An introduction to American history, European beginnings (1919) (14780121802)

Identifier: introductiontoam00atki (find matches)
Title: An introduction to American history, European beginnings
Year: 1919 (1910s)
Authors: Atkinson, Alice M. (Alice Minerva), b. 1868
Subjects:
Publisher: Boston, New York (etc.) Ginn and company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation



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great wall that Hadrian, one ofthe Roman emperors, built across the island from SolwayFirth on the west coast to the Tyne River on the east, adistance of seventy miles. This wall was built to protectthe Roman towns from the savage tribes in the north. Itwas nearly twenty feet high and more than six feet thick,with fortified gates and turrets every mile or so. A deepditch ran along the northern, or outer, side, and a smoothwide road, with an earth wall beyond it, lay on the south-ern, or inner, side. There were many well-fortified campsalong its course, garrisoned by soldiers. The Romans had a great love of pure water for drink-ing and bathing, and in order to bring it down from the 66 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN HISTORY mountains and hills into their cities they constructedenormous aqueducts. These were channels of brick orstone, sometimes built underground, but mostly after thefashion shown in the illustration on this page. Throughthese channels, extending on their lofty arches for many
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Old Roman Aqueduct at Nimes, France miles across the country, the water was carried straightover hill and valley to reservoirs outside the city. Fromthere it was sent in pipes to the houses of citizens, to thepublic fountains, and to the great public bath halls. It issaid that there were at least nine aqueducts in Rome it-self, and that each citizen had almost twice as much water THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN 67 for his daily use as he would have in one of our moderncities. The massive walls of many of these old aqueductsare still standing in countries that once belonged to Rome.There are none, however, to be found in England, thoughthere are remains of baths, showing the skillful arrange-ments made by the Romans to provide rooms with hot,cold, and tepid water. Roman amphitheaters. Another kind of building, ofwhich traces are found in every country in which theRomans lived, was the amphitheater. The amusementdearest to a Romans heart was a gladiatorial combat.In all Roman towns of any size or