History of Sanitation

32 HISTORY OF SANITATION The Cloaca Maxima. From a Recent Photograph Cloaca Maxima, which was constructed during the period of the Kings, from 735 to 510 b. c., was intended to drain the marshy hollow between the Capitoline, Palatine and Esqui- line hills, and afterwards, by a process of development, be- came part of a combined sewage system for the city. That the engineers who designed the sewerage system of Rome had a clear conception of the service expected of such drains, is evidenced by the manner in which the system was proportioned. The pipes gradually enlarged from their extremities in the buildings through all the ramifica- tions of the system until they finally reached the outlet at a bulkhead or quay-wall in the Tiber. It is stated by early writers that so complete was this system of sewers that every street in the ancient city was drained by a branch into the Tiber. The Cloaca Maxima was one of the largest and most celebrated of the ancient sewers. The solidity of this struc- ture can be judged by the fact that it has been in