Page - 108 - in The Power of Urban Water - Studies in premodern urbanism

108 DylanK. Rogers Fig. 2:Cloacae, or drains, of Ancient Rome. Theadditionof themonumental CloacaMaxima in the 7th century, reportedly installedbyTar- quinius Priscus, permitted the space to stay dry.17 Built upon the ancient tributary streams of the Tiber, the CloacaMaximabecamemonumentalized over time, such aswhen thedrainwas linedwithstone in the5th century.18 InPlautus’day, theCloacawasstill apparentlyopen to the elements, but by the end of the Republic, it was covered over, and it was eventually restored byAgrippa in33,whoaddedanewlowerGabinestonecourse.Thecourseof theCloacaMaxima ranalong theancientArgiletum, later coveredby theForumTransitoriumofNerva, then turned to the east at the base of the Basilica Aemilia, cutting across the forum between the Basilica Iulia and theTempleofCastor andPollux, proceeding through theVelabrum, and flowing into the Tiber, via the Forum Boarium. The meandering pattern of the Cloaca Maxima contrasts sharplywith themore straightforwardpaths of other drains in the city, and it could be tied to what some scholars have considered to be a ‘sacred’ past, in that the original stream’s course deservedspecial reverenceeven into theEmpire.19Despitehaving theability tochange thepath of theCloacaMaxima, theRomanskept theancient courseof thedrain, perhaps indevotion to its ancient route, as amarker of its past history andassociatedmemories.20 With the forum drained, monumentalization of the space could occur, befitting the civic andcommercial centreof thecity.Thecreationof the forum,with itsmanybuildingsandstruc- tures, was not an accident, but the result of planning in conjunctionwith the new landscape 17 Dion.Hal.Ant. Rom. 3, 67, 4–5. 18 Formoreon theCloacaMaxima, see: Tortorici 1991;Gowers 1995;Hopkins 2007;Hopkins 2012. 19 For the ‘sacred’ nature of theCloacaMaxima, seeHolland 1961, 349f. 20 Hopkins 2012, 88f.