Cloaca Maxima

Cloaca Maxima, the Latin name of a large drain or tunnel, formed by Tarquinius Superbus or by Tarquinius Priscus, to drain the marshes which made some of the low-lying parts of ancient Rome well-nigh uninhabitable. The work was so well done that much of it remains to this day and its preservation was made a matter of importance at several epochs of Roman history.