empire, 264 B.C.E.- 476 C.E.. Detroit: Gale, 2001.p147-151.
Forsyth, Fiona. Augustus: the First Emperor. Rosen Pub. Group, 2003.
Even though it may seem like the Roman baths were used primarily for bathing, it was used for so much more. The Ancient Roman Baths, also referred to as thermae, were made for relaxation and socializing. People would go there to see friends, meet for business, exercise, and of course, go in the baths. These bath houses grew popular in 33 B.C. and became a part of daily life in Rome.
There were three rooms for bathing: the cold, warm and hot rooms. The hotter the water, the closer to the sacred spring they were. The general flow when entering a bathhouse was exercising and then moving to the warm, hot, and cold baths. There were also rooms that were similar to saunas because Roman citizens discovered that they could sweat to unclog their pores and clear skin in the baths. In order to keep the baths heated, hypocausts were used. They were kept heated by slaves shoveling coal into the fire which kept the floors heated. The water entering the baths came from the mountains using aqueducts and strategically placed tunnels. Roman baths were public to all, only requiring a small fee and some days of the year were even free! Although, many wealthy Roman citizens decided to have private baths made in their home and would invite friends and family. Roman baths were important in their society and was thought to be good for their well being.
For our project we decided to use our knowledge of the ancient bath houses to make a brochure for modern baths. We designed and made a map of the baths to show rooms that we kept the same and then some rooms that we added. In the brochure, you can also see the differences between the ancient baths and our modern baths. We include the architectural designs that remain the same from ancient to modern day baths. Because the Roman baths were heated using slaves and an ancient technique, it obviously needed to be updated. We heat our rooms using a hydronic radiant floor heating system. This heats the room from the floors up so that in every room there is a consistent and specific temperature. Take a look at our brochure that explains and shows our modern bath house!
When you think of Ancient Roman and Greek Fashion you may think of the classics like the tunic, the stola, or the toga, but you maybe not have heard of other pieces such as, the chiton or the peplos. I will be explaining what those are but first I will start by explaining the basic clothing.
Tunic
The tunic is a classic example of Roman and Greek clothing. It was made of two rectangles that were sewn together on the sides but there was just enough room left to put your arms through. It was then fastened at the top with a safety pin like thing called a Fibula. The tunic was not fancy as it was worn everyday, casually.
Stola
Empress Livia is wearing a Stola in this picture
After a woman got married she would wear a stola show she was married. It was a long, sleveless dress that was worn over the tunic. The stole was usually made out if wool.
Toga
As seen in this picture a Roman Senator is wearing a Toga
The toga was like the male version of stola. It was a semi-circular piece of white wool fabric that was wrapped around. Like the stola, it was also worn over the tunic.
Peplos
This girl is wearing a peplos.
You may have heard of the word peplum. The word peplum comes from the word peplos. The peplos is a type of Greek dress that as shown in the picture is a rectangular piece of fabric that is folded to create a little flap as seen in the picture above.
Chiton
This picture shows the difference between the doric and ionic chiton.
You are probably wondering how to pronounce this word. It is pronounced kite-on. If you click on kite-on it will take you to YouTube where you can listen how to pronounce chiton. The chiton is a a Greek dress. There are two different types, the Doric and the ionic. The Doric chiton is sleeveless while the ionic has sleeves.
My Product
For my product I decided to make an Ancient Roman and Greek Fashion magazine.
Here is a picture of the cover. The name of this magazine is Roman Fashion Now.
This is an advertisement for Cassidy and Katey’s project.
This is DIY instructions for making your own chiton with sleeves dress.
People normally think the only colors the Romans used were white and red, but they used more than just those colors. They used white, blue, purple, red, brown, green, and black.
This is an advertisement for Josiphine’s project.
This is an advertisement for Andy’s project.
Works Cited
“Dressing to Impress in Greece and Rome.” Arts and Humanities Through the Eras, edited by Edward I. Bleiberg, et al., vol. 2: Ancient Greece and Rome 1200 B.C.E.-476 C.E. Gale, 2005, pp. 102-106. Gale Virtual Reference Library, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX3427400231/GVRL?u=sant89825&sid=GVRL&xid=0893aa51. Accessed 21 May 2018.
McManus, Barbara F. “Roman Clothing, Part II.” Roman Social Class and Public Display, Aug. 2003, www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/clothing2.html.
