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A Roman Engineer's Tales*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 June 2011

Serafina Cuomo
Serafina Cuomo*
Affiliation:
Birkbeck College, London
*
[email protected]
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Abstract

This article is an exercise in the historiography of ancient technical artefacts, beginning from the examination of a second-century a.d. cippus inscribed with the story of a Roman engineer, Nonius Datus, who designed and supervised the construction of an aqueduct in Algeria. The first section looks at the aqueduct from the point of view of the history of engineering. The second traces the history of the inscription as a document in the debate about imperialism and technology. In the third section, the focus is on what Datus himself was trying to communicate. The conclusion makes a case for considering ancient technical artefacts from multiple perspectives.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 101 , November 2011 , pp. 143 - 165
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2011. Published by The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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Footnotes

*

I would like to thank the Editor of JRS and three anonymous readers, as well as Jen Baird, Christy Constantakopoulou, Catharine Edwards, John Henderson, Daryn Lehoux, Geoffrey Lloyd, Simon Schaffer, and seminar audiences at Cambridge, Frankfurt, London, and Manchester.

References

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3 Benabou, op. cit. (n. 2), 109, 422–3, 557, 563 (quotation). Cf. J. Gascou, La Politique municipale de l'empire romain en Afrique proconsulaire de Trajan à Septime Sévère (1972), especially 152–6, 194–5; F. Rakob and S. Storz, ‘Die Principia des römischen Legionslagers in Lambaesis’, Mitteilungen des deutschen archäologischen Instituts. Römische Abteilung 81 (1974), 253–80; M. Janon, ‘Lambaesis: ein Überblick’, Antike Welt 8.2 (1977), 3–20; N. Benseddik, ‘Lambaesis (Lambèse). Un camp, un sanctuaire. Mais où était la ville?’, in M. Khanoussi (ed.), L'Afrique du Nord antique et médiévale (2003), 165–79. Photo in A. Laronde, L'Afrique antique. Histoire et monuments (2001), 140–1.

4 Shaw, B. D., ‘Soldiers and society: the army in Numidia’, in idem, Rulers, Nomads, and Christians in Roman North Africa (1995, 1st edn 1983), 149Google Scholar: Mithraeum unique in North Africa, but cf. Heurgon, J., ‘L'œuvre archéologique française en Algérie’, Bulletin de l'Association Guillaume Budé 15 (1956), 17Google Scholar.

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8 A hexagonal socket was also found. Mommsen, Th., ‘Tunnelbau in Saldae (Bougie) unter Antoninus Pius’, Archäologische Zeitung 28 (1871), 5Google Scholar: socket may have been triangular. The finds from Lambaesis include hexagonal bases: Lugand, R., ‘Inventaire des objets conservés au Musée de Lambèse’, Recueil des notices et mémoires de la société archéologique du Département de Constantine 58 (1927), 119–98Google Scholar; and hexagonal cippi: e.g. CIL VIII.2783, 2786, 2914, 4008 (photos in Lassère, J.-M., ‘Recherches sur la chronologie des épitaphes paiennes de l'Africa’, Antiquités africaines 7 (1973)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, fig. 34), mostly funerary monuments of soldiers from the Third Legion Augusta. Cf. also Le Bohec, op. cit. (n. 2), 87, 89.

9 I use the text in CIL VIII.2728 (ed. G. Wilmanns (1881), 323) = ILS 5795, with the corrections of CIL VIII.18122 (supplement part II, eds R. Cagnat and J. Schmidt, with the commentaries of J. Schmidt and H. Dessau (1894)). Translations are mine unless otherwise indicated. The stele is 1.75 m high, each of the sides 0.45 m long. CIL VIII.18122 reports that, ‘The images of Patientia and Spes are decently attired, but Virtus has the right breast naked, in the guise of an Amazon, and a band on her arm’. On the history of CIL VIII, Irmscher, J., ‘Genesi del CIL VIII: Inscriptiones Africae Latinae’, in Mastino, A. (ed.), L'Africa romana 4 (1987), 323–9Google Scholar.

10 Laporte, J.-P., ‘Notes sur l'aqueduc de Saldae (Bougie)’, in Khanoussi, M., Ruggeri, P. and Vismara, C. (eds), L'Africa romana 11 (1996), 747Google Scholar: the phrasing indicates that, Nonius being a veteran, the legionary legate had no power to order him to go to Saldae.

11 Wilmanns (CIL, cit., 323 n. 6), following Mommsen, op. cit. (n. 8), 7–8, took this to mean ‘mercenaries’, as in Polybius 2.22. Grewe, K., Licht am Ende des Tunnels: Planung und Trassierung im antiken Tunnelbau (1998), 136Google Scholar translates ‘Soldaten aus gallischen Hilfstruppen’, 138; Laporte, op. cit. (n. 10), 750–1 and notes: name derives from their characteristic weapon, the gaesum (cudgel).

12 The number of modii is centred, almost by way of conclusion, and the lettering below this line is more crowded than above. It is possible that the remaining part of the text was added later.

