Page - 175 - in The Power of Urban Water - Studies in premodern urbanism

10 SyracusanWaterNetworks inAntiquity 175 TheRomans,whoseized thecityofSyracuse in212BC,also left theirmarkon thehydraulic installationsof thecity,althoughit seemedtobecomeasmallprovincial town.Fornow,archae- ology has revealed no significant residential areas, and the use of tanks,many in the ancient city, even seems to prove that the aqueductswere no longermaintained or repaired as before. Known for being great water planners, likely to take over water infrastructure and improve, optimize and repair them, they nevertheless left theirmark on one of the sections of Galermi, the gallery of the Bottiglieria, as evidenced by the tabulae ansatae,unfortunately silent today. The Galermi was, if not expanded, at any rate remodelled andmaintained, so the aqueduct musthave improved in flowand regularity. Conclusion So, to conclude, the recent investigations into the Syracusan aqueducts seem to confirm the implementation of a coherent network of aqueducts during the Greek period. In these condi- tions, it is difficult to beprecise about theperiod inwhich itwas conceivedanddone. The aqueducts of the urban space seem prior to Galermi. One is tempted to attribute the Ninfeo and the Paradiso to the Deinomenids, because of the rough completion of certain sec- tions, becauseof the incised letters, andbecauseof thenameofParadiso. However, the extreme technological and human effort that the Galermi represents must have been the work of a team of designers with great scientific and technical skills, such as thoseobserved in the intellectualeffervescenceof theMediterraneanworldduring theHellenis- ticperiod fromAlexandria toHieron II’s court in the3rd centuryBC,with theworksofArchime- des inastronomy,his intellectualexchangeswiththeAlexandrianscholarsandhisuseof instru- mentation andmechanisms for thinking about theworld.He thususeddioptra tomeasure the universe68andthere isnodoubt that this instrumentwasdecisive inthedesignof theaqueduct, that had to overcome a large number of topographic and geological barriers. For now, the archaeological evidence is lacking to prove hiswork on the realization of the aqueduct, but it remains ahypothesis not tobeundervalued. However,onemayquestion themotivations thatdrove theSyracusans tobuild thisgigantic installation of Galermi. Indeed, it goes fromamaximumof 1.5kmof pipes to 27.5kmwith the crossing of very important, notably topographic, obstacles.Were the intra-urban aqueducts in poor condition and too expensive to restore? Had the water on the plateau dried up, or de- creased? The growth of the city and its economic activities in the Hellenistic period required larger amounts ofwater, especially for running the ceramicsworkshops, discovered in several neighbourhoods.Orwere therehigherquality requirements, as shownby the recommendations ofphilosophersandhygienedoctors?69Somanyquestions tobear inmind inour reflectionson theSyracusanhydraulic systems inAntiquity, even if they lackanswers. IllustrationCredits Fig. 1: IllustrationbyGiovanniPolizzi, after Cavallari –Holm1883, pls. III. V–IX. Fig. 2: After Cavallari –Holm1883, pl. A. Fig.3: IllustrationbyLenhardt–Paillet 2017,©missionHydrosyra. Fig.4: IllustrationbyLenhardt–Paillet 2017,©missionHydrosyra. Fig. 5: IllustrationbyMarchello–Turci 2016,©missionHydrosyra. 68 DiPasquale 2013, 80f.; Strano 2013. 69 Plat. Leg. 5, 747d.;Aristot. Pol. 1330b;HippocAer.; Bouffier –Brunet forthcoming.