Sanitation In The Roman Empire

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The ancient empire of Rome was a place where sanitation thrived. There were numerous advances in plumbing, sewage, and bathing as well as many other things. With the fall of the Roman Empire came the “Dark Ages” of sanitation which also coincides with the Middle Ages. Gone were the knowledge of aqueducts, baths, and flushing toilets. Instead, they were replaced by garrish cesspits and execrable chamber pots. It was not till the 17th century that sanitation in the world had caught back up to the level of the Roman Empire. And so, with the end of the 17th century came a heightened awareness of sanitation and rapid advancements in the following centuries, or the “Enlightened Age” of sanitation. The development of plumbing and sewage systems as …show more content…
On top of that, the top religion of the Roman Empire of the time, Christianity, believed that bathing was sinful. This was because public baths at the end of the Roman Empire had been places for large sex parties. With the destruction of sanitation facilities and disapproval from the chief religion, the knowledge of proper sanitation died out. The people went back to primitive means of releasing and disposing of waste. By the 15th century, people were still using cesspits and dumping their wastes in the river or on the street. Though there had been laws made in order to improve the sanitation of cities, they were ineffective as they gave people no alternative. For example, laws were made to prevent people from dumping their waste into the Thames River. However, people still did it because there simply no other place to empty their wastes. Minor projects for the improvement of sanitation did appear before the 19th century, but the major improvement of sanitation appeared in the 19th century because of the numerous problems that appeared from urbanization and diseases. The cholera outbreaks in the 19th century brought …show more content…
However, an innumerable amount of lives were also saved because of the higher life expectancy from a cleaner world. It is clear to see that the development of sanitation has created a world where potable water is abundant even in places far away from sources of water, where wastes can be safely and cleanly disposed of in or outside of our homes, and where diseases are easily combatted because of the sanitary environment. In conclusion, the positive effects of the development of sanitation far outweigh the negative effects, more lives being saved than those lost and creating a cleaner
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