Recent Developments in Aqueduct Research

Abstract

The engineering spirit of antiquity is marked by astonishing pragmatism. The results of the measurement of elevations, angles, and distances in the construction of aqueducts, for example, show a precision that amazes us even today. With simple surveying instruments, the ancients achieved an accuracy that would satisfy even modern requirements. Intensive research over the past decades has led to the reconstruction and to an understanding of the handling of the chorobates and the groma, two surveying instruments mentioned in ancient sources. The results permit only one possible verdict on Roman engineering: simple and ingenious—simply genius.