13 Shaw, B. D., ‘The noblest monuments and the smallest things: wells, walls and aqueducts in the making of Roman Africa’, in Environment and Society in Roman North Africa: Studies in History and Archaeology (1995, 1st edn 1991), 69–70Google Scholar; Laporte, op. cit. (n. 10), 739–52; on the people involved see Le Bohec, op. cit. (n. 2), 381–3; Thomasson, B. E., Fasti africani. Senatorische und ritterliche Amtsträger in den römischen Provinzen Nordafrikas von Augustus bis Diokletian (1996)Google Scholar.

14 Petronius Celer was procurator Augusti in a.d. 137: AE 1976, 738, from Cherchell (Caesarea); Laporte, op. cit. (n. 10), 739.

15 CIL II.4240, no date, from Tarragona: Porcius Vetustinus perhaps a flamen.

16 Crispinus in CIL VIII.2542 (a.d. 147); 2652 (a.d. 148); 2693 (between a.d. 147 and 149); 18214; 18234; Wilmanns in CIL, cit., 323 n. 10.

17 CIL III.5211–5216, all from Celeia in Noricum: T. Varius Clemens was procurator Augusti for Mauretania Caesarensis. The editor infers a date of a.d. 152. Laporte, op. cit. (n. 10), 746, suggests a.d. 153. CIL VIII.2543, dated to a.d. 152, refers to Etruscus, as do the virtually identical ILAlg I.3875 and 3876, which mention repairs to a road, rebuilding bridges and draining marshes. See also Glay, M. Le and Tourrenc, S., ‘Nouvelles inscriptions de Timgad sur des légats de la troisième légion Auguste’, Antiquités africaines 21 (1985), 116–18Google Scholar; Jouffroy, H., La Construction publique en Italie (1986), 204, 234Google Scholar; Christol, M. and Magioncalda, A., Studi sui procuratori delle due Mauretanie (1989)Google Scholar.

18 CIL VIII.8931, 8933, 20683. Cf. S. Gsell, Atlas archéologique de l'Algérie (1902/11) s.v. Bougie; J.-M. Lassère, Ubique populus. Peuplement et mouvements de population dans l'Afrique romaine de la chute de Carthage à la fin de la dynastie des Sévères (146 a.C.–235 p.C.) (1977), 381.

19 Benabou, op. cit. (n. 2), 55–6, 142, 404, 407; MacKendrick, op. cit. (n. 5), 179.

20 Wilmanns (CIL, cit., 323 n. 7): earth excavated for the tunnel. Laporte, op. cit. (n. 10), 752: an offering of grain to the divinities.

21 e.g. Camp, L. Sprague de, The Ancient Engineers (1963), 195–6Google Scholar; Adam, J.-P., ‘Groma et chorobate’, Mélanges de l'Ecole Française de Rome 94 (1982), 1003–29CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Grewe, , op. cit. (n. 11), 135–9 and ‘Tunnels and canals’, in Oleson, J. P. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Engineering and Technology in the Classical World (2008), 329–33Google Scholar; Landels, J. G., Engineering in the Ancient World (2000 2), 52–3Google Scholar; Lewis, M. J. T., Surveying Instruments of Greece and Rome (2001), ch. 10CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Nini, R., ‘L'acquedotto Formina di Narni. Il traforo di Monte Ippolito: sistemi di scavo antichi e moderne ricostruzioni’, In binos actus lumina. Rivista di studi e ricerche sull'idraulica storica 1 (2002), 79–90Google Scholar.

22 The honour probably goes to the sixth-century b.c. tunnel at Samos: e.g. Kienast, H. J., Die Wasserleitung des Eupalinos auf Samos (1995)Google Scholar; Grewe, op. cit. (n. 11).

23 Grewe, op. cit. (n. 11), 7, 136.

24 Zanovello, P., ‘Caratteristiche tecniche degli acquedotti romani nelle fonti epigrafiche’, in Khanoussi, M., Ruggeri, P. and Vismara, C. (eds), L'Africa romana 11 (1996), 674–5Google Scholar. Anonymous, ‘Aqueduc de Bougie’, Revue Africaine 19 (1875), 336Google Scholar mentions masonry within the tunnel.

25 Procedure explained in Frontinus, De arte mensoria 14.5–11, in Campbell, B. (ed.), The Writings of the Roman Land Surveyors. Introduction, Text, Translation and Commentary (2000)Google Scholar; similarly Hero, Dioptra 6. A mention of depalatio in a Flavian boundary inscription from Rome: CIL VI.1268; depalatum in an inscription from Capena, in Latium: CIL XI.3932. More references in Lewis, op. cit. (n. 21).

26 Occurrences of rigor in the Corpus Agrimensorum too numerous to mention, but see Campbell's useful index, op. cit. (n. 25).

27 Hero, Dioptra 15: ὅροϛ διορύξαι ἐπ᾿ εὐθείας τῶν στομάτων τοῦ ὀρύματος ἐν τῷ ὄρει δοθέντων. On Hero, see Tybjerg, K., ‘Wonder-making and philosophical wonder in Hero of Alexandria’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 34 (2003), 443–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Argoud, G. and Guillaumin, J.-Y. (eds), Autour de la dioptre d'Héron d'Alexandrie (2000)Google Scholar; the Dioptra in partial English translation in Lewis, op. cit. (n. 21), 259–86; on the tunnel problem see Burns, A., ‘The tunnel of Eupalinus and the tunnel problem of Hero of Alexandria’, Isis 62 (1971), 172–85Google Scholar.

