Novae erogationis ordinatio: Frontinus, Domitian, Nerva, and the Aqua Traiana

Abstract

Frontinus’ De aquaeductu urbis Romae is a profoundly political document written in part to assist Nerva at a perilous moment of dynastic rupture and uncertainty in the imperial court. A highly respected senator, Frontinus was a key figure both in legitimizing Nerva’s reign and in engineering Trajan’s succession. His tenure as curator aquarum was also fitted to this role. After the Praetorian uprising in summer 97 CE, his reforms of the aqueduct system took on greater urgency as he found ways to use water as a tool to sway senatorial opinions toward Nerva and, by fall of that year, toward Trajan. Yet he was adopting reforms and expansions of the system that had begun under Domitian. The large aqueduct projects Domitian had begun—including, it is argued, the early phases of the Aqua Traiana—were occupying Frontinus’ watermen when he entered office; this led him to misrepresent their efforts on Domitianic projects outside the city as petty thievery and corruption. He probably suspended the incipient Aqua Traiana but continued more advanced projects that promised a quicker political reward.