How Did Frontinus Measure the Quinaria

Bibliographic Data

ID4535123
AuthorsA Trevor Hodges, A Trevor Hodge (corresponding author)
Year1984
Volume88
Issue2
Pages205-216
Publication date1984-04-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Archaeology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-9114 • E-ISSN: 1939-828X
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2307/504996
OpenAlexW2334257217
LanguageEN
Citations received10

Estimates of the discharge of the aqueducts of the city of Rome are based on the quinaria totals given by Frontinus. We now know what a quinaria was, but as we did not know how Frontinus could have measured it, his figures remained suspect. Some of this doubt is now dispelled by the suggestion that it could be done by partly lowering a sluicegate until the water building up behind it levelled off at a predetermined height, and then measuring the gap under the gate necessary to establish and maintain this head. Application of the formula Q = Aμ will then give the discharge in actual quantity of water, but for Frontinus' purposes a simple measurement of the gap under the gate and the height of the water behind it will suffice to give a figure in quinariae; speed of flow can be neglected. Not only are Frontinus' figures (= a discharge of 1⁄2 to 1 million m.3 daily) correct, but with the demonstration of how he got them, their reliability becomes assured. It also shows that the Romans' knowledge of hydraulics was greater than they are usually given credit for. The thesis is illustrated by an experimental apparatus (flume) set up in the Hydraulics Laboratory at the University of Ottawa, and clarifies aspects of the castellum divisorium at Nîmes

Epistemology · Flow (mathematics) · Flume · Geometry · Geotechnical engineering · Head (geology) · Hydraulics · Hydrology (agriculture) · Measure (data warehouse) · Physics · Political science · Reliability (semiconductor) · Set (abstract data type) · Simple (philosophy) · Suspect · Computer Science · Engineering · Geology · Hydraulic flow and structures · Law · Mathematics · Philosophy · Water management and technologies

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