Well, the (Roman) world needs ditch diggers too!

[G-Manicus]

To prepare for Ocatvian's naval campaign against Sextus Pompeius, Marcus Agrippa created an inland harbor off of the Bay of Naples, what came to be known as "Portus Julius," so he could construct and train a huge fleet. My understanding is that Agrippa accomplished this by digging a series of canals between several nearby bodies of water in order to flood the area and create his harbor.

 

My question is how would they have gone about doing so much digging? To me this sounds like an enormous undertaking. Would this have been done with slaves (or the legions) using simple shovel like tools? Or did the Romans have any known mechanical devices to be used for excavation type work?

[Julius Ratus]

I would assume that they used a lot of mules. Marius' mules. From what I know, the Romans frequently used the legions for construction projects like road work.

[Bryaxis Hecatee]

One of the best examples of legionary digging is the canal Marius had his men dig in southern France to build a canal between the Rhone and the sea at a point he found more convenient than the natural estuary of the river. This in turn led Caesar to found the city of Arles, where the recent discovery of a verist portrait of Caesar has been announced, and which was an important port at the time.

[Faustus]

Many roads were built in America with the horse drawn scraper and grader. The soil coud be broken up with an iron plough first. Oxen perhaps, being stronger than horses and less stubborn than mules, probably would've been used. These could be used in areas of the site amenable to such nicities. But a pick, shovel, and baskets to load into two wheeled carts was probably the mainstay. It is steady and productive.

 

Here is a Roman excavation project In the East of England: draining the Fens and building canals which probably compare with their largest and suggests some labor possibilities:

 

( From Roman Britain by I. A. Richmond )

 

The rarity of application of the Roman system of field-planning is emphasized by the practice observable over many hundred thousands of acres in the Fenland. The Fens were drained by a series of wide canals, the most notable being the Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire Car Dykes, the latter over seventy miles long. In conjunction with the rivers, which in many places followed different lines from those of today, these canals served both for drainage and for transport.

 

As drains, they acted as catch-waters, trapping the flow from the adjacent uplands and keeping it out of the Fends; and they were also linked with a complicated series of minor cuts which drained the Fens them-selves. As canals, they linked the Fenland with the Witham at Lincoln, the Witham in turn being linked by means of the Fossdyke with the Trent. Access was thus obtained to the Humber and the Ouse, so that, as Stukely long ago remarked, it was possible to proceed by inland water-ways from the Fens to York. Stukely further perceived that the importance of this connection lay in the opportunity which it offered for the transport of the Fenland produce to military supply-depots.

 

As for the labour required to make them, the works are situated in land immediately adjacent to the territory of the Iceni, and their construction belongs to the period just after the revolt of A.D. 61, which the Iceni had led. There can be little doubt that the conquered rebels were condemned to labor at the new works and were thereafter drafted to the new agricultural reserve thus created, working it upon terms much more favourable to Rome than to themselves. It might, then, be thought that the Romans would have imposed here their own system of field-planning.

 

But when the new fields and farms made possible by the drainage are scrutinized . . . it becomes clear that, while the canals and the main roads across the area bear the systematic imprint of the Roman engineer, the farms, fields, and lanes are no less characteristically native. The conclusion is inevitable that the native

[Gaius Octavius]

To prepare for Ocatvian's naval campaign against Sextus Pompeius, Marcus Agrippa created an inland harbor off of the Bay of Naples, what came to be known as "Portus Julius," so he could construct and train a huge fleet. My understanding is that Agrippa accomplished this by digging a series of canals between several nearby bodies of water in order to flood the area and create his harbor.

 

My question is how would they have gone about doing so much digging? To me this sounds like an enormous undertaking. Would this have been done with slaves (or the legions) using simple shovel like tools? Or did the Romans have any known mechanical devices to be used for excavation type work?

 

I am really going out on a limb here: They also dug a tunnel to get sea water in to flood the 'lake'. They built two moles to allow warships to enter the lake to shelter during storms. A series of special arches were built on the moles so that these ships could be dragged into the lake. Wooden bridges were constructed between the moles. Still doesn't answer your specific questions. Personally, I think that the legionaries did the work.

Edited May 21, 2008 by Gaius Octavius

[SPQR]

Wasn't the whole idea of Marius' Mules to eliminate the group of workers that followed other armies and slowed them down? I think marriage was prohibited for the same reason, though I am sure that every Legion still had nonfighting staff. I am saying this theory like Roman Glory and Honor: It was theoretically how a legion was supposed to act, not how it did.

[caldrail]

Roman legionaries were used for civil engineering projects in general because they were available and idleness was not desirable. Further, as a disciplined corps with civil engineering expertise available, it made a lot of sense to employ them in that way. Slaves were used for such labour at times - some ten thousand jewish slaves were used to build the ramp during the assault on Masada - but notice this was done as punishment as much as expedience. The slaves just happened to be available, so the romans made use of them. Under normal circumstances, the purchase of ten thousand slaves for a civil engineering project was no small issue, especially since they would have to be disposed of afterward. Also, although slaves were used in quarries and such, the conditions they worked in were ghastly, so their physical condition was dubious compared to fit and capable soldier. It must be said that the effort made by slaves for such work would not have compared to soldiers either - but don't forget, the soldiers were no more keen to work like coolies either, and many would have secured reasons for excused duty or as immunes. The reason the project succeeded is that the roman legions were well organised, and this impacted on their efforts in siegework and civil engineering.