Page - 24 - in The Power of Urban Water - Studies in premodern urbanism

24 Patric-AlexanderKreuz Fig. 7:Concordia, detail of the canal according toold plans. Two inscriptions of the late 1st/early 2nd century AD are usually connected to this initiative.37 Both inscriptions, formerly free-standing, approx. 1.1mhigh stelae, were found in the area of the canal andmust have been erected in its context. They document for the public that two prominent inhabitants of Concordia, both liberti of the sameperson andboth seviri, took over thecosts for steps (crepidines) of twosectionsof thecanal, itself not explicitlymentioned (inter murumet pontem, and inter duos pontes; these specifications onlymake sense for the canal as the object of the initiative, aswell as the context of the inscriptions). This large-scale improve- ment of the local infrastructurewas therefore a private donation and euergetic contribution to the local topography.Moreover, since thecity’s layoutwithcanal–andstreetgrid–hadexisted already for some time, itwas a subsequent initiative thatmusthavehad some impact. Buthowcould this initiativebeunderstood in its urbancontext?With the inner-city canal, water was already a formative component of the initial layout and urban space of Concordia. Yet in its embedding, a conspicuous local approach is evident. From the beginning integrated in a remarkably consistent way into the layout of the city, the canal, being a part of it, was subsequently theobjectofarchitecturalarticulationasamonumental locale.This,however,did not result inasophisticatedorevengrandiosearchitectonicdesign,suchasapromenade.Finds from thearea indicate anongoing commercial useof at least parts of the canal,38 although the actualharbourwith its corresponding infrastructurewas locatedoutside thecity.39Yet thearea of thecanalwasalsosought forofficialmonuments.Anhonorary inscription forahigh-ranking imperial official of the Late Antonine period found in the eastern section of the canal steps points toacertainpublicity in thisarea:40 the inscriptionwith its sizeof 150×80cmmusthave formedpart of an impressivehonorarymonument erected somewhere along the canal. 37 CIL V, 1886 and 1887; Bertolini 1880, 414 no. 10 pl. 14 (findspot); Vigoni 2006, 464 fig.6f.; Vigoni 2013, 104 figs. 73. 74. Against a connection of both inscriptionswith the steps proper and for a different assessment of the urban role of the canal, seeLaird 2015, 254‒261. 38 Vigoni 2013, 125‒154. 39 Vigoni 2013, 109‒111 fig. 78pl. 2. 5. 40 CILV, 1874;Bertolini 1880, 415no. 11 pl. 14;Vigoni 2013, 105 fig. 75.