You often hear that the Romans had running water, but how much and where? Would a Roman, or at least a wealthy one, have anything like the faucets we have in our homes? Was it just public places?
I'd also like to know how they kept water pressure up. I guess if the water source is high enough it will do it on its own, but outside that, did they have pumps to move water through a city?
Mary Beard's "Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town" had a really fascinating chapter on the water and sanitation arrangements in Pompeii with a lot of details on how exactly it worked. I don't have a copy handy so I'll just paraphrase/summarize from memory.
Fountains where fresh water was available were about every block or so. Generally fountains or running water were not located in private homes, even rich ones. Presumably water was carried a few steps from the fountain on the street into the home for use.
Water pressure was kept up by gravity, and Roman engineering was careful to design the aqueducts so that water would flow downhill to the towns and cities. In Pompeii, it was actually under far more pressure than needed and elements of the water system were designed to reduce pressure at the local fountains.
Pumps were not used in the Roman water system. Human and animal power wasn't practical, and windmills were not introduced until the late empire.