Page - 36 - in The Power of Urban Water - Studies in premodern urbanism

36 Nicolas Lamare tunic she is wearing.18 More generally, we have evidence of aquarii in Rome, who could be public or household slaves,19 as well as free men selling their services to carry water to the insulae.20However, theycouldalsobemembersof thewater service, and it isdifficult todistin- guish themfromthesupposedwatercarriers.21Thesituation inRomeisveryparticular inmany respects;nevertheless these individuals areattestedelsewhere, suchas the collegiumofaquarii mentioned in an inscription of Venusia:22 whether water sellers or people committed to the maintenanceofwatermonuments, it ispossible toconsider theirpresence inAfrican territory.23 Theaquarii, inRomeaselsewhere, couldnotonlydrawwater fromcertain large fountains, but also take over theirmaintenance.Were they fully committed to this role? Therewas probably no curaaquarum service in small towns that couldnotafford it.24 Theduumviri or aedileswere responsible for this task, which could be assigned to a person on an ad hoc basis, such as L. Terentius Romanus inDougga.25 Municipal staff were also responsible for themaintenance of fountains and other public monuments. Sewermaintenance was also the responsibility of the public authorities,26 but private individuals could not be prevented from repairing and maintaining their pipes themselves.27 Romanwomen alsowent to the fountain, asHorace testifies in his Satires, offering a very vividdescriptionof adaily scene.28Much later inConstantinople,29 during thedrought of 562– 563, testimonies of fights andevenmurders,30 or the crowd rushingaround the fountains after damagecausedtotheaqueduct,31confirmtheroleof thesemonuments insupplyingthepopula- tionand the convergencepoint they constituted. Aplaceofpassageandanimportantmeetingpointdueto itsutilitarianfunction,a fountain couldalsobeaquietspace intheheartof thecity.However, thereare fewindications tovalidate this role ofmonumental fountains in North Africa. None, for example, is associatedwith any benches, at least in stone.32 Perhaps such arrangements existed in perishablematerials as in theexedras,33whichwereequippedwithwoodenbenches. Themonumental fountainsof semi- circularplan,commonlyknownas ‘semi-circularexedranymphaeum’–terminologywhichSal- 18 Chérif 1988, 10 fig. 11. 19 Aquarii could be serui publici attached to thewater service,whose existence is still attested in late antiquity: Weiß 2004, 117–122; Lenski 2006, 345f. 348. Eighteenquotes are tobe found inFrontin. aq. 20 SeeBruun 1991, 108f. for quotationsof the term, inparticular Iuv. 6, 332; Bruun 1997, 140f. 21 Bruun 1991, 190–193. 22 CIL IX, 460. 23 Marano 2015, 152f. considers that their presence in all the cities of the empire should not be overestimated, contraLenski 2006, 345 andBiundo 2008, 169. 24 Arecent studyproposed to identify suchaservice inVienne (France)basedon the stampofa leadpipe:Rémy et al. 2011. 25 AE 1966, 512 =Dougga 37. Theman is honoured ob aquae curambut does not bear in the inscription the title ofcuratoraquae,which is foundneither inNorthAfricanor inGaul:Corbier 1984, 272n.200. 201;Ronin2015,40– 42. 26 Dig. 43, 23, 1, 3. Little is knownabout the officerswho conducted thismaintenance; perhaps theywere slaves andprisoners:Wilson 2000, 170. 27 Dig. 39, 1, 5, 11; 43, 23, 1, 7. About thesequestions, seeSaliou 1994, 166;Ronin 2015, 79–82. 200–204. 28Whatever [thepoet]hasoncescribbledonhis sheetshewill rejoice tohaveall know,all the slavesandolddames as they come home frombakehouse and pond. Hor. Sat. 1, 4, 36–38: et quodcumque semel chartis illeuerit, omnis | gestieta furnoredeuntisscire lacuque |etpuerosetanus. (translationbyFairclough1961).SeeMagalhãesdeOliveira 2012, 105–107 on the fountain as a privilegedmeeting place for the neighbours and an essential link in the local social networks that characterized the life of theneighbourhoods, especially themost popular ones. 29 Crow2012, 129. 30 Theoph.AM6055. 31 Procop.Arc 26, 23. 32 Regardingthebenches in thepublicspaceofPompeii, seeHartnett 2017, 195–223, inparticular220f. concerning the lackof benchconstructionby civic authorities and the lackof urban ‘comfort’ in themodern sense. 33 On the origin andmeaning of the term,with bibliographical, literary, epigraphic, and archaeological referen- ces, seeSettis 1973, 662–682.