After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire around 500, many aspects of its civilization started to decay, especially material aspects, most notably the stonework. Of all of the stone work and masonry structures built by the Romans, probably the most famous is the Roman aqueduct. These brought fresh water to cities and towns and proved critical for drinking, bathing, plumbing, and other aspects of hygiene. But, when the Roman Empire fell, very quickly those Roman aqueducts began to decay and fall into disrepair because the technical know-how and the skilled masons and engineers were no longer around, and the collapse of the economy led to regional warfare in Early Medieval Europe and contributed to a general lack of money to maintain those aqueducts. In Early Medieval Europe, those aqueducts took on a new role--they became crucial in the fighting, and several sources from the early middle ages inform us of how armies, Roman and barbarian alike, broke aqueducts to cut water off from Roman cities, or entered those cities through the aqueduct channels. Probably the most famous is Belisarius and his Roman (Byzantine) army breaking into the city of Naples through its Roman-era aqueduct, thus making it a crucial part of the warfare during the Roman reconquest of Italy, but it was was also used against the Romans themselves when Avars broke the Aqueduct of Valens during their siege fo Constantinople in 626. The Roman Emperor Justinian II famously entered the city via the aqueduct system with an army of Bulgars and Slavs to orchestrate a coup and take back power during the Twenty Years Anarchy.


SOURCES:

Gregory of Tours, Ten Books of Histories, Thrope
Aqueducts & Urbanism in Post-Roman Hispania, Jimenez
Warfare & Society in the Post Roman West, Halsall
War in Late Antiquity, Lee
The Walls & Aqueducts of Rome in the Early Middle Ages, Coates-Stephens

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