28 Hero, Dioptra 15: καὶ παραφέρω τὴν διόπτραν ἐπὶ τῆϛ ΚΛ - εὐθείαϛ διατηρῶν τὸν κανόνα ἀεὶ ἀποβλέποντα σημείῳ τινὶ τῶν ἐπὶ τῆϛ ΚΛ, ἄχριϛ ἂν διὰ τῆϛ πρὸϛ ὀρθᾶϛ θέσεωϛ τοῦ κανόνοϛ φανῇ τὸ Δ σημεῖον.

29 See Grewe, op. cit. (n. 11), 23.

30 Hero, Dioptra 15: διορύξομεν οὖν ἀπὸ μὲν τοῦ Β ποιοῦντεϛ τὸ ὄρυγμα ἐπ᾿ εὐθείαϛ τῆϛ ΒΞ, ἀπὸ δὲ τοῦ Δ ἐπ᾿ εὐθείαϛ τῆϛ ΔΠ. γίνεται δὲ λοιπὸν τὸ ὄρυγμα κανόνοϛ παρατιθεμένου ἐπὶ τῆϛ εὑρημένηϛ εὐθείαϛ τῆϛ ΞΒ, ἤτοι ἐπὶ τῆϛ ΠΔ, ἢ καὶ ἐπ᾿ἀμφότερα τὰ μέρη. γινομένου τοῦ ὀρύγματοϛ οὕτωϛ ὑπαντήσουσιν ἀλλήλοιϛ οἱ ἐργαζόμενοι.

31 Grewe, op. cit. (n. 11), 23–4.

32 See Guillaumin, J.-Y., ‘La signification des termes contemplatio et observatio chez Balbus et l'influence héronienne sur le traité’, in Guillaumin, J.-Y. (ed.), Mathématiques dans l'antiquité (1992), 205–14Google Scholar.

33 Described by Vitruvius 8.1–3. Grewe, op. cit. (n. 11), 28: Datus used a chorobates. See also Adam, op. cit. (n. 21), 1024–5; Lewis, op. cit. (n. 21), ch. 10.

34 Leveau, Ph., ‘Conduire l'eau et la contrôler: l'ingénierie des aqueducs romains’, in Molin, M. (ed.), Archéologie et histoire des techniques du monde romain (2008), 145Google Scholar and ‘Research on Roman aqueducts in the past ten years’, in Hodge, A. T. (ed.), Future Currents in Aqueduct Studies (1991), 155Google Scholar, respectively. See also Leveau, Ph., ‘Saldae’, in Die Wasserversorgung antiker Städte, III (1988), 218Google Scholar.

35 Landels, op. cit. (n. 21), 52–3.

36 Laporte, op. cit. (n. 10), 712–49. Cf. also MacKendrick, op. cit. (n. 5), 207, 247–8.

37 The most recent study of the aqueduct I have been able to see is Laporte, op. cit. (n. 10). I have been unable to consult S. Hachi, D. Aïssani, H. Djermoune, J. P. Laporte, K. Righi et al., Sur l'aqueduc antique de Saldae: Source (de Toudja), tracé, techniques utilisées, creusement du tunnel, Projet de Recherche, C.N.R.P.A.H. Alger, 2006, as seen at http://www.toudja.org; (accessed 22/3/2011).

38 Lewis, op. cit. (n. 21), 207.

39 Laporte, op. cit. (n. 10), 726, 744.

40 Gsell, op. cit. (n. 18) s.v. Bougie, 1, item 5, mentions CIL VIII.8984; Benabou, op. cit. (n. 2), 274.

41 M. Mélix [Mélis], ‘Note sur les vestiges de l'aqueduc romain venant de Toudja à Bougie’, Recueil des notices et mémoires de la société archéologique du Département de Constantine 9 (1865), 23–30; E. Dewulf, ‘Note sur l'aqueduc de Bougie’, Recueil des notices et mémoires de la société archéologique du Département de Constantine 10 (1866), 316–19; Anonymous, op. cit. (n. 24); E. Mercier, ‘Bougie’, Recueil des notices et mémoires de la société archéologique du Département de Constantine 30 (1895–6), 316–17; Laporte, op. cit. (n. 10), 718, 721–2, see table III for photo.

42 Birebent, J., Aquae romanae: recherches d'hydraulique romaine dans l'est algérien (1962), 467–72Google Scholar; see Wilson, A., ‘Deliveries extra urbem: aqueducts and the countryside’, Journal of Roman Archaeology 12 (1999), 314–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

43 Leveau, Ph. and Paillet, J.-L., L'Alimentation en eau de Caesarea de Maurétanie et l'aqueduc de Cherchell (1976), 153Google Scholar.

44 Hill, D., A History of Engineering in Classical and Medieval Times (1984), xiiiGoogle Scholar, reissued in 1996.

45 Sprague De Camp, op. cit. (n. 21), 13 and ch. 1 in general, 195–6.

46 Ortloff, C. R., Water Engineering in the Ancient World (2009), 5–6Google Scholar: a comparative analysis of water supply systems across several ancient societies. Cf. also, e.g., Landels, op. cit. (n. 21), 7.

