The city’s first major engineering achievement was the Coaqula Maxima, an extensive sewer system that still operate today. It was used to flush the street runoff and drain the marshlands that would become the Roman Forum.
Because of Rome’s great influence on its neighbors, its engineers were called on to create an infrastructure that would connect the expanding empire. Rome’s main transportation routes were to walk, horse riding, or cart through the countryside or travel by sea. That all changed in 312 B.C. with the construction of the Via Appia (Appian Way), Rome’s first highway. It stretched 132 mile from Rome’s capital to its southern province of Coponia. Once paths were cleared and perfectly straight (some even through mountains), a broad trench was dug and filled with sand and boulder to form a solid foundation. Next went a layer of gravel compacted with clay or mortar. The third and final layer was constructed of thick paving stones angled to allowed water to drain off.
By the death of Julius Caesar, Rome controlled most of Western Europe and Egypt. Caesar’s eventual heir was his great nephew, Octavian, who was renamed Augustus and crowned Rome’s first imperator or emperor. Under the Rule of Augustus, the Roman road system expanded to reach the farthest corner of the Empire. With this expansion, Roman cities began to pop up everywhere, complete with a forum, basilica, theater, amphitheater, and all other marker that made a Roman city. People would flock to these cities, embracing the Roman culture.
The Essay on Italian Neorealism in Rome, Open City, Bicycle Thieves, and The Road
I. Introduction Rossellini’s Rome, Open City, De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves, and Fellini’s The Road share common ground in their makers’ country of origin and the general theme appropriated: they are all made by Italian filmmakers to convey the reality of their country during the post-World War II era. Above the typical collective philosophies of an wave or generation of filmmakers, the purpose of ...
Of all the achievements of Rome’s engineers, none were as life altering as running water. In the capitol, eleven aqueduct line were constructed to guide a steady stream of water to it citizens, carrying a combined 200 million gallons of water a day from spring mile away. No single emperor can claim to have constructed the aqueducts.
