Roman Empire Advancement

The Roman empire has been considered one of the vastest and architecturally advanced cities throughout the centuries, with future generations building their empire off the influence of the Romans. During Rome’s era, it was considered the center of development, and its great advancements would influence surrounding cities to adapt similar structures, including the aqueduct system. Rome was not the first empire to adapt a sanitation system. The romans first adapted the idea of a flushing toilet during the Hellenistic era from the Greek empire. They expanded on the idea of a toilet, changed its design and familiarities. Rome’s population was only exponentially growing, and with very little progress in their sanitation system at first, the waste …show more content…
With vast amounts of people, there was an even greater amount of excess waste. “Rome with a population of c. 800,000-1,000,000 inhabitants in early imperial times would have produced c. 40-50,000 kgs. of body of wastes per day.” Without a consistent sewage system because their drains lacked traps, they found an increase in food contaminants, diseases and fecal waste. In most homes, a cesspit would be in a kitchen, which would lead to the “risk of food contamination in such combined kitchen/latrine areas.” Human waste, however, was not the only waste that would be an issue for homeowners and public law officials in Rome. Roman housing was not substantially built on firm materials and had a tendency of collapsing, leaving rubbish all over the streets with no system to dispose of it. Along with that, there was an issue of overcrowding in communities, which would lead to the spread of disease There was a great lack of law for the waste that was present on the streets, and in time, Rome would begin to establish laws to attack street waste, build systems to control the amount of fecal matter in the city, and develop structures to accommodate to the sanitation systems being built. A greater demand for a sanitation system began when there was an increase for luxury within the city and its people. As the city began to make changes, the people were greatly impacted, as …show more content…
The aqueduct system has given Rome and other cities around 400 years of water. The water systems developed made way for major cities to develop greater powerhouse sanitation systems during the Industrial Revolution. However, even though the drainage system lacked traps in Rome, the aqueducts are still considered a precedent for all water filtration systems. “The achievement of ancient Rome in planning, building, and decoration underpins most of the main developments of Western architecture.” (Jenkyns 329). From massive sewages to the smallest bathroom stall, Rome’s architecture spread throughout the world. The elegant system of public baths spread all over Europe as a type of luxury for the elite class. European empires may not have taken the entire design of the aqueducts or public stations, but most of the designs in current European sewage, or drainage systems are based of the aqueducts that were first created in 312 B.C. The influence continues to spread throughout empires, with a great amount of water supply. The aqueducts provided miles and miles of water from home to home. Not only did the initial idea of aqueducts spread worldwide, but the architecture behind the system migrated. This leads to the understanding of why most European neighboring countries, from Italy to Germany, have similar toilets,