Wikisource

Page:Frontinus - The stratagems, and, the aqueducts of Rome (Bennet et al 1925).djvu/429

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Aqueducts of Rome, I. 33–34

Thus by diminishing the size of the 20-pipe by which they constantly deliver, and enlarging the 100- and 120-pipes, by which they always receive, they steal in case of the 100-pipe 27 quinariae, and in case of the 120-pipe 86 quinariae.[1] While this is proved by computation, it is also obvious from the facts. For from the 20-pipe, which Caesar rates[2] at 16 quinariae, they do not deliver more than 13; and it is equally certain that from the 100-pipe and the 120-pipe, which they have expanded, they deliver only up to a limited amount, since Caesar, as his records show, has made delivery according to his grant,[3] when out of each 100-pipe he furnishes 81 1/2 quinariae, and similarly out of a 120-pipe, 98.

In all there are 25 ajutages. They all conform to their computed and recorded capacities, barring these four which the water-men have altered. But everything embraced under the head of mensuration ought to be fixed, unchanged, and constant. For onlv so will any special computation accord with general principles. Just as a sextarius,[4] for example, has a regular ratio to a cyathus,[5] and

  1. ↑ Frontinus's reckoning is as follows: The capacity of a 20-pipe is 16 7/24 quinariae (cf. 46); the capacity of the 100-pipe is 81 65/144 quinariae (cf. 62) ; the capacity of five 20-pipes, therefore, practically equals that of one 100-pipe. Now, if the gain resulting from selling by short measure as 3 7/24 quinariae in one 20-pipe, it will have been 16 11/24 quinariae in five 20-pipes (or one 100-pipe). In the same way, since the capacity of the 120-pipe is 97 3/4 quinariae (cf. 63), it is equal to six 20-pipes, and the gain in this case will have been 19 3/4 quinariae. But by the increase of the pipes through which they receive water (cf. 32). the gain was 19 13/24 quinariae in the case of the 100-pipe, and 66 1/6 quinariae in case of the 120-pipe; so that by adding the gains made at both ends of the bargain, we arrive at an aggregate gain of 27 quinariae in case of the 100-pipe, and of 85 11/12, practically 86, quinariae in case of the 120-pipe.
  2. ↑ Cf. 31.
  3. ↑ Literally: "stops distributing, as though the ajutage had run dry." Whoever wished to draw water for private uses had to seek for a grant and bring to the water-commissioner a writing from the sovereign (cf. 103, 105). Now, the records show that Caesar's grants from a 100-pipe amounted only to 81 quinariae, and from a 120-pipe to only 98 quinariae, leaving a surplus to be accounted for.
  4. ↑ The Roman pint.
  5. ↑ About a gill.
375
Retrieved from "https://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Page:Frontinus_-_The_stratagems,_and,_the_aqueducts_of_Rome_(Bennet_et_al_1925).djvu/429&oldid=11373976"