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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 help 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.