1. How did the Romans stay clean? By Edee Polyakovsky
Roman Water Systems
How did the Romans stay clean?
By Edee Polyakovsky

2. Clean Water
Ancient Roman society became very dependent on their constant flow of clean water.
Water was delivered to cities by the aqueducts and taken out by their sewage system.
The Romans also had communal bath houses where they went to bathe and socialize.
Clean drinking and bathing water is a crucial to staying healthy.

3. The Aqueducts
The Roman aqueducts were water channels built to supply cities throughout the Roman empire with clean water.
The word aqueduct comes from the Latin words aqua (water) and ducere (to lead).
They used pipes, ditches, canals, tunnels, bridges and other structures to get the water from its natural source to the cities.
The aqueducts went underground, through mountains, and across gaps using gravity and high pressure pipes as their only method of propulsion.

4. What did the Aqueducts Supply?
The Roman aqueducts mostly supplied the bath houses.
They also brought water to public markets, toilets, fountains, and private houses.
Some aqueducts brought water for mining, processing, manufacturing, and agricultural purposes.
The first aqueduct was built to supply a cattle market in Rome.
By the 3rd Century CE, the city of Rome had two aqueducts which sustained 1,000,000 people.

5. The Aqueducts in Use
The Ancient Roman aqueducts were a very reliable source of water to the citizens of the Roman Empire.
The aqueduct system spread through out the Roman Empire. Almost every major Roman city had at least one aqueduct supplying it with clean water.
Some of the aqueducts were maintained into the early modern era and a few are still in partial use today.

6. The Roman Bath Houses
In Ancient Rome, communal bathing was a major aspect of society and culture.
Bathing was a common, daily activity Romans of many different social classes practiced.
The Roman bath houses were very beautiful places.
When the bath houses started, they were not very sophisticated but by the 1st Century BCE the baths had very advanced heating systems.
The hot and warm baths were heating by wood burning furnaces under the raised floors.

7. Elements of the Bath Houses
The Roman baths were huge complexes with many different rooms.
Most bath houses had changing rooms, exercise rooms, an open-air swimming pool, super-heated dry and wet sweating rooms, a hot room with a hot water pool, a warm room with a tepid pool, a cold room with an unheated pool and rooms for massage and other health treatments.
The cold room was often in the center of the bath house.

8. Ancient Roman Sewer Systems
The Romans built both public and private toilets.
The Ancient Roman sewers were very extensive, some even were as big as modern city's sewers.
Miles pipes carried waste and rain water out of Rome to the Tiber river which emptied into the Mediterranean Sea.
If it weren’t for the excellent sewer system, the streets of Rome would be covered with waste (pee and poop), vomit, garbage, gross water, rotting fruits and vegetables, and animal skins and guts from the nearby street venders.
The picture above shows what a typical Roman sewer would look like underneath the street.

9. The Roman Toilets
In many Roman bathrooms, the toilets stone had seats. Some bathrooms also had stone hand basins as well.
The way the toilets and drains were laid out, meant that you had to sit next to up to 20 people in the public bathrooms.
The picture on the left shows a real Ancient Roman public bathroom in Rome.

10. Bibliography
"Ancient Roman Aqueducts - Crystalinks." Ancient Roman Aqueducts - Crystalinks. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 June <
"Ancient Roman Baths - Thermae, Baths of - Caracalla, Diocletian, Trajan - Crystalinks." Ancient Roman Baths - Thermae, Baths of - Caracalla, Diocletian, Trajan - Crystalinks. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 June <
N.p., n.d. Web. <
N.p., n.d. Web. <
Koloski-Ostrow, Ann Olgga. "What Toilets and Sewers Tell Us about Ancient Roman Sanitation." N.p., n.d. Web. <

11. Thanks for Watching!
I hope you enjoyed and learned something from this presentation