47 cf. Grewe, op. cit. (n. 11). Popular sites include ‘The Hurl’ at http://www.thehurl.org (accessed 2/8/2010), ‘a worldwide community of catapult enthusiasts pursuing the art, history, science and engineering of hurling!’; or http://www.surveyhistory.org (accessed 2/8/2010), devoted to the history of surveying. See, e.g., Outram, A. K., ‘Introduction to experimental archaeology’, World Archaeology 40 (2008), 1–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

48 See, e.g., DeLaine, J., ‘Recent research on Roman baths’, Journal of Roman Archaeology 1 (1988), 22–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Schalles, H.-J., ‘Die Herbergsthermen in der Colonia Ulpia Traiana bei Xanten – ein Versuchsmodell römischer Bädertechnik’, in DeLaine, J. and Johnston, D. E. (eds), Roman Baths and Bathing (1999), 199–205Google Scholar; Yegül, F. and Couch, T., ‘Building a Roman bath for the cameras’, Journal of Roman Archaeology 16 (2003), 153–77CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

49 See, e.g., Reynolds, P. J., ‘The nature of experiment in archaeology’, in Harding, A. F. (ed.), Experiment and Design: Archaeological Studies in Honour of John Coles (1999), 156–62Google Scholar.

50 Tacitus, Agricola 21; Frontinus, De aquis 16; cf. Pliny the Elder 36.16.75.

51 Shabbat 33b, cited in Hadas-Lebel, M., Jerusalem Against Rome (2006), 380Google Scholar (English trans. by Fréchet, R. of Jérusalem contre Rome (1990)), with discussion 380–7Google Scholar; cf. Traina, G., ‘I romani, maestri di tecnica’, in Cascio, E. Lo (ed.), Innovazione tecnica e progresso economico nel mondo romano (2006), 253–69Google Scholar. Life of Brian (dir. Terry Jones) came out in 1979.

52 Gibbon, E., The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776)Google Scholar, ch. II (74 ed. D. Womersley (1995)).

53 Frontinus, De aquis 1; cf. Féraud, L.(-C.), ‘Histoire des villes de la province de Constantine. Bougie’, Recueil des notices et mémoires de la société archéologique du Département de Constantine 13 (1869), 113Google Scholar.

54 Bouchenaki in Leveau and Paillet, op. cit. (n. 43), 6. See also, e.g., Shaw, op. cit. (n. 13), 72–3; A. T. Hodge, Roman Aqueducts and Water Supply (20022), 5–11, 48–9.

55 Leveau and Paillet, op. cit. (n. 43), 181, cf. also 8, 44, 63, 98–9, 148–9, qualified in Leveau, op. cit. (n. 34, 1991), 150, 158–9. More strongly Schwartz, H., ‘Patterns of public and private water-supply in North Africa’, in Humphrey, J. H. (ed.), Excavations at Carthage 1977 (1981), 54Google Scholar.

56 Féraud, op. cit. (n. 53), 111: cisterns in Bougie/Saldae; Leveau and Paillet, op. cit. (n. 43), 17–19; Fentress, E. W. B., ‘Forever Berber?’ Opus 2 (1983), 161–75Google Scholar; Shaw, B. D., ‘Water and society in the ancient Maghrib: technology, property and development’, in idem, Environment and Society in Roman North Africa: Studies in History and Archaeology (1995, 1st edn 1984), 131–5, 142–51Google Scholar (with further references) and op. cit. (n. 13), 76–80, 82–5; Mattingly, D. J. and Hitchner, R. B., ‘Roman Africa: an archaeological review’, JRS 85 (1995), 165–213Google Scholar; Mattingly, D., ‘From one colonialism to another: imperialism and the Maghreb’, in Webster, J. and Cooper, N. (eds), Roman Imperialism: Post-Colonial Perspectives (1996), 49–69Google Scholar; Benseddik, N., ‘L'armée française en Algérie: “Parfois détruire, souvent construire”’, in Khanoussi, M., Ruggeri, P. and Vismara, C. (eds), L'Africa romana 13 (2000), 776Google Scholar; Casagrande, M., Gli impianti di adduzione idrica romani in Byzacena e in Zeugitana (2008)Google Scholar, ch. 2. Agennius Urbicus, De controversiis agrorum 16–21 (Campbell) describes the contrast between irrigation in Italy and Africa, where people build dams to keep the water, see Peyras, J., ‘Les campagnes de l'Afrique du Nord antique d'après les anciens gromatici’, in Desanges, J. (ed.), Histoire et archéologie de l'Afrique du Nord. Actes du IIIe colloque international (1986), 257–72Google Scholar. Heurgon, op. cit. (n. 4), 23, appropriates these technologies to the Romans.

57 Shaw, op. cit. (n. 56, 1984), 123. See also MacMullen, R., ‘Roman imperial building in the provinces’, Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 64 (1959), 207–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

58 Benabou, op. cit. (n. 2), 144, with some earlier bibliography at n. 126. Contra Laporte, op. cit. (n. 10), 747–8.

59 Incentivizing the workforce through competition was a well-known trick in antiquity: cf. Diodorus 14.41.2–43.4 (Dionysius of Syracuse); Josephus, De bello judaico 5.502–9 (Titus); further examples in MacMullen, op. cit. (n. 57), 213.

