Cloaca Máxima
You’re standing on what Romans called Cloaca Maxima—the “greatest sewer,” literally “the fogna più grande.” It’s one of the world’s earliest sewage systems, built in Ancient Rome to drain local marshes and carry waste to the River Tiber. Tradition places its start at the end of the 6th century BC, when Rome’s last kings were reshaping the land around the Forum. One story says Tarquinius Priscus pushed the work forward with Etruscan workers and plebeians, reclaiming the Velabrum by filling it with 10,000 to 20,000 cubic meters of soil, gravel, and debris—so there’d be dry ground to build on. Originally, it began as open-air channels, lined with bricks around a main pipe—maybe roofed later on as wooden structures appeared along the route. Over time, it grew into a larger sewer, and Agrippa renovated and reconstructed major parts. …
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