Fires in Rome: The ancient city as a fire regime
Citation:
DESMOND, MARGARET MARY, Fires in Rome: The ancient city as a fire regime, Trinity College Dublin.School of Histories & Humanities, 2019Download Item:
Final Dissertation .pdf (PhD Thesis, examined and approved, vol.1) 2.174Mb
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Abstract:
This thesis has undertaken two main complementary lines of research: firstly, it has looked afresh at the evidence for urban fires in Rome as presented by the written sources and, secondly, it has reimagined the city as an urban fire regime. Using this new conceptual tool, the fires of Rome are a conduit through which to view the history, architecture, politics, economy, religion, and social and psychological well-being of the city. Each of the 88 fires recorded in the annalistic sources from 460 BC to AD 410 is re-examined. As first principle, the interrogation of the sources begins with the language. By looking at the vocabulary, in both Latin and Greek, of each source from different time periods for every fire, what has, and what has not, been recorded is identified. Previous translation and interpretation of that information has been challenged in a number of cases. Close reading of the language has also identified a vocabulary of destruction which fits precisely with what modern fire science tells us about the behaviour of fire in an urban context. The thesis argues that the Romans knew with great accuracy the predicted effect of fire on streetscapes, structures and building materials. Systematic close reading of the texts has highlighted a number of other interrelated factors: the cause, extent, location, and the frequency of fires in certain areas, are all collated under each fire and analysed further in a broad statistical analysis. How much or how little is really known, even in the case of fires where the sources appear to give substantial information, has been demonstrated under each fire and also represented graphically in case studies. The typology of a fire regime has been used to fill in the gaps between the recorded fires, and to reimagine fires as a continuum, a lived experience in the city. This has led to challenging assumptions about how flammable Rome actually was, and the extent our own view of fires, and how to deal with them, has coloured our interpretation of fires in Rome. The causes of fire, efforts to prevent and retard fire, have all been examined in detail using comparative data from more recently documented fires together with modern research in the field of fire science. Recent technological studies show that assumptions about the flammability of wooden structures, as well as the effect of fire on concrete and stone, must be re-evaluated. Evidence is presented that the Romans were acutely conscious of the causes and preventability of fires; they knew how to retard fire in terms of building materials, construction, legislation, civic responsibility and, of course, prayer. It is also argued that the role of water in fire-fighting in Rome must be reassessed, particularly in the work of the Vigiles. Our understanding of the Vigiles has been coloured by the modern view of a ‘fire brigade’ and this thesis has debated assumptions about their role among the other urban cohorts. Modern research has also been used to challenge the silence of our sources and to glimpse the human experience of fire in Rome in terms of loss, grief, and trauma; the attitude of a ruling elite to the victims of disaster is also explored. The ecological pattern of fire is cyclical: it destroys and regenerates. New buildings and districts rose out of the ashes of the old and reconstruction was then, as now, a political act imbued with ideological meaning. Fires acted as a catalyst for change, were used to shape the streetscape, and allowed leaders to build in their own image and likeness. Finally, it is contended that reconstruction after major fires provided much needed employment to the urban poor and, thus, had a positive socio-economic affect.
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Dept of Classics TCD
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https://tcdlocalportal.tcd.ie/pls/EnterApex/f?p=800:71:0::::P71_USERNAME:MDESMONDDescription:
APPROVED
Author: DESMOND, MARGARET MARY
Advisor:
Dodge, HazelPublisher:
Trinity College Dublin. School of Histories & Humanities. Discipline of ClassicsType of material:
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