Protection and maintenance

An infrastructure needs maintenance and in a harbour part of that will take place under water. Ostia had a guild of divers (a corpus of urinatores) who repaired subsided quays and the keels of ships. In Rome was a corpus piscatorum et urinatorum totius alvei Tiberis, guild of fishermen and divers of the entire Tiber bed.

	[Imp(eratori) Caes(ari)] [T(ito) Aelio] [Hadriano] [Ant]ONIN[o] [Au]G(usto) PIO PONT(ifici) MAX(imo) TRIB(unicia) POT(estate) XIIII CO(n)S(uli) IIII P(atri) P(atriae) CORPVS VRINATORVM OSTIENSIVM S(ua) P(ecunia) P(osuit)
	Dedication by the guild of the urinatores to Antoninus Pius. Late 150-151 AD. Found in 1976 in Ostia near Tor Boacciana. EDR078448. Photo: Pellegrino 1982, tav. 1.

A legal text informs us that the divers could also recover sunken goods, in shallow waters:

Sed si navis, quae in tempestate iactu mercium unius mercatoris levata est, in alio loco summersa est et aliquorum mercatorum merces per urinatores extractae sunt data mercede, rationem haberi debere eius, cuius merces in navigatione levandae navis causa iactae sunt, ab his, qui postea sua per urinatores servaverunt, Sabinus aeque respondit. Eorum vero, qui ita servaverunt, invicem rationem haberi non debere ab eo, qui in navigatione iactum fecit, si quaedam ex his mercibus per urinatores extractae sunt: eorum enim merces non possunt videri servandae navis causa iactae esse, quae perit.

Sabinus also advised that if a ship which had been lightened in a storm by throwing overboard the goods of one merchant is sunk at a later stage of the voyage and the goods of some other merchants are recovered by paid divers, the merchant whose goods were jettisoned is entitled to a contribution from those whose goods were subsequently recovered by the divers. But those whose goods are not so recovered have no recourse against the person whose property was jettisoned during the voyage even if divers get some of it back for him, since their goods cannot be seen as having been jettisoned to save a sinking ship.

Digesta 14.2.4.1. Translation Samuel P. Scott.

We have seen that Hadrian built new barracks for the vigiles, the fire-brigade and police. The civil code mentions a rescript by Antoninus Pius about burglary in warehouses. It was issued to Sextus Erucius Clarus, prefect of the City (praefectus Urbi) in 146 AD.

1. Cognoscit praefectus vigilum de incendiariis effractoribus furibus raptoribus receptatoribus, nisi si qua tam atrox tamque famosa persona sit, ut praefecto urbi remittatur. Et quia plerumque incendia culpa fiunt inhabitantium, aut fustibus castigat eos qui neglegentius ignem habuerunt, aut severa interlocutione comminatus fustium castigationem remittit.	1. The Prefect of the Night Watch takes cognizance of incendiaries, burglars, thieves, robbers, and harborers of criminals, unless the culprit is so savage and notorious, that he is turned over to the Prefect of the City. And as, for the most part, fires are caused by the negligence of the inhabitants, he either has those whipped who have been careless in regard to fire, or he remits the whipping, and gives them a severe warning.
2. Effracturae fiunt plerumque in insulis in horreisque, ubi homines pretiosissimam partem fortunarum suarum reponunt, cum vel cella effringitur vel armarium vel arca: et custodes plerumque puniuntur, et ita divus Antoninus Erucio claro rescripsit. Ait enim posse eum horreis effractis quaestionem habere de servis custodibus, licet in illis ipsius imperatoris portio esset.	2. Burglaries are generally committed in houses containing many apartments, or in warehouses where men have deposited the most valuable part of their goods; the burglar either breaks open a storeroom, a closet, or a chest, and those who are appointed to guard this property are the ones ordinarily punished. The Divine Antoninus stated this in a Rescript to Erucius Clarus. For he said that Erucius could, when warehouses were burgled, hold an inquest concerning the slaves who were on guard, even though some of them may belong to the Emperor himself.
3. Sciendum est autem praefectum vigilum per totam noctem vigilare debere et coerrare calciatum cum hamis et dolabris, ut curam adhibeant omnes inquilinos admonere, ne neglegentia aliqua incendii casus oriatur.	3. It should be noted that the Prefect of the Night Watch must be on guard during the entire night, and should make his rounds properly shod, and provided with hooks and axes. He must be careful to notify all occupants of houses not to allow any fire to occur through their negligence.
4. Praeterea ut aquam unusquisque inquilinus in cenaculo habeat, iubetur admonere.	4. Moreover, he is under orders to warn everyone to have a supply of water ready in an upstairs room.
5. Adversus capsarios quoque, qui mercede servanda in balineis vestimenta suscipiunt, iudex est constitutus, ut, si quid in servandis vestimentis fraudulenter admiserint, ipse cognoscat.	5. As against the capsarii also, who engage for hire to look after people's clothes at the baths, he has been set up as a judge with authority himself to hold a hearing if they should have dealt fraudulently in looking after the clothes..
Digesta 1.15.3.1-5. Translation Samuel P. Scott - Alan Watson.

Shortly before the middle of the century a private warehouse was built next to the Small Market. Through a stroke of luck the inscription over the main entrance with the name of the building has been preserved: Horrea Epagathiana et Epaphroditiana. It was owned by two freedmen, Epagathus and Epaphroditus. A striking feature of this warehouse are its many locking devices. The doors of the vestibules, but also of the rooms and staircases in the interior, were barred with wooden beams, in the vestibules both on the in- and outside. Apparently goods of great value were stored here, but which goods?

The inscription above the entrance of the Horrea Epagathiana et Epaphroditiana. Photo: Klaus Heese.

A clue for the function of the warehouse is provided by long rows of small, centralized travertine stones in nearby facades. The rows begin near the south bank of the Tiber and end in the building opposite the warehouse. And a row is also found inside the warehouse, in the brick piers surrounding the courtyard. No such rows are found in the rest of Ostia. An obvious explanation is that they mark a route from the Tiber quays to the Horrea Epagathiana et Epaphroditiana, and that the horrea were used by people arriving in Ostia by ship, for example for self-storage of money and documents. We know that such horrea existed in antiquity. We may infer that there was a specific place on the quays where inhabitants of Ostia provided information to visitors about the warehouse, the centralized stones, and more.

Part of a row of centralized travertine stones in a porticus near the Tiber. Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.

The route from the Tiber to the Horrea Epagathiana et Epaphroditiana, marked by rows of centralized travertine stones.
Image: Bing Maps, Gerard Huissen.

The use of warehouses by private individuals for storing precious properties is described by the famous physician Galenus. He had placed many objects in a warehouse on the Via Sacra in Rome. It was destroyed by a fire in 192 AD:

Trusting the warehouses located along the Via Sacra, that they believed would never be touched by a fire, people deposited there their most precious treasures, and they were confident because there was no wood, except for the doors, and they were not close to a private house, and furthermore because they were watched over by a military guard, since the archives of four procurators of Caesar were kept in that place. When I left for Campania, I stored in that storeroom everything I had at home - instruments, remedies and books, together with a not negligible number of silver objects - so that they could be guarded during my absence. As for the fire, it broke out towards the end of the winter, when I planned I would bring to Campania at the beginning of summer both my books destined to remain there and those to be sent to Asia in the period of the Etesian winds.

Galenus, On the avoidance of grief 8, 10 and 23. Translation Pier Luigi Tucci ("Galen's storeroom, Rome's libraries and the fire of AD 192", JRA 21 (2008), 133-149).