The City Præfect is responsible for the general good order of the metropolis; it is his business not merely to punish evil, but to take measures to prevent it, _e.g._ by breaking up illicit societies and assemblies, such as those of the “debased” Christians. In conjunction with the other magistrates he also takes measures to keep down the price of provisions. In addition he is the high judge in most cases arising around Rome, which are not especially reserved to other tribunals. Particularly he and his deputies have jurisdiction over cases involving outrageous usury, betrayal of trust by guardians, unfilial conduct of children, and disrespect shown to patrons by freedmen. And to his court go all the charges of serious crimes sure to arise in a great city, barring, however, lesser police court cases--these last falling to his colleague, the Præfect of the Watch. =257. The Municipal Superintendents and Commissioners (_Curatores_).=--Aiding the City Præfect are several high superintendents or commissioners usually of at least prætorian rank among the senators. The two “Curators of the Public Works” obviously have to look after the municipal buildings and especially the temples and the considerable endowments often attached to them. The Præfect of the Grain Supply (_Præfectus Annonæ_) is a magistrate who--in view of the importance of his function (see p. 242)--will often be chosen with almost as great an eye to his efficiency as the City Præfect. Besides the corps of agents collecting grain in the provinces, the special deputy at Ostia, the “Official Grain Measurers,” the “Grain Magazine-Keepers” (_horrearii_), and the staff of clerks and porters, all the bakers of the city also are under the Præfect of the Grain Supply, and he can sit as high judge in all cases, criminal and civil, where the provisioning of the city is affected. As for the Tiber, it is so often bursting its levees and flooding the lower city that a special board of five senators, “Commissioners for the Tiber, River-Banks, and the Sewers,” attends alike to the care of the dikes and also to the great sewer system which drains the capital. =258. Excellent Water Supply of Rome.=--An official board with duties of the first order is that of the “Curators of the Water Supply.” There is a chief curator and two assistants, and since the task calls for expert professional knowledge, these are not senators but imperial freedmen, or at the highest only equites. No sinecure, however, is their task. Justly are the Romans proud of the excellent water supply of the imperial city. As early as Augustus’s time Strabo the geographer warned his fellow Greeks that while they could boast that their cities excelled the Roman in artistic adornments, Rome rejoiced in a far better water system, in better pavements, and in better sewers. Certain of the latter, he declared in admiration, were “arched over with hewn stone and were so large that in some parts hay wagons can drive straight through them!”