Warehouses and the fire-brigade

Traces of fire have been seen regularly in Ostia by the excavators. The residents of the apartments were legally obliged to ensure that a bucket of water was present: very useful if a burning oil lamp was accidentally knocked over. At night the streets of Rome and of Ostia and Portus were patrolled intensively by groups of vigiles, who were both firefighters and policemen. The detachment in the harbours came from Rome, in shifts for periods of four months. Their barracks in Ostia were completely rebuilt by Hadrian.

Vigiles at work. Images: romanoimpero.com.

Perhaps the firefighters were also responsible for street lighting. The ancient literary sources are silent about nocturnal streetlights in Rome. Jérôme Carcopino, in his famous book "Daily Life in Ancient Rome", using satirical writers such as Juvenalis and Martialis, says about the Urbs: "When there was no moon its streets were plunged in impenetrable darkness. Everyone fled to his home, shut himself in, and barricaded the entrance. The shops fell silent, safety chains were drawn across behind the leaves of the doors". But then he discusses a decree by Julius Caesar: "From sunrise until nearly dusk no transport cart was henceforward to be allowed within the precincts of the Urbs. To this inflexible rule four exceptions only were permitted. The approach of night brought with it the legitimate commotion of wheeled carts of every sort which filled the city with their racket. According to Juvenal the incessant night traffic and the hum of noise condemned the Roman to everlasting insomnia". These traffic movements will not have been a resounding success on a pitch dark night without artificial lighting. Oil lamps may for example have been suspended from ropes above main streets. It seems unlikely that there were severe limitations to traffic in the harbours, where transport was essential. In the harbours the vigiles must have paid extra attention to the warehouses (horrea), crammed with supplies for Rome. The conflagration of warehouses in autumn or winter would be catastrophic, because replenishment was not possible. Commodities were taken to Ostia and Portus by ship only during a limited number of months, when the weather was fair.

Two warehouses were constructed during the reign of Hadrian on a shoulder of the forum, near the Tiber: the Small Market and the adjacent warehouse I,VIII,2. Whether they were Imperial property is unknown, but the size of the former warehouse does suggest this. Warehouses are arguably the most boring buildings the Romans ever built, and these two form no exception. Two constructional details stand out however. In the Small Market the staircases partly consist of sloping ramps instead of treads, to prevent the porters from stumbling. The rooms of the other building have raised floors supported by low walls. Air was let in through holes in the thresholds. Such floors protected the goods that were stored here from moisture - grain without doubt. Boring as they may be, the warehouses were the node of the entire seaborne commerce focused on Rome. Everything was centred on these stocks: overseas production, transport, guilds, contracts.

A staircase in the Small Market, partly with treads, partly a sloping ramp. Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

A threshold with holes through which air was led below the raised floor. Photo: Daniel González Acuña.

The people who carried the cargos from the moored seagoing ships to the warehouses and from the warehouses to the tow boats on the Tiber, were called sack-bearers, saccarii. We can see them at work on several reliefs, but also possess a number of terracotta statuettes representing them. Most were found in Ostia, but they have emerged elsewhere as well. Some were found in tombs. Their purpose has not yet been clarified.

Terracotta statuettes of porters, saccarii. Photo: Parco Archeologico di Ostia Antica.