“Beautiful And Useful”: The Water Supply Of Pisidian Antioch And The Development Of The Roman Colony

Abstract

The arched aqueduct sweeping across the countryside and negotiating river valleys is for many one of the most characteristic features of the Roman Empire and a lasting monument to Roman achievements in water technology. Although aqueducts increasingly were built to supply water to cities throughout the Roman Empire, few cities could or did rely exclusively on a piped supply. The majority of aqueducts operated on the principle of constant flow, whereby the water was usually collected in a small tank at the source and was then conveyed to the city by means of a channel or pipeline. Antioch is situated on the northern edge of Pisidia. The importance of the city of Antioch and the increasing evidence for water supply lines in other Classical and Hellenistic cities, it seems unlikely that Antioch relied only on the river Anthius for water. Keywords: arched aqueduct; Pisidian Antioch; Roman empire; water pipeline