"
(Middleton).

From the medical point of view, these great bathing institutions were
capable of being used for the treatment of various diseases, and for
physical culture. No doubt, they were extensively employed for these
purposes and with good results, but their legitimate use became
increasingly limited, and abuse of them was a prime factor in promoting
national decay. To show to what an extent luxurious bathing was carried
in some instances, it is interesting to read that baths were taken
sometimes in warm perfumes, in saffron oil, and that the voluptuous
Poppaea soothed her skin in baths of milk drawn from a herd of 500
she-asses.

FOOTNOTES:

[41] Od. viii, 249.

CHAPTER XIII.

SANITATION.

Water-supply--Its extent--The Aqueducts--Distribution in
city--Drainage--Disposal of the Dead--Cremation and
Burial--Catacombs--Public Health Regulations.

THE WATER-SUPPLY.

In ancient Greece, the cities were supplied with water from springs over
which beautiful fountains were erected. The Greek aqueducts were not on
the same grand scale as the Roman, but were usually rectangular channels
cut in the rock, or made of pipes or masonry. Great care was taken in
the supervision of these public works.

The first Roman aqueduct, according to Frontinus, dates from 312 B.C.

Pliny wrote of the Claudian aqueduct: "But if anyone will carefully
calculate the quantity of the public supply of water, for baths,
reservoirs, houses, trenches, gardens and suburban villas, and, along
the distance which it traverses, the arches built, the mountains
perforated, the valleys levelled, he will confess that there never was
anything more wonderful in the whole world."

Frontinus, who was controller of the aqueducts in the time of Nerva and
of Trajan, describes nine aqueducts, of which four belonged to the days
of the Republic, and five to the reigns of Augustus and Claudius.

"The total water-supply of Rome has been estimated at 332,306,624
gallons a day, or, taking the population at a million, 332 gallons a
head. Forty gallons a day is now considered sufficient."[42]

The ancient Aqua Virgo at the present day supplies the magnificent
Fontana di Trevi, and the glorious fountains in the Piazzo di Spagna and
the Piazzo Navona.

The Romans not only provided great aqueducts for the Imperial City, but
also built them throughout various parts of the Empire. In Rome, the
aqueducts were built to supply both the low