60 Leveau, op. cit. (n. 34, 1991), 158–9.

61 Wilson, A., ‘Water supply in ancient Carthage’, in Peña, J. T.et al., Carthage Papers. The Early Colony's Economy, Water Supply, a Public Bath, and the Mobilization of State Olive Oil (1998), 81, 90–3Google Scholar (contra Shaw, Wilson doubts that major cities in North Africa could exist without aqueducts), and op. cit. (n. 42), 319–23, with an appendix by Leveau, and ‘Hydraulic engineering and water supply’, in Oleson, J. P. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Engineering and Technology in the Classical World (2008), 308Google Scholar, respectively.

62 On economic growth see, e.g., Hopkins, K., ‘Taxes and trade in the Roman Empire’, JRS 70 (1980), 101–25Google Scholar and ‘Rome, taxes, rents and trade’, in Scheidel, W. and Reden, S. von (eds), The Ancient Economy (2002, 1st edn 1995), 190–230Google Scholar; Wilson, A., ‘Machines, power and the ancient economy’, JRS 92 (2002), 1–32Google Scholar; Hitchner, R. B., ‘“The advantages of wealth and luxury”. The case for economic growth in the Roman Empire’, in Manning, J. G. and Morris, I. (eds), The Ancient Economy. Evidence and Models (2005), 207–22Google Scholar. On the difficulty of defining economic growth see, e.g., Millett, P., ‘Productive to some purpose? The problem of ancient economic growth’, in Mattingly, D. J. and Salmon, J. (eds), Economies Beyond Agriculture in the Classical World (2001), 17–48Google Scholar; R. P. Saller, ‘Framing the debate over growth in the ancient economy’, in Manning and Morris, op. cit., 223–38, especially 228–32, 236 on standards of living; in general Foxhall, L., Olive Cultivation in Ancient Greece: Seeking the Ancient Economy (2007)Google Scholar.

63 For the reception history of the cippus I have relied extensively on Dondin-Payre, M., ‘L'utilisation symbolique des monuments archéologiques d'Algérie: l'arc de Caracalla à Cuicul; le cippe de Nonius Datus’, in Khanoussi, M., Ruggeri, P. and Vismara, C. (eds), L'Africa romana 12 (1998), 1067–99Google Scholar and op. cit. (n. 6, 2000) and Benseddik, op. cit. (n. 56). Apart from a brief mention in Grewe, op. cit. (n. 11), 138, the after-life of the cippus does not seem well-known outside the Francophone world. Hence, I think it is a good idea to sketch it out here, supplementing Dondin-Payre and Benseddik with my own remarks and observations.

64 Copies in the Museo della Civiltà Romana in Rome, the Naval Museum in Mainz, and the Museum in Algiers: Dondin-Payre, op. cit. (n. 63), 1078 n. 30; cf. Pferdehirt, B., Das Museum für antike Schiffahrt (1995), 69–71Google Scholar.

65 Dondin-Payre, op. cit. (n. 6, 1991) and (n. 6, 2000) 731–2; Benseddik, op. cit. (n. 56), 790–1. They give different assessments of the rôle played by Colonel Carbuccia: Benseddik calls his arrival ‘une malédiction pour Lambaesis’ (791).

66 Cagnat, op. cit. (n. 7); Heurgon, op. cit. (n. 4), 8.

67 Heurgon, op. cit. (n. 4); Février, P. A., Approches du Maghreb romain (1989)Google Scholar, I, ch. 1; Dondin-Payre, op. cit. (n. 6, 1991); Laporte, op. cit. (n. 10), 713.

68 Poulle, A., ‘Nouvelles inscriptions de Lambèse et de Thimgad’, Recueil des notices et mémoires de la société archéologique du Département de Constantine 23 (1884), 177–256Google Scholar; Benseddik, op. cit. (n. 56); Dondin-Payre, op. cit. (n. 6, 2000), 742–3.

69 Different attitudes in Mélix, op. cit. (n. 41); Gsell, S., ‘Enquête administrative sur les travaux hydrauliques anciens en Algérie’, Bibliothèque d'archéologie africaine 7 (1902)Google Scholar; Shaw, op. cit. (n. 56, 1984), 124–5; Birebent, op. cit. (n. 42), conclusion.

70 Anonymous, op. cit. (n. 24), 335–6; Laporte, op. cit. (n. 10), 724; Féraud, op. cit. (n. 53), 106–7; P. Gaffarel (1918) in Dondin-Payre, op. cit. (n. 6, 2000), 744 n. 56: ‘Ces importants travaux consolident l’œuvre de nos soldats et de nos colons car ils rattachent le présent au passé et démontrent que la France est l'héritière légitime de Carthage et de Rome.’ The rather unusual mention of Carthage, the Phoenician arch-rival of Rome, may be due to the fact that between 1918 (date of the Anglo-French Declaration) and 1920 (the beginning of the French Mandate) the ground was laid for Lebanon to be controlled by the French. I owe this point to Simon Schaffer.

