Roman Sewer Systems

The sewer system’s cavernous tunnels below the streets of Ancient Rome were built around 600 BCE of finely carved stones. Such structures then became the norm in many cities throughout the Roman world. These sewers were not to sanitize the city but to drain water that pooled on the uneven streets and from low-lying areas when rivers like the Tiber or the Nile flooded. The water they drained ran right back into the drinking supply.

In “The Guest,” a story in The Deadliest Deceptions, the stink of the Alexandrian sewer burned Miriam’s nose:

Groaning, rolling onto my side, I opened my reluctant lids and dragged my senses back to life. And that’s when the details of my situation trickled back to me. I was lying in the alley next to our branch of the Bank of Gabinius, the stink of the sewer burning my nose.

No wonder! The sewers were not constructed to remove vomit, urine, feces, garbage, rotting vegetables, animal skins and guts, or other refuse from the various shops that lined the sidewalks. We moderns think of urban sewers as the means to remove such filth—and of course, to flush away human waste that goes down our toilets. The Roman sense of cleanliness was quite different from ours.

To find out how Miriam came to lay in that alley, the beginning of a gruesome attempt at murder, click here.