Expanding the Roman Empire's infrastructurein the time of Claudius I.

by Keith Armstrong

Abstract: Claudius I was Roman emperor from 41- 54 CE. As emperor he greatly expanded the Roman Empire's infrastructure.

Keywords: Infrastructure, Roman, roads, aqueducts, port Osti, lighthouse, fire brigade, trade, Claudius I.

London2015

Acknowledgments

This paper couldn't have been put together without the assistance of many people. I am especially grateful for the time and assistance given by I am very grateful to all those who have assisted me in so many ways with this research: Katharine Ganly, David Gill, Judith Horsfall, Emilia Maggio, Cecile Mairat, Alice Newsholme, Rachel O' Dowd, Eva Skoulariki and Weiyan Zhou.

Because of my physical impairment, I would also like to thank the many people who have helped me to live and have given me support. This includes the people of Camden.

I would like to thank the many people who have helped me to live and given me the energy and encouragement to complete this article. This includes the people of Camden, London. I am particularly grateful to the kind members of staff at all levels within the British Library in London.

I am particularly grateful to the kind members of staff at all levels within the British Library and to The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies in London.

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I must point out that any factual errors or sentiment unwittingly suggested are my responsibility alone. The punctuation and typeface of the authors quoted have at times been modified. All rights are reserved. The author's moral rights are asserted. No part of this paper may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the author.

© Copyright 2015 Keith Armstrong, London

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1Expanding the Roman Empire's infrastructure in the time of Claudius I

There were numerous public works that were created or completed in Claudius' time. These included an aqueduct (originally begun by emperor Caligula); and a water outlet at Lake Fucinus which was three miles (4.83 km) in length. It was created partly by tunnelling through a mountain.

This was a work of great difficulty. The tunnelling required eleven years of toil and thirty thousand men (many of them slaves) labouring round the clock without interruption. [1]

The Claudian aqueduct is constructed of travertine stone. It sits upon a single tier of arches to Rome with cool and copious fountains that would have spread into numerous ornamented pools for its citizens. [2]

The remains of the Claudian aqueduct to Rome

which can still be seen today.

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The classical philologist, Vincent M. Scramuzza wrote:

As a general rule, no other Julio Claudian Emperor, with the exception of Augustus who reigned three times as long, is represented in the known epigraphical collection copiously Claudius, few other Emperors built as many roads as he. [...] [3]

Major Roman roads were constructed in Britain, Crete (Greece), Croatia, Egypt, France, Germany, Sardinia (Italy), Spain, Switzerland, Portugal and Turkey. Two further aqueducts were also built in Algeria and Turkey in Claudius' time. [4]

During Claudius I's reign, many road projects were completed, including the Alpine Via Claudia Augusta and the Via Claudia Valeria in Italy. Other road projects helped to upgrade major routes and bring them up to a Roman standard. Barbara Levick, in her book Claudius, considers that Claudius' greatest achievement as a road builder was the roadway over the Brenner Pass to link Tiberius' foundation, Augusta Vindeliciorum in Augsburg and the Danube basin with northern Italy at Altinum and, further west on the river Po at Hostilia, the road forking at Tridentum (Trent). The highway stretched for about 350 Roman miles (525 km) [5]

Navis a Roman ship at sea

3Ostia in the time of Claudius

Claudius has many connections with the important Roman port of Ostia, from where he sailed to conquer Britain. He instigated plans to greatly enlarge the harbour to improve its efficiency and the safety of the ships and their cargo. Livy records that Roman Ostia was founded before 616 BCE. [6] The town of Ostia takes its name from its locality as it was constructed at the mouth of the river Tiber.

John White's Latin-English Dictionary reveals the Latin word 'Ostia' comes from the Latin; ös, öris meaning the mouth (of persons or animals), oscìtä-tìo, önis, [oscit(a)-o] means an opening of the mouth wide, hence at the mouth of the Tiber. [7]

Ostia is approximately fifteen miles (24 km) from Rome and here lies its significance to Rome's growing power and population. Rome came to depend increasingly on imports from overseas, many of which passed through the port of Ostia and then went up river to Rome.

Russell Meiggs writing in Roman Ostia, states that:

There is little doubt that in the second half of the fourth century [BCE] merchantmen were coming to the Tiber mouth and that Ostia served the needs of trade as well as of defence. By the end of the third century the emphasis had shifted to the navy. [8]

Bow and anchor of a Roman ship3

Rosa Maria Cimino writing in Ancient Rome and India considers that Ostia can be viewed as the principal commercial and maritime province of the Empire. However, it was known for a long time as wrought with dangerous obstacles. The mouth of the harbour was less than a 328 feet (100 meters) wide, hence the harbour was not able to admit large cargo ships with an average capacity of approximately three to four hundred tons. These ships had to drop anchor in the open sea and transfer their cargo onto support boats. These small vessels then acted as tug boats by which the cargo ships, relieved of their cargo, were towed into port and assisted with mooring manoeuvres. The entire method was dangerous, laborious, and certainly uneconomical. If during the operations of loading and unloading, a sudden storm blew up, the sand banks in front of the mouth of the river posed a grave danger to all concerned. [9]

Vessels of wine or oil

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Cimino informs us that at numerous times Rome tried to find original solutions to the problem. Julius Caesar started the first project, but the enterprise was abandoned shortly after his assassination.