71 Laporte, op. cit. (n. 10), 718, 725, 761–2.

72 Dondin-Payre, op. cit. (n. 63), 1098–9.

73 E. Fagnan, ‘Bulletin’, Revue Africaine 40 (1896), 84; the letter in Dondin-Payre, op. cit. (n. 63), 1096–7.

74 Dondin-Payre, op. cit. (n. 63), 1078–9, 1096–9 (quotation 1098).

75 Fagnan, op. cit. (n. 73); Laporte, op. cit. (n. 10), 762 n. 176; Dondin-Payre, op. cit. (n. 63), 1080. A recent photograph of the cippus in Bejaïa in Leveau, op. cit. (n. 34, 1988).

76 Dondin-Payre, op. cit. (n. 63), 737, 1079 (quotation). See also Heurgon, op. cit. (n. 4); Deman, A., ‘Matériaux et réflexions pour servir à une étude du développement et du sous-développement dans les provinces de l'empire romain’, in Temporini, H. (ed.), Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt II.3 (1975), 3–83Google Scholar; Dondin-Payre, op. cit. (n. 6, 1991); Benseddik, op. cit. (n. 56), 796. Féraud, op. cit. (n. 53), 131 points out that according to oral traditions in Bougie, the medieval Hammadite princes had provided a water supply system, which, in his view, must have followed the blueprint of the Roman aqueduct.

77 Lassère, op. cit. (n. 18), 159.

78 Dean, L. R., A Study of the Cognomina of Soldiers in Roman Legions (1916), 11–16Google Scholar; Kajanto, I., ‘Pecularities of Latin nomenclature in Roman Africa’, Philologus 108 (1964), 311CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and The Latin Cognomina (1965), 76, 298Google Scholar; Benabou, op. cit. (n. 2), 502; Lassère, op. cit. (n. 18), 452.

79 e.g. CIL VIII.2567, 2568, 2569, listing home-towns such as Carthage, Cirta, Thimgad, etc. Cf. also Benabou, op. cit. (n. 2), 564; Lassère, op. cit. (n. 18); H. Freis, ‘Das römische Nordafrika – ein unterentwickeltes Land?’ Chiron 10 (1980), 357–90; Shaw, op. cit. (n. 4), 145–7; Le Bohec, op. cit. (n. 2), 70, 74–9, 494–508.

80 Lassère, op. cit. (n. 18), 457, citing Apuleius, Apologia 24.1; 653; Thompson, L. A., ‘Settler and native in the urban centres of North Africa’, in Thompson, L. A. and Ferguson, J. (eds), Africa in Classical Antiquity: Nine Studies (1969), 145Google Scholar; Rives, J. B., Religion and Authority in Roman Carthage from Augustus to Constantine (1995), 162Google Scholar.

81 In general see, e.g., Fentress, E. W. B., Numidia and the Roman Army (1979)Google Scholar; Cherry, D., Frontier and Society in Roman North Africa (1998)Google Scholar.

82 Inscriptions from Lambaesis relating to libratores from the Third Legion: CIL VIII.2564 (part of a long list of dedicatees which includes a mensor — lib might mean librarius, but the link with mensor, listed just above, makes librator a better possibility in Wilmanns's view), 2568 (Wilmanns reads lib as librarius but it could mean librator), 2884 (libr), 2900 (libr), 2929 (lib), 2934 (librator), 2954 (lib), 2985 (lib), 18086 (lib). Near Aïn-Cherchar, an inscription thanking the gods for the completion of an aqueduct, built under military management, and made by a discens libratorum (AE 1942–3, 93), can be dated to a.d. 226 with the help of another related inscription (AE 1973, 646), cf. Janon, op. cit. (n. 5), 248–54. Y. Le Bohec, ‘L'armée romaine d'Afrique dans l’épigraphie de 1984 à 2004’, in idem, L'Armée romaine en Afrique et en Gaule (2007), 478–502, has three further examples, one from Timgad and two from Lambaesis, of libr- which could be either. A quick browse through the indexes of CIL III (Asia, Greece, Illyricum, with a respectable number of military mensores) and CIL XIII (Germany) suggests that North Africa had an unusual concentration of military libratores. Outside North Africa, we have an example from Rome (CIL VI.2454).

83 Pliny the Younger, Letters 10.41 and 10.42 (the exchange is dated to a.d. 111–12); see also 10.61 and 10.62. Cf. Frontinus, De aquis 105.

84 AE 1942–3, 93 = 1973, 646, see n. 82. Bohec, Y. Le, ‘Les “discentes” de la IIIème Légion Auguste’, in Mastino, A. (ed.), L'Africa romana 4 (1987), 244Google Scholar, mentions a discens architecti. Cf. also CIL XIII.7945: a trainee architect with the army, and CIL VII.1062: (presumably) the same person, now an architect.

85 MacMullen, op. cit. (n. 57), 214–17; Fentress, op. cit. (n. 81), 161–71; Saller, R. P., Personal Patronage under the Early Empire (1982)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Février, P. A., ‘Armée et aqueducs’, in Boucher, J. P. (ed.), Journées d’études sur les aqueducs romains. Tagung über römische Wasserversorgungsanlagen (1983), 133–40Google Scholar; Laporte, op. cit. (n. 10), 755, 758.

