Floods of the Tiber in Ancient Rome (Ancient Society and History) PDF
Preview Floods of the Tiber in Ancient Rome (Ancient Society and History)
Floods of the Tiber in Ancient Rome This page intentionally left blank Ancient Society and History Floods of the Tiber G R E G O R Y S. A L D R E T E in Ancient Rome The Johns Hopkins University Press Baltimore © 2006 The Johns Hopkins University Press All rights reserved. Published 2006 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The Johns Hopkins University Press 2715 North Charles Street Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363 www.press.jhu.edu Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Aldrete, Gregory S. Floods of the Tiber in ancient Rome /Gregory S. Aldrete. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8018-8405-5 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Floods—Italy—Rome—History. 2. Floods—Italy—Tiber River— History. 3. Rome (Italy)—History—To 476. 4. Tiber River (Italy)— History. I. Title DG69.A43 2006 937(cid:1).6—dc22 2006004140 A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. To Alicia Amid all the causes of the destruction of human property, it seems to me that rivers on account of their excessive and violent inundations hold the foremost place.... against the irreparable inundation caused by swollen and proud rivers no resource of human foresight can avail; for in a succession of raging and seething waves, gnawing and tearing away the high banks, growing turbid with the earth from the ploughed fields, destroying the houses therein and uprooting the tall trees, it carries these as its prey down to the sea which is its lair, bearing along with it men, trees, animals, houses, and lands, sweeping away every dike and every kind of barrier, bearing with it the light things, and devastating and destroying those of weight, creating big landslips out of small fissures, filling up with its floods the low valleys, and rushing headlong with insistent and inexorable mass of waters. What a need there is of flight for whoso is near! O how many cities, how many lands, castles, villas and houses has it consumed! Leonardo da Vinci, The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, ed. and trans. Edward MacCurdy, 652 Contents List of Figures and Tables xiii Acknowledgments xvii Introduction: Floods and History 1 One Floods in Ancient Rome: Sources and Topography 10 Floods and the Foundation of Rome 10 Primary Source Descriptions of Floods in Ancient Rome 13 Geographic Extent of Floods Based on Primary Sources 33 The Topography of Rome and Floods 39 Maps of Hypothetical Floods of Different Magnitudes 45 Two Characteristics of Floods 51 Flood Types and Basic Hydrology 51 Hydrology of the Tiber and the Tiber Drainage Basin 54 Duration of Floods at Rome 61 Seasonality of Floods at Rome 66 Frequency of Floods at Rome 71 Magnitude of Floods at Rome 81 Conclusion 89 ix
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