However, Cimino states that:

In 42 CE, Emperor Claudius visualised a plan to build a totally new harbour about two miles north of the river, where there already was a small natural bay. His choice was criticised by engineers of that time, because of the possible silting-up, due to the current, was greater on that side of the Tiber. The Imperial desire won out, so the docks were excavated about 80-90 hectares in size. Two curved piers were built in the sea and at the centre of the left one, a great lighthouse was built. Historians say that the foundation of the latter was made by filling an enormous ship of Caligula [...] with concrete and then sinking it. This ship is said to have originally been used to transport the obelisk destined for the Circus Vaticanus, from Egypt to Rome. [10]

In order for him to improve the supply of grain to Rome (which at that time was mainly imported from the eastern Mediterranean) Claudius ordered the construction of a new harbour at Ostia.This was managed by curving the breakwaters, while before the entrance a lighthouse was placed in deep water. Suetonius wrote that it was built on a very high tower after the model of the Pharos at Alexandria, to be lighted at night and guide the course of ships. [11]

Claudius also stationed his people from Rome in Ostia to provide a fire service for its granaries and warehouses. This was the start of the first fire brigade, although very different from current fire services.

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A diagram of Portiis Augusti Ostiemis

Later on there was a major improvement to the harbour under Trajan (Roman emperor 98-117 CE). [12] Today the former harbour is silted up and it looks more like a simple grass meadow than anything to do with the sea.

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Cimino adds that:

The port as a whole was finished after Claudius' death, under the reign of Nero (conceivably in 64 CE). The experts' objections were correct: Claudius' port was in constant risk of silting-up, and being too wide and not deep enough, placed the ships at risk. At least two hundred boats were destroyed at one time in the year 62 [CE], even before the official inauguration. [13]

However, Eric Warmington writing in The Commerce between the Roman Empire and India, considers that:

Although Rome was the largest market for goods from the near and from the far East, the port used for landing the more precious and fragile wares in Italy was not Ostia, where the silting up of the Tiber caused danger and delay, but the safer one, Puteoli (Pozzuoli), close to fashionable Baiae, and more favoured for its proximity to the productive works of Campania [...] [14]

Naumachia

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Suetonius tells us of Claudius presenting a naumachiariis, a naval battle exhibited as entertainment [15] involving the use of condemned prisoners;

[Claudius ...] gave several splendid shows, not merely the usual ones in the customary places, but some of a new kind and some revived from ancient times, and in places where no one had ever given them before. [...] when he was on the point of letting out the water from Lake Fucinus he gave a sham sea-fight first.

Suetonius adds that when the combatants cried out: "Hail, emperor, they who are about to die salute thee," he replied, "Or not,"" and after that all of them refused to fight, maintaining that they had been pardoned. Upon this he hesitated for some time about destroying them all with fire and sword, but at last leaping from his throne and running along the edge of the lake with his ridiculous tottering gait, he induced them to fight, partly by threats and partly by promises. At this performance a Sicilian and a Rhodian fleet engaged, each numbering twelve triremes [oar powered war ships], and the signal was sounded on a horn by a silver Triton, which was raised from the middle of the lake by a mechanical device. [16]

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End Notes

Note 1: Suetonius, T., The Lives of the Caesars, V. XX.

Suetonius, Tranquillus, Caius, (1997, 2001: 36 - 37), The Lives of the Caesars: Vol. II, Loeb Classical Library No. 38, [Trans. from the Latin by J. C. Rolfe], (Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: Harvard University Press).

Note 2: Rich, Anthony, (Ed.), (1873: 45), Dictionary of Roman and Greek Antiquities, (3rd Ed.), (London: Longmans, Green, & Co.).

Note 3: Levick, Barbara, (1990, 1993: 173), Claudius, (London: Batsford).

Note 4: Levick, Barbara, (1990, 1993: 173), Claudius, (London: Batsford).

Note 5: Levick, Barbara, (1990, 1993: 173), Claudius, (London: Batsford).

Note 6: Epigraphical - inscriptions on buildings or structures.

Scramuzza, Vincent M., 'Claudius Soter Euergetes' Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, 51 (1940), 261.

Note 7: Livy, T., The History of Rome, I. XXXIII.

Note 6: John White's Latin-English Dictionary suggests its word origin came from the Sanskrit root language that is based on an ancient dialect of India. However, the word is not found in the general plural: White, John T., (1926: 432 - 3), Latin-English Dictionary, (London: Longmans, Green & Co.).

Note 8: Russell Meiggs states that the Roman navy had been using Ostia since c. 338 BCE.

Meiggs, Russell, (1973, 1997: 24), Roman Ostia, (2nd Ed.), (Oxford: Clarendon Press).

Sadly, the photographs in Meiggs book are of a very poor quality considering it was published by such an esteemed publisher as Oxford University Press.

Note 9: Cimino, Rosa Maria, (Ed.), (1994: 43 - 44), Ancient Rome and India : Commercial and Cultural Contacts between the Roman World and India, (New Delhi : [The Centre]).

Note 10: Rich, Anthony, (Ed.), (1873: 522), Dictionary of Roman and Greek Antiquities, (3rd Ed.), (London: Longmans, Green, & Co.).

Note 11: Cimino, Rosa Maria, (Ed.), (1994: 43 - 44), Ancient Rome and India : Commercial and Cultural Contacts between the Roman World and India, (New Delhi : [The Centre]).

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Note 12: Suetonius, Tranquillus, Caius, (1997, 2001: 9), The Lives of the Caesars: Vol. II, Loeb Classical Library No. 38, [Trans. from the Latin by J. C. Rolfe], (Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: Harvard University Press).

Note 13: Cimino, Rosa Maria, (Ed.), (1994: 43 - 44), Ancient Rome and India : commercial and cultural contacts between the Roman world and India, (New Delhi : [The Centre]).

Note 14: Warmington, Eric Herbert, (1928: 4), The Commerce between the Roman Empire and India, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

Note 15: Rich, Anthony, (Ed.), (1873: 441), Dictionary of Roman and Greek Antiquities, (3rd Ed.), (London: Longmans, Green, & Co.).

Note 16: Suetonius, T., The Lives of the Caesars, I. XXI.

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