86 On Patientia see R. Kaster, ‘The taxonomy of patience, or, when is Patientia not a virtue?’ Classical Philology 97 (2002), 133–44. Grewe, op. cit. (n. 11), 7, 138–9.

87 Vitruvius, Book 10, introduction.

88 Funerary: Cagnat, op. cit. (n. 7), 70; Dondin-Payre, op. cit. (n. 63), 1077, 1078 n. 30; Grewe, op. cit. (n. 11), 137. Defence: Grewe, op. cit. (n. 11), 326. Votive: Le Bohec, op. cit. (n. 2), 379.

89 Huet, V., ‘Stories one might tell of Roman art: reading Trajan's Column and the Tiberius cup’, in Elsner, J. (ed.), Art and Text in Roman Culture (1996), 9–31Google Scholar.

90 Shaw, op. cit. (n. 13); Laporte, op. cit. (n. 10), 738. Self-promotion is common in ancient technical discourse — see the seminal work by G. E. R. Lloyd, e.g., The Revolutions of Wisdom (1987)Google Scholar; most recently König, J. and Whitmarsh, T. (eds), Ordering Knowledge in the Roman Empire (2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

91 Parallels in inscriptions about boundary disputes: Cuomo, S., Technology and Culture in the Greek and Roman World (2007)Google Scholar, ch. 4.

92 See n. 82; CIL VIII.2935 and 2946: mensor; CIL VIII.3028: mesor; CIL VIII.3074: messor; AE 1904, 72: sixteen more mensores; CIL VIII.2850: architect. Further references in Zerbini, L., ‘Gli agrimensori dell'Africa romana’, in Khanoussi, M., Ruggeri, P. and Vismara, C. (eds), L'Africa romana 12 (1998), 123–33Google Scholar. Cf. also CIL VIII.2872, 2874, 2951 (medicus), 18314 (medicus ordinarius); the Greek epitaph of a doctor may refer to a civilian, see Helly, B. and Marcillet-Jaubert, J., ‘Remarques sur l’épigramme d'un médicin de Lambèse’, ZPE 14 (1974), 252–6Google Scholar.

93 e.g. CIL VIII.2556, 2557, 2560–2562, 2564–2570. Self-expression was not limited to ‘military’ forms: e.g. CIL VIII.2581, 2632, 2756. See also D'Escurac-Doisy, H., ‘Lambèse et le vétérans de la legio III Augusta’, in Renard, M. (ed.), Hommages à Albert Grenier (1962), 571–83Google Scholar; Lassère, op. cit. (n. 18), 276–8.

94 Le Bohec, op. cit. (n. 2), 74, 92–106, 110. Several of the extant tombs have soldiers depicted in non-military garb. The ‘civilian’ funerary inscriptions from the same burial areas concentrate on family links: CIL VIII.3319–4185; cf. 3463, 3506, 4071, 4120. An actor at CIL VIII.2803. In general Hope, V. M., Constructing Identity: the Roman Funerary Monuments of Aquileia, Mainz and Nimes (2001)Google Scholar; D'Ambra, E. and Métraux, G. P. R., ‘Introduction’, in eidem (eds), The Art of Citizens, Soldiers and Freedmen in the Roman World (2006)Google Scholar.

95 See Glay, M. Le, ‘Les discours d'Hadrien à Lambése’, in Fitz, J. (ed.), Limes. Akten des XI. Internationalen Limeskongresses Budapest (1977), 545–58Google Scholar; Voisin in Bohec, Y. Le (ed.), Les discours d'Hadrien à l'armée d'Afrique (2003), especially 29–30Google Scholar.

96 CIL VIII.2532 Bb = 18042 Bb, in Le Bohec, op. cit. (n. 95), 87, 124–5. Cf. also Gassend, J.-M. and Janon, M., ‘La colonne d'Hadrien à Lambèse’, Bulletin d'archéologie algérienne 7 (1977–9), 239–58Google Scholar. A very small fragment (10.5 in Le Bohec, op. cit. (n. 95), 109) could refer to projectiles of catapults.

97 References in Le Glay and Tourrenc, op. cit. (n. 17), 111–15.

98 Roads: see n. 18; bridges: see Le Bohec, op. cit. (n. 82), 478, about a bridge at Haïdra. Jouffroy, op. cit. (n. 17), 196, 203, 205, 207, 209, 211, 212, 214, 216, 232 has other North African inscriptions mentioning building difficulties. Cf. also Eck, W., ‘Die Wasserversorgung in römischen Reich: sozio-politische Bedingungen, Recht und Administration’, in Die Wasserversorgung antiker Städte II (1987), 49–101Google Scholar; Shaw, B. D., ‘The structure of local society in the ancient Maghrib: the elders’, in idem, Rulers, Nomads, and Christians in Roman North Africa (1995, 1st edn 1991) 28Google Scholar; Zanovello, P., ‘Le fonti epigrafiche’, in Bodon, G., Riera, I. and Zanovello, P. (eds), Utilitas necessaria – sistemi idraulici nell'Italia romana (1994), 99–143Google Scholar; Belfaïda, A., ‘Eau et évergétisme en Afrique romaine: témoignages épigraphiques’, in Khanoussi, M., Ruggeri, P. and Vismara, C. (eds), L'Africa romana 13 (2000), 1589–1601Google Scholar; Casagrande, op. cit. (n. 56).