McManus, Barbara F. “Roman Clothing, Part I.” Roman Social Class and Public Display, Aug. 2003, www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/clothing.html.
Severy, Merle, and Emily Vermeule. Greece and Rome: Builders of Our World. Washington, National Geographic Society, 1977.
Tierney, Tom. Greek and Roman Fashions. Dover Publications, 2001
The Roman Baths were made up of many different rooms, each having its own purpose. The first thing the Romans would do when they walked in the Baths was go to the changing room,which in Roman was called the apodyterium. When they were done changing they would go to the palaestrae, which was the exercise room where they would play games with with balls and wrestle each other. Next they would go to the notatio, which was a open air swimming pool were most of the socialalizing would be done. They would then go to laconica and sudatoria, which were the superheated dry and wet sweating-rooms the superheated room are like saunas while the wet sweating rooms generate moist heat, they both would loosen up your muscles and help you relax. After the muscles were loosened they went to calidarium which was the hottest room, before they got in the bath a slave would usually use a strigil which is a tool for the cleansing of the body by scraping off dirt, perspiration, and oil they would then go into the pool and relax and socialize their would also be a separate basin on a stand. After they were done at in the hot they would go to the tepidarium, which was warm room and was indirectly heated and with a tepid pool. The romans then went to the frigidarium, which was the cool room, unheated and with a cold-water basin, often monumental in size and domed, it was the heart of the baths complex. After the Romans were done going through all the the baths sometimes they would go to room for massages. This was not all the Roman Baths had o offer the Baths had many other room such as temples, toilets, libraries, lecture halls, fountains, and outdoor gardens.
For our project we made a brochure for a modern roman baths, based on our research we decided to keep most of the old ways of the bath house like the layout and what type of rooms that are in we did decide to add some rooms like a movie theater and shop were you could by oils and lotions and food. We also decided to have everything be with modern technology as in the ancient Roman bath house they had slaves shovel coal onto a big furnace to heat the pools. We also decided to add a two story building instead of just a a one story but very wide bath house. One challenge that we faced while doing our project was drawing the map up and deciding what went where, specifically the second floor as we had to come up with part on our own. As with the first floor that was the easier part of the whole project.
Whenever you get a glass of water you usually never think where it came from and how it got to your house. It feels like there is no effort involved, you turn a handle and boom water. Now think how the Romans got water without the technology we have available today. The Roman’s designed a way to get water from water sources and travel miles all the way to a city.
Aqueducts were one of the greatest technological achievements during the Roman Empire. It supplied water to the masses and helped the hygiene of the common people by supplying the water to baths and personal homes. Roman aqueducts could span miles so they had to have about a .002 degrees decline for the water to flow. When trying to tackle hills and mountains the Romans built tunnels that required a huge amoun of resources and manpower. When the Romans ran into valleys when building their aqueducts they used bridges if it was small enough, but when the valley was too large they would use siphons.
When creating our product we initially wanted to design something on paper for an aqueduct. Me and my partner decided to create sort of blueprints for a certain aqueduct to make it unique, the Aqua Claudia. We used the information online to map the aqueduct out and use the correct dimensions. We designed three “blueprints. One which showed the siphons and the viewing holes and tunnels for aqueducts. Another showed the side and front view for the Aqua Claudia, and the final showed a map of the whole length of the Aqua Claudia and In the city of Rome.
Works Cited:
“Aqua Claudia.” Roman Aqueducts: Rome Aqua Appia (Italy), www.romanaqueducts.info/aquasite/romaclaudia/index.html.
Vaccarella, Luigi, et al. “Aqueducts: Quenching Rome’s Thirst.” National Geographic, 15 Nov. 2016, www.nationalgeographic.com/archaeology-and-history/magazine/2016/11-12/roman-aqueducts-engineering-innovation/.
“Ancient Roman Aqueducts – Crystalinks.” Indian Language – Sanskrit – Crystalinks, www.crystalinks.com/romeaqueducts.html.
“Aqua Clopedia: a Picture Dictionary of Roman Aqueducts: Hygiene and Health.” Roman Aqueducts: Rome Aqua Appia (Italy), www.romanaqueducts.info/picturedictionary/pd_onderwerpen/hygieneandhealth.htm.
![AUGUSTUS [not clickbait]](https://magistraahlers.edublogs.org/files/2018/06/20180601_094743-12940lz-1eudjsg-720x300.jpg "AUGUSTUS [not clickbait]")
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