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Fire-Engincs and Fires in Ancient Rome . [Book III.

several private houses, but also two public buildings, the town house andthe temple of Isis, though they stood on contrary sides of the Street. Theoccasion of its spreading thus wide was partly owing to the violence ofthe wind, and partly to the indolence of the peopl.e, who, it appears, stoodfixed and idle spectators of this terrible calamity. The truth is, the citywas not furnished with either engines, buckets, or any single Instrumentproper to extinguish fires ; which I have now however given directionsto be provided.” It has been generally imagined [observes Melmoth]that the ancients had not the art of raising water by engines, but this pas-sage seems to favor the contrary opinion. The word in the original[for engine ] is sipho, which Hesychius explains instrumentum adjaculan-dus aquas adversus incendia —an instrument to throw up water againstfires. But there is a passage in Seneca which seems to put the matterbeyond conjecture, though none of the critics upon this place have takennotice of it. Solemus (says he) duabus manibus inter se junctus aquamconcipere et compressa utrinque palma in modum siphonis exprimere. Q,N. ii, 16, where we plainly see the use of this sipho was to throw upwater. In the French translation of De Sacy , (Paris 1809,) the Word isrendered pumps :—“ D’ailleurs, il n’y a dans la ville, ni pompes ni seauxpublics, enfin nul autre des instrumens necessaires pour eteindre les em-brasemens.” And Professor Beckman quotes both Hesychius and Isidoreto prove that “ a fire-engine, properly so called, was understood in the 4thand in the 7th centuries by the term sipho,” and we may add that Agri-cola in the 16th Century designated syringes for extinguishing fires by thesame term. Heron’s engine is also named a siphon. See note p. 307.

From an expression in the letter of Pliny just quoted, we learn thatmen were regularly brought up to the art of extinguishing fires, the sameas to any other profession: Of the Company that he proposed to estab-lish, he remarks, “ I will take care that none but those of that businessshall be admitted into it.” The buildings in ancient Rome were veryhigh, the upper stories were mostly of wood, and the streets and laneswere extremely narrow, hence the Suppression of conflagrations theremust have been an arduous business, and one that required extraordinaryintrepidity and skill; qualifications that could only be obtained by expe-rience. Besides engines for throwing water, the firemen used sponges ormops fixed to the end of long poles, and they had grapples and otherinstruments by means of which they could go from one wall to another,(Encyc . Antiq.) Of the great elevation of the houses several Romanwriters speak. Seneca attributed the difficulty of extinguishing fires tothis cause. Juvenal mentions

Roofs that make one giddy to look down. Sat. vi.

When the city was rebuilt after the great conflagration, (supposed tohave been indu.ced by Nero,) the height of the houses was fixed at aboutseventy feet. These were raised to a certain height without wood, beingarched with stone, and party walls were not allowed. That fires wereconstantly occurring in old Rome is well known. Juvenal repeatedlymentions the fact : Thus in his third Satire

Rome, where one hears the everlasting soundOf beams and rafters thundering to the ground,

Amid alarms by day and fears by night.

And again:

But Io ! the James bring yonder mansion down!

The dire disaster echoes through the town ;

Men look as if for solemn funeral clad,

Now, now indeed these nightly fires are sad.