99 Voisin in Le Bohec, op. cit. (n. 95), 31–4.

100 CIL VIII.2532 Ba = 18042 Ba, in Le Bohec, op. cit. (n. 95), 84.

101 cf. Zanovello, op. cit. (n. 98).

102 A brilliant example of multi-perspective history of science (in this case, Mesopotamian mathematics) in Ritter, J., ‘Reading Strasbourg 368: a thrice-told tale’, in Chemla, K. (ed.), History of Science, History of Text (2004), 177–200CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

103 See Kroes, P. and Meijers, A., ‘Introduction. The dual nature of technical artefacts’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 37 (2006), 1–4CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

104 Some examples in, e.g., Collins, H. and Pinch, T., The Golem at Large: What You Should Know About Technology (1998)Google Scholar; a good synthesis in Lemonnier, P., ‘Bark capes, arrowheads and Concorde: on social representations of technology’, in Hodder, I. (ed.), The Meanings of Things. Material Culture and Symbolic Expression (1989), 156–71Google Scholar. Cf. also for similar principles applied to ancient economy and technology, Foxhall, op. cit. (n. 62), especially ch. 6, 256–7.

105 Leveau, op. cit. (n. 34, 1991), 152–3. For technology-in-use see, e.g., Edgerton, D., ‘De l'innovation aux usages. Dix thèses éclectiques sur l'histoire des techniques’, Annales HSS 4/5 (1998), 815–37CrossRefGoogle Scholar and The Shock of the Old. Technology and Global History Since 1900 (2007)Google Scholar; Greene, K., ‘Technological innovation and economic progress in the ancient world: M.I. Finley reconsidered’, Economic History Review 53 (2000), 29–59CrossRefGoogle Scholar and ‘Historiography and theoretical approaches’, in Oleson, J. P. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Engineering and Technology in the Classical World (2008), 62–90Google Scholar. On the archaeology side see, e.g., Gosden, C. and Marshall, Y., ‘The cultural biography of objects’, World Archaeology 31 (1999), 169–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Foxhall, L., ‘The running sands of time: archaeology and the short-term’, World Archaeology 31 (2000), 484–98CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Allison, P. M., ‘Using the material and the written sources: turn of the millennium approaches to Roman domestic space’, AJA 105 (2001), 181–208CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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108 See, e.g., Edgerton, op. cit. (n. 105, 2007).

109 cf. the exchanges between Dondin-Payre and Benseddik (cited in n. 65); Shaw and Fentress (see Fentress, op. cit. (n. 56), 170–1); Lassère, J.-M., ‘Rome et le “sous-développement” de l'Afrique’, Revue des études anciennes 81 (1979), 67–104CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Freis, op. cit. (n. 79); Thompson, L. A., ‘On “development” and “underdevelopment” in the early Roman Empire’, Klio 64 (1982), 383–401CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Pflaum, H.-G., ‘La romanisation de l'Afrique’, in idem, Afrique romaine (1978, 1st edn 1972), 375–92Google Scholar, with discussion; Saller, op. cit. (n. 63), 228.

110 See, e.g., Shapin, S., ‘The invisible technician’, American Scientist 77 (1989), 554–63Google Scholar; Smith, P. H., The Body of the Artisan: Art and Experience in the Scientific Revolution (2004)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

111 See, e.g., Lloyd, op. cit. (n. 90); Romano, E., La capanna e il tempio: Vitruvio o dell'architettura (1987)Google Scholar; DeLaine, J., ‘“De aquis suis?” The “commentaries” of Frontinus’, in Nicolet, C. (ed.), Les littératures techniques dans l'antiquité romaine (1996), 117–45Google Scholar; Formisano, M., Tecnica e scrittura. Le letterature tecnico-scientifiche nello spazio letterario tardolatino (2001)Google Scholar; Novara, A., Auctor in bibliotheca. Essai sur les textes préfaciels de Vitruve et une philosophie latine du livre (2005)Google Scholar; König and Whitmarsh, op. cit. (n. 90); Volk, K., Manilius and his Intellectual Background (2009)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Taub, L. and Doody, A. (eds), Authorial Voices in Greco-Roman Technical Writing (2009)Google Scholar.

112 Mommsen, op. cit. (n. 8), 9.

113 On Frontinus specifically, see, e.g., DeLaine, op. cit. (n. 110); Cuomo, S., ‘Divide and rule: Frontinus and Roman land-surveying’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 31 (2000), 189–202CrossRefGoogle Scholar; A. König, ‘Knowledge and power in Frontinus’ On aqueducts', in König and Whitmarsh, op. cit. (n. 90), 177–205.

114 Recent interest in this specific way of relating to the world in best-selling books such as Sennett, R., The Craftsman (2008)Google Scholar or Crawford, M., The Case for Working with Your Hands (2009)Google Scholar.