Quintus Artemis Sertorius Posted September 2, 2005 Report Share Posted September 2, 2005 I have been watching CNN almost constantly for the past couple of days as the disaster in the Gulf area gets worse and worse. Seeing how hard it has been for a modern state to relieve problems in New Orleans, I was wondering if anyone knew about the Roman respone to ancient disasters like Pompeii and the burning of Rome during Nero's time. Are there accounts of the same kind of thing happening now in any of the ancient texts? Was there some kind of government driven attempt to help the people, or was it allowed to fix itself? Also, does anyone know of any other large scale disasters of the Roman era? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Primus Pilus Posted September 2, 2005 Report Share Posted September 2, 2005 Pliny gives us an excellent account from both a civilian and 'official' viewpoint in his two letters to Tacitus. Destruction of Pompeii The page begins with an account of Titus as he came to power and leads into the letters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pompeius magnus Posted September 6, 2005 Report Share Posted September 6, 2005 First you have to state the type of disaster. Almost any disaster that happened to a Roman town was that the gods were upset at something. In the case of Pompey it was Vulcan who was upset. Another source that well documents disasters is in Livy's War with Hannibal which describes different omens and how the Roman people reacted to them, disasters from battles are also described such as Cannae which the Romans prayed to just about every god and dedicated games to them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tobias Posted September 6, 2005 Report Share Posted September 6, 2005 As well as getting the augurs to check bird, sheep or bull entrails for signs:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeke Posted September 7, 2005 Report Share Posted September 7, 2005 Well.......I believe everything is some sort of omen in some way. Hannibal pleased the gods more on the day of Cannae apprently, people would say he was a good tatician. Yet why was he a good tatician to begin with? His parent maybe....yet who said that his father would be a good general? Got to ask yourself that and numerous other questions that the gods have worked into the world, though we may not see it. Disaters happen only in certain areas because their natural to that area in the first place..yet you got to ask yourself....why are they natural to that one place only? Why couldn't they be somewhere else. Hence the Gods work in mysterious ways But other then that the Roman People I know had "Fire Squads" so they must have helped in some sort of emergency. Zeke Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost_Warrior Posted September 7, 2005 Report Share Posted September 7, 2005 ::nods:: I believe *some* things are an omen, not all. I do wonder why people build in the places they do though. They have their really expensive houses right on the beach when they know they are going to get their pretty glass house smacked with several hurricanes each year. Or they build on the side of volcanoes (fertile farmland I know) but I saw one guy who built on an active volcano and lost everything about ever 10 or so years. Did they do this in Rome too? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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