WATER SOURCES AND AGRICULTURE
AN ANCIENT ROMAN AQUEDUCT
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One of the most impressive feats the Romans had obtained were the aqueducts. There were a lot of Romans, so they needed lots of water for drinking, irrigation, and even public baths. As the Roman Empires grew, they got too big to be supplied water by wells or nearby streams or lakes, so the Romans built a better and more efficient way to supply water to the empires. These were the Roman aqueducts. The aqueducts are defined to be channels for conveying fluids in a restricted sense. They would build pipes underground, or on rare occasions, above ground. These pipes would supply water. Aqueducts were structures used to conduct a water stream across a hollow or valley. The whole project was massive. The Romans would have to mine lead in Spain in order to construct the pipes, build roads to transport the lead, make the pipes, transport the pipes, build the trench or arches to put the pipe in, and finally, do the surveying to make sure the piping was positioned with just the right amount of an angle or drop to keep the water flowing safely. Pretty good for Ancient Rome.
The Romans had always thrived with agriculture ever since they were established. The area in which Romans reside was very inviting to settlers because of the rich land. The majority of Romans who lived in the countryside of Rome were farmers by trade. The most common crop harvested by Romans was wheat, which would later be made into other grain-based foods such as bread and cake. The wheat was plowed and harvested with a tool called an ard plow, which is a heavy stick used to that is pulled across the fields using an ox. In addition to using tools, the Romans used slaves to get work done in the fields, because there were many slaves at this point in time in Rome, and were cheap, and sometimes free to use in Rome. Years and years after growing wheat, the Romans found out about olives and grapes, and would plant them regularly in order to supply things such as wine and oil for baking and lamp lighting. The Romans were incredibly successful in the agriculture trade and farms.
