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Comment by asimpletune | Hacker News Reader

It’s not just the monuments. Everywhere you go in Rome there are fountains with cold, clean drinkable water. The combination of the roads, rivers, infrastructure, and monuments leaves you feeling like we kind of aimed a little low, at times.

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The fountains have nothing to do with (ancient) Romans. Italians didn't invent modern water management.

Really? I thought those fountains were a public service in Roman antiquity as well?

They're not the same fountains, nor the same water grid (through the modern grid might use portions of the Roman one). There were centuries where Rome was completely abandoned and reduced to a collection of villages and feudal holdings. They used wells for water access.

Super interesting, ok I think I just assumed otherwise but thanks for the explanation.

One follow up though, did ancient Romans have fountains? Maybe not the same ones that exist today, but more or less did they, ancient Romans, have these public water services as well?

Yes. “For more than two thousand years fountains have provided drinking water and decorated the piazzas of Rome. During the Roman Empire, in 98 AD, according to Sextus Julius Frontinus, the Roman consul who was named curator aquarum or guardian of the water of the city, Rome had nine aqueducts which fed 39 monumental fountains and 591 public basins, not counting the water supplied to the Imperial household, baths and owners of private villas. Each of the major fountains was connected to two different aqueducts, in case one was shut down for service.” -Wikipedia.

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