Adequate Aqueducts

In my study of history, it seems that there are at least two kinds of empires: the conquest empire and the sustainable empire. Famous warrior-kings like Alexander the Great forged conquest empires by marching their armies into foreign lands and conquering everything in sight. Alexander's in particular is an impressive conquest empire, but it fell apart as soon as he died, splintering into petty kingdoms ruled over by his former Generals. Sustainable empires, on the other hand, outlast their conquerors and fall into a pattern of subservience and reliance on their master kingdom. Rome had its share of both over the years, but places like Spain, Germany, Asia Minor, Sicily, North Africa, Greece, and regional Italy itself gradually fell into a permanent territorial status.

How does an army win a battle? Tactics. How does a nation win a war? Logistics. How does a country maintain a far-reaching empire? Engineering. Yes, if there's one thing the Romans had a monopoly on, it was practical engineering. Where the Greeks and Egyptians saw religion, the Romans saw potential. They specialized in making mysterious concepts like pi work for both their citizens and their conquered clients. One of their most amazing achievements was the Aqueduct.

In Rome alone, there was probably 500 km of aqueducts, allowing the city to support a million people. Throughout their empire, they regularly built and maintained these massive pipe and stone structures in order to ensure a potable water supply, as well as control over where the local went and who got to drink. When a city rebelled, step one of retaking it was taking the head of the aqueduct and cutting off their supply. Likewise, when Rome was attacked, the first step in defense was deploying the most elite troops to guard the water supply and ensure that a siege would prove too costly to maintain, especially if the attackers could not find a supply of their own.

In order to build a proper aqueduct, the surrounding land needed thorough surveying and measurement. The angles employed to ensure a 'just-right' flow of water were often very subtle, and the slightest overcompensation in the grade would either slow the supply to a trickle or cause an overflow which could lead to a nasty flood.

It is easy to find remains of the aqueducts in many parts of the ancient empire, including Spain and modern-day Turkey. What we see is only a fraction of what existed, and what still exists beneath our feet. Of all the aqueduct and piping laid by the Romans, most was underground and only a small percentage used those famous arches that we see still standing today.

Pax vobiscum

Catching up: The Battle of Mylae and the Corvus

At the beginning of the First Punic War, Rome and Carthage both faced significant disadvantages to one another, and a kind of Cold War stalemate ensued for the first four years of the war. By 264 BCE, the Roman army had been honed into a victory machine in most land battles, particularly where rough, hilly terrain was the proving ground. This gave them many tactical victories in Sicily early on, the primary theater of the war, but the Carthaginians had been holding that land for many years, and developed a solid defensive strategy that left them well-fortified even if the local garrison had been routed. Carthaginian ships would arrive with fresh mercenary troops and supplies, making it difficult for the Romans to really gain any ground, since they didn't have a navy of their own to counter the enemy.

The story goes that some Carthaginian ships washed up on the Italian shore and were discovered by the Romans, who copied the design and made themselves ready for a sea invasion of North Africa or Iberia. However, siege weapons aboard boats were pretty useless in those days, so crews had to rely on ramming to tear their enemy's hulls and sink them in the Mediterranean, an art in which the Carthaginians were well-versed. Time and again, they sunk every Roman ship that dared cross into their space, breaking blockades with ease and resupplying their dwindling, demoralized armies in Sicily. So how does a land-based power defeat a naval power? By turning sea battles into land battles.

Roman engineers developed the Corvus, a swiveling draw-bridge device whose spiked tip could be smashed onto an enemy deck, attaching the two ships and allowing for legionnaires to take the ship. The Carthaginian fleet didn't know what hit them at Mylae: they lost almost half of their fleet to the Romans, who appropriated the vessels and bolstered their navy. Carthage's biggest advantage was lost, and the surprise of the Roman tactics cost them heavily. The war would drag on for nineteen more years, however, and end with Carthage being driven out of Sicily for good, causing them to intensify their colonization efforts in Spain and once again come into conflict with Rome.

While the Corvus remains one of the most brilliant innovations in ancient naval warfare, Carthage adjusted its sea tactics after several other disastrous encounters with Roman fleets. Roman innovation won the day, and the tired old Phoenician stronghold teetered one step closer to eventual annihilation.

Pax vobiscum