Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Cloaca

Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary, and Greek Lexicon (Rich, 1849)

CLOA'CA (ὑπόνομος). A large subterranean canal, constructed of masonry or brickwork, for the purpose of carrying off the rain waters from the streets of a town, and the impurities from private houses, which were discharged through it into some neighbouring river, thus answering to our sewer and drain. (Liv. i. 38. Cic. Caecin. 13. Hor. Sat. ii. 3. 242. Strabo, v. 8. p. 197. ed. Siebenk.) The illustration (Cloaca/1.1) represents a street view in Pompeii, with the embouchures of two drains under the pavement, and shows the manner in which the rain waters entered them.

2. Cloaca Maxima. A main sewer, which received the contents of several tributary branches, and conducted them in one channel to the river. But the name is also specially given to the great sewer of Rome, which was made by the elder Tarquin for the purpose of draining off the stagnant waters of the Velabra, and low lands between the Palatine and Capitoline hills, in order to provide an area for laying out the race-course, or Circus Maximus, and the Forum. A considerable portion of this great work is still in existence, after a lapse of more than 2000 years. It consists of three concentric arches of masonry, put together without cement, and in the style called Etruscan, as shown by the annexed elevation (Cloaca/2.1), which represents the embouchure where it opens upon the Tiber, near the Sublician bridge, and part of the adjacent wall, which formed the substruction of the quay termed pulchrum littus. The smallest, or innermost arch, is between 13 and 14 feet in diameter; each of the blocks composing the arch is 5 feet 10 inches wide, and rather more than 3 feet 3 inches high; the whole being composed of the dark volcanic stone (tufa Litoide. Brocchi, Suolo di Roma.), which forms the basis of the Capitoline hill, and was the common building material during the periods ascribed to the early kings. A design showing the construction of the underground part is exhibited at p. 41. s. ANTERIDES. Plin. H. N. xxxvi. 24. 3. Dionys. iii. 67.

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  Cloaca/1.1
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  Cloaca/2.1