Transcript Slide 1

Definition of Civil Engineering –
Samuel C. Florman
• “Civil engineers design and construct
buildings, dams, and bridges; towers,
docks and tunnels – structures of all sorts.
Civil Engineering also encompasses
highways, railroads, and airports, along
with water supply and sewage disposal. In
short, civil engineering is basic and of the
earth, historically – along with mining – the
root of all engineering.”
Slaves tend the hair of their mistress
The Roman era was an age of inexpensive and
abundant materials:
• Timber
• Stone
• Concrete
And of simple structural forms:
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Walls
Beams
Columns
arches
Pozzolana from Bacoli in the Bay of Naples
Concrete Bath at Caesarea
Civil Engineering Bureaucracy in
Ancient Rome
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Architectus – Master Builder
Agrimensors – land suveyors
Librators -- levelers
Mensors -- quantity measurers
Aquelegus– aqueduct inspectors
Viarum curator – superintendent of roads
Five Types of Roman Roads:
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Via – 14 ft. wide
Actus – 7 ft. wide
Iter – 5 ft. wide
Senita – 2.5 ft. wide
Callais – mountain road
Roman Bridges
• Borrowed Concept of the arch from the
Etruscans
• Used the form to replace wooden
structures
• Works were aesthetically balanced and
stable
• Heavy piers
• Foundations that could withstand river
currents – use of iron-tipped piles
Urban Water Supplies
• First of 11 aqueducts supplying water to
Rome constructed by 300 BC
• 144 BC aqueduct “Marcia,” a high-level
supply 58 miles long and 195 feet above
the Tiber
• Use of water treatment techniques,
especially use of lime as a coagulant
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio – On
Architecture (15 AD)
• A architectus (master builder) should be
broadly educated:
– History
– Law
– Medicine
– Philosophy
– Astronomy
• “let the architectus not be grasping or have
his mind occupied with the idea of
receiving requisites, but let him with dignity
keep his position by cherishing a good
reputation. No work can be rightly done
without honesty and incorruptibility.”
The Groma
Julius Frontinius – On Water – 199 AD
• Frontinius was the commissioner of Rome
from 97-104 AD
• The Romans built over 200 city water
supplies
Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
(1776-1788) – 5 Attributes marked Rome at its end:
• A mounting love of show and luxury
• A widening gap between the rich and the
poor
• An obsession with sex
• Freakishness in the arts, masquerading as
originality
• An increased desire to live of the state