# Roman Fountains? How'd they do that?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roman-fountains-howd-they-do-that/155878>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 18, 2003, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roman-fountains-howd-they-do-that/155878 "2003-02-18T14:02:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2003, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roman-fountains-howd-they-do-that/155878/1 "2003-02-18T14:02:29Z")

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Ok I was just doing a little research for a buddy of mine and I keep on seeing something on the side of ancient roman vases and pottery that really has me puzzled. Large ornate fountains with people dancing around them in some kind of Dionysian Wine Festival…

So what, you say? It’s just a fountain right? Well my question is this: How the heck to the fountains work with no electricity to power a pump. How did the Romans get their Fountains to work?

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**Author:** ![Neurotik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/91b2a8/32.png) [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2003, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roman-fountains-howd-they-do-that/155878/2 "2003-02-18T14:06:21Z")

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Same way medieval societies did. Natural water pressure. They built their fountains at the low end of an aqueduct or a hill or something. The water coming down will provide enough pressure for the fountain to work.

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**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2003, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roman-fountains-howd-they-do-that/155878/3 "2003-02-18T14:22:23Z")

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Check [howitworks](http://www.howstuffworks.com/question33.htm) for more details

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**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2003, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roman-fountains-howd-they-do-that/155878/4 "2003-02-18T15:28:36Z")

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[Cecil explains how Roman fountains work.](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_170a.html)

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**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2003, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roman-fountains-howd-they-do-that/155878/5 "2003-02-18T15:28:42Z")

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[Cecil Adams on this issue](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_170a.html)

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**Author:** ![jiHymas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/439d5e/32.png) [@jiHymas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jiHymas)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roman-fountains-howd-they-do-that/155878/6 "2003-02-19T03:03:49Z")

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**Tuckerfan** posted an excellent bibliography in [Tales of the Ancient Engineers: How did they do it?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=127487)