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plato course nrs reading l5 > pretest - unit 2

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ancient roman cities

archaeologists have unearthed evidence of
ancient roman cities all over europe, northern
africa, and the middle east. some cities stand
intact, just as they were during the roman
empire. others lie in ruins but can be visited by
tourists. visitors can view the remains of shops
and houses, and observe how the drains and
water pipes were laid for the sewer system.
some original buildings still exist and are in use
today in various european cities.
roman towns were often laid out on a grid
system, so that the streets were straight and
crossed one another at right angles. the
romans adopted this strategy from the greeks,
who planned many of their towns this way. some
roman towns initially began as military forts and
were surrounded by strong walls and ditches.
other towns were founded as colonies. this
meant that roman citizens were paid a certain
sum of money to move to a conquered territory
and establish a new town. they took seeds
with them to plant crops and they erected new
buildings for their families.
the romans also built aqueducts to draw
clean water from rivers and lakes to the towns.
the name aqueduct comes from the two latin
words for "water" and "to carry." an aqueduct is
a channel for carrying water on a bridge across
a valley or underground in pipes. in order to
supply a town with water, the romans first
sought a water source that was higher than the
town. then engineers constructed the aqueduct
so it gently sloped downhill. made of stone and
concrete, aqueducts usually ran at ground level.
if a valley had to be crossed, a bridge made of
rows of arches was built to keep the water at the
right height. the aqua marcia aqueduct in
segovia, spain, was built in 140 b. c. to carry
water a distance of sixty miles to rome. it
included seven miles of arches. it is one of over
two hundred roman aqueducts that can still be
seen today.
roman architects and engineers were
dispatched all over europe to supervise the
many building projects funded by the roman
empire. they used stone, brick, and concrete.
we are familiar with their building techniques
from architects such as vitruvius, who wrote a
manual of construction techniques for bridges
and tall buildings in the first century. another
architect, julius frontinus, described how to
channel water to people's houses and the public
baths. many workers were needed to carry out
these projects, some cutting the stones while
others turned huge treadmills that lifted the
blocks of stone to where they were needed.
the romans also built a network of 52,000
miles of roads. these were planned by
surveyors who traveled with the roman army.
first, a surveyor studied the landscape to
determine the most direct route for the road.
then soldiers dug a wide trench and filled it with
layers of sand, concrete, small stones, and large
blocks. these same routes remain part of the
road system in italy and other european
countries today.