The Augustan aqueduct in the context of road system and urbanization of the served territory in Southern Italy

The study of ancient hydraulic infrastructures (e.g., aqueducts) is usually tackled in terms of their technical features and of classical texts and archaeological evidences while insufficient attention is devoted to the framing of the structure in the social, economic and political context of the crossed territory or of the cities and activities served. This method was applied in this study to one of the biggest ancient Roman aqueduct complex: the Augustan aqueduct in the Campania region of Southern Italy. The paper highlights which civitates or settlements were served and why some civitates, although in the same regional area, were instead excluded. The main roads and the centuriationes of the zones crossed are mentioned. This allows to clearly realize as great works, such as the Augustan aqueduct, were not isolated monuments but integrated in a context of very detailed, widespread and planned governance and organization of that territory.