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33-516: The triumviri nocturni (meaning three men of the night ) were the first men, being privately owned slaves , organized into a group that combatted the common problems of fire and conflagrations in Rome. Another organization dedicated to fighting fires in ancient Rome was a band of slaves led by the aedile Marcus Egnatius Rufus . The privately operated system became ineffective, so in the interest of keeping himself and Rome safe, Augustus instituted

66-532: A statio provisionally identified near the Aemilian Bridge. As mentioned elsewhere detachments of watchmen were stationed at Ostia and Portus and there were sub-stations throughout the city. What arrangements were made for policing the outer suburbs of the city is not known. (Certainly after the governmental reforms of Diocletian the jurisdiction of the Praefectus Urbi extended as far as

99-431: A banner or signum which was carried by a signifer . Also, each century provided a buccinator , who played a buccina , a kind of horn used to transmit acoustic orders. On the battlefield, the centurion stood at the far right of the first row of men next to the signifer, while the optio stood at the rear, to avoid, if necessary, the disbanding of the troops and ensure the relay between typical closed order lines used by

132-459: A legal background began serving as Prefect to fulfil the magisterial capacity of the office. As a judge, the Prefect made rulings in his court for the common thieves caught during the night. Eventually, the Prefect was given jurisdiction over daytime petty crimes as well. According to Justinian, in the event of more serious crimes the decision was made by the praefectus urbi , "if the offender

165-402: A new public firefighting force called the vigiles . Augustus modelled the new firefighters after the fire brigade of Alexandria, Egypt . The vigiles were also known by their nickname Spartoli or "little bucket fellows", given to them because of the buckets they carried water in, which were made of rope sealed with pitch . In AD 6, Augustus levied a 4% tax on the sale of slaves and used

198-527: A subdivision of Romulus' force. It is speculated that in this period a century may have referred to a Phalanx block and was perhaps the main tactical unit on the battlefield. After the adoption of the manipular Roman army in 340 BC the centuria took a backseat to the maniple as the main military unit used by the Roman army. In Livy 's The History of Rome and Polybius ' Histories, centuria do not appear by name but both writers do mention subdivisions of

231-557: A time, with two centuries being stationed at each city. During the Great Fire of Rome , the vigiles took to looting the city rather than enforcing law and fighting the fires. The vigiles appear to have lost their status as an independent unit and come under the authority of the Praetorian prefects sometime in the early 3rd century. In the beginning, the corps had difficulty recruiting men. In an effort to entice men to enlist

264-561: A unit of the Vigiles. Each cohort was divided into seven centuries , each of 70–80 men commanded by a centurion . Each cohort patrolled two of the city's fourteen administrative regiones . The vigiles were made up of freedmen by this time. The cohorts were doubled in size in AD 205. The vigiles also acted as a night watch, keeping an eye out for burglars and hunting down runaway slaves , and were on occasion used to maintain order in

297-546: Is a person of such thuggish and infamous character ... the case is sent on to the prefect of the city". Often times Praefectus Vigilum would go on to be prefects of the Praetorian Guard . Beyond the office of the prefect, the Vigiles were ordered by rank similar to the military. While some terms of service could extend beyond twenty years, most commissioned ranks were much shorter. Since the Vigiles never achieved

330-463: The Lex Visellia was passed in 24 AD, granting full citizenship and a bonus cash stipend to Vigiles after six years of service. By the 2nd century, citizens were also allowed to enlist. The Vigiles were accommodated in barracks and patrolled the streets, especially at night, on the lookout for any unsupervised fires. Every householder was obliged to keep equipment for fighting fires, and

363-586: The Roman Republic , the members of which cast one collective vote. Its origin seems to be the homonymous military unit. The comitia centuriata elected important magistrates like consuls and praetors . The centuria dates all the way back to the earliest armies of the Roman Kingdom being described in Plutarch 's account of the life of Romulus , however it is only mentioned in passing as

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396-482: The Via Lata . Every cohort was equipped with standard firefighting equipment. The sipho or fire engine was pulled by horses and consisted of a large double action pump that was partially submerged in a reservoir of water. The Vigiles designated as aquarii needed to have an accurate knowledge of where water was located, and they also formed bucket brigades to bring water to the fire. Attempts were made to smother

429-408: The Roman army. The centuria consisted of a hundred soldiers: 80 combat legionaries, with 20 support staff making up the remainder of the 100 men. Each contubernium (the minimal unit in the Roman legion) consisted of ten soldiers who lived in the same tent while on campaign or the same bunk room in barracks. In the imperial period, but likely not the republican period, the first cohort was twice

462-626: The Urban Cohorts, followed by becoming a centurion in the Praetorian Guard. They would then transfer to the Legions, where they could reach the rank of Primus Pilus . The prefect was also known as the Prefect of the Watch. The prefect was an eques appointed by the emperor to command the seven cohorts. It was not a particularly sought after office until the 3rd century. Prominent jurists with

495-570: The Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.133 via cp1102 cp1102, Varnish XID 540729648 Upstream caches: cp1102 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 05:33:40 GMT Century (military unit) Centuria ( Latin: [kɛn̪ˈt̪ʊria] ; pl. : centuriae ) is a Latin term (from the stem centum meaning one hundred) denoting military units originally consisting of 100 men. The size of

528-491: The centuria changed over time, and from the first century BC through most of the imperial era the standard size of a centuria was 100 men. By the time of the Roman Empire , ordo became a synonym of centuria (in 4 BC it was used for a maniple ). In the political context the centuria was the constituent voting unit in the assembly of the centuries ( Latin : comitia centuriata ), an old form of popular assembly in

561-498: The city to burn under orders from Nero, who later built his palace on land that was cleared by the fire. Regardless, Nero enacted fire code laws following the Great Fire to avoid further conflagrations. These laws called for more public access to water and prohibited buildings from sharing a common wall. Starting about 27 BC, Augustus added a police function to the Vigiles to counterbalance the urban mobs that had run rampant during

594-770: The east coast and for 100 miles (160 km) in every direction. This might suggest that his subordinate, the Praefectus Vigilum , had a commensurate responsibility.) The Vigiles often play a prominent role in the Marcus Didius Falco novels of Lindsey Davis , providing assistance in Falco's investigations. In particular, Falco's old army friend Lucius Petronius Longus is a 'Watch Captain' in Regio XIII. In Death in Vesunna by Harry Turtledove ,

627-417: The fire by covering it with patchwork quilts ( centones ) soaked with water. There is even evidence that chemical firefighting methods were used by throwing a vinegar based substance called acetum into fires. In many cases the best way to prevent the spread of flames was to tear down the burning building with hooks and levers. For fires in multiple story buildings, cushions and mattresses were spread out on

660-489: The ground for people to jump onto from the upper levels. A major duty of the Vigiles was to enforce preventative measures against conflagrations. Adequate fire fighting equipment was required in every home. The Digest of Justinian decrees that Vigiles are "ordered to remind every one to have a supply of water ready in his upper room". While the Vigiles only had advising authority, their recommendations were often followed to avoid repercussions for negligence. Corporal punishment

693-477: The holder of this office being given a substantive command outside Rome. Whether or not his force included vigiles from the city is uncertain. Whether or not the Praefectus Vigilum had his headquarters in any of the stationes identified above or whether he had an entirely separate praefectura is not known. If he is associated with one of the barracks it is likely to have been that of I Cohort in

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726-481: The latter days of the Republic. In addition to extinguishing fires, the Vigiles were the nightwatch of Rome. Their duties included apprehending thieves and robbers and capturing runaway slaves. The task of guarding the baths was added as a duty of the Vigiles during the reign of Alexander Severus when the baths remained open during the night. They dealt primarily with petty crimes and looked for disturbances of

759-415: The maniple of around 60 men that centurions commanded. The only point of disagreement between the two was the number of these units in a maniple; Livy says 3, while Polybius says 2. Livy is writing of a time 150 years before Polybius, so the number of men in this unit may have changed over that period. A century was commanded by a centurion , who was assisted by an optio and tesserarius . It had

792-409: The men themselves were equipped with pumps, buckets, hooks (for pulling down burning material), picks, mattocks and axes. They also used ballistae for knocking down burning houses and creating firebreaks . They even had their own medical support ( medici ), with four doctors attached to each cohort, and their own chaplains ( victimarii ). A siphonarius operated a pump and an aquarius supervised

825-402: The mid-2nd century that official stations were built explicitly for the Vigiles' use. By the early 3rd century sub-stations ( excubitoria ), which held forty to fifty men, were constructed to accommodate the expanding city and the surrounding suburbs. The locations of four of the seven cohort stationes or barracks have been fairly definitively identified: The VII Cohort was probably housed in

858-528: The peace while they patrolled the streets. Sedition , riots and violent crimes were handled by the Cohortes urbanae and (to a lesser extent) the Praetorian Guard , though Vigiles could provide a supporting role in these situations. The Vigiles were not considered a para-military unit. The first Vigiles sequestered private homes and buildings to use as their command posts . It was not until

891-477: The prestige of the Praetorian Guard or the Urban Cohorts , serving in the corps was usually only a means of achieving more honourable and lucrative posts. One known praefectus , Placidianus was put in charge of an expeditionary force sent to Gaul by Claudius II (Gothicus) on his accession in 269 AD to secure the lower Rhone valley against the so-called Gallic Empire . This is the only known instance of

924-420: The proceeds to set up the new force. The first units of vigiles were under the command of the aediles and the vicomagistri . There were only 6,000 vigiles and they were all slaves. In 22 AD they were commanded by the praefectus vigilum , who was of equestrian rank, and subpraefectus and were divided into seven cohorts commanded by a tribune . Usually tribunes would begin their career