Nimes - the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire

The story of Nimes... how a little village rode the wave of success of the Roman Empire... but couldn't get off the hirdy-girdy when cycles started to change. Nimes  was an early settlement of Rome in its TransAlpine colony. Roman culture became entranced by water... a city's reputation was determined by the way it organised and used its water... citizens portrayed their status by displays involving water. Every spare afternoon was spent in public baths immersed in water... steaming yourself in water vapour... scraping and oiling your skin with the use of water.

Nimes started as a small village... and had a spring more than adequate for its needs. But Nimes aspired to be a Roman city... and for that, it needed water in abundance. Large and reliable springs were discovered in mountains 50 klms away. Rome gave its support... hence started construction of one of the great aqueducts.

Some statistics from the Nimes aqueducts catch the eye... over the 50 klm journey, the drop in water level was only 12.5 metres... not much gradient to play with... the aqueduct traversed 17 bridges... but 90% of its length was underground and in tunnels... it took 24-30 hours for water to travel the 50 klms... and between 200-400 litres reached Nimes each second... that is 35,000 cubic metres of water each day. The aqueduct took 15 years to build... but it gave prestige to Nimes and guaranteed continued investment from Rome.

The city grew... and attracted all the trappings of a powerful centre... the amphitheatre... temples... extensive gardens... city walls... and private dwellings as lavish as the best that Rome could offer. It had 100 years of living the life of luxury.

Then, the Empire started to recede. Cause and effect are difficult to isolate... but speculate on the relationship between the aqueduct and Nimes' prosperity. Carrying such large volumes of water such large distances needed vigilant maintenance. For a variety of reasons, Nimes took its eye off the ball... water reaching the city became less reliable and reduced in volume. Fashions changed and bathing and cleanliness became less of an obsession. The climate became colder... plagues increased in frequency... Rome pulled out of Nimes... Gallic tribes again ruled Nimes.

The aqueduct was abandoned... pillaging of rock began. By the middle ages, one of the prolific pillagers of stone was the church... in their quest to build new cathedrals.

With the passing of years, it is easy to forget just how clever were the engineers, stonemasons and architects that built the aqueducts. They make our modern-day infrastructure builds look unambitious.