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Ancient But Magnificent Cities

Phil Zeltzman, DVM, Dipl. ACVS

In a previous blog, I wrote about a book I’m “listening” to. In “Great Scientific Ideas that Changed the World,” Prof. Steven Goldman comments on a couple of remarkable ancient cities.

Rome

Sure, you’ve heard of ancient Rome and its famous baths. But some of them were truly impressive. The author refers to them as “the astonishingly sophisticated technological infrastructure of imperial Rome.” Indeed, it required some serious know-how.

Imperial Rome had about 1 million inhabitants, yet was notoriously clean. Certainly, a complex network of underground sewers helped a lot. Dirty water was flushed into the Tiber River. That was bad news for the river, but good for Rome.

In addition, at the peak of the Imperial period, there were 900 public baths in and around the city. The daily water supply into Rome amounted to 200 million gallons, i.e. about 200 gallons per person.

Amazingly, some homes in Pompeii had metered residential water, so that owners could be charged and taxed appropriately. Now, as you surely remember, volcano Mount Vesuvius erupted and destroyed the city in 79 AD, so that’s pretty impressive technology for this period.

But let’s go back to Rome. The emperor Marcus Aurelius built an enormous bath complex that covered 33 acres. The bath house itself was 750 feet long and 380 feet wide. Said otherwise, that’s 2.5 football fields in length, and 1 football field in width. The bath complex could host 16,000 bathers at a given time. Yes, bathing was considered a social event at the time.

Typically, public baths had three rooms: the caldarium (hot bath), the tepidarium (warm bath) and the frigidarium (you guessed it, cold bath).

Later, for good measure, the emperor Diocletian built baths that were twice as large! They could welcome 30,000 bathers at a time.

Clearly, these baths required amazing technological prowess that is difficult to grasp today.

Tenochtitlan

Ever heard of Tenochtitlan?

Besides the fact that it’s barely pronounceable, Tenochtitlan was an incredible city that became the capital of the Aztec empire in the 15th century. It was built on an island, in the middle of a lake (Lake Teccoco)!

Two aqueducts brought water into the city. The Aztecs feared contamination, so they strived to live in a clean city. Instead of dumping sewage and garbage into the lake, they hauled them away to a landfill.

Tenochtitlan’s central market was visited by up to 60,000 people each day. At one point, the city was one of the largest in the world.

Now, this wasn’t a GP rated kind of life. This was a time where neighboring villages were rampaged, prisoners were taken and their hearts were ripped out of their chests during ritual human sacrifices. Over 2,000 people were sacrificed that way, on top of a gigantic pyramid. If you haven’t seen the incredible movie Apocalypto, you might want to consider it. It’s not for the faint of heart, but it will take your breath away. You’ll understand the pun when you watch it.

Although Cortes, the famous Spanish conquistador, was said to have been impressed by the beauty of the city, he eventually systematically destroyed it. Ultimately, Cortes is a mass murderer who is responsible for the fall of the Aztec Empire.

Surely, Roman baths and Aztec sacrifices are pretty remote from veterinary medicine, but sometimes, it’s good to learn about something else than diabetic ketoacidosis and gallbladder surgery.

Dr. Phil Zeltzman is a mobile, board-certified surgeon in Allentown, PA. His website is www.DrPhilZeltzman.com. He is the co-author of “Walk a Hound, Lose a Pound: How You and Your Dog Can Lose Weight, Stay Fit, and Have Fun Together (Purdue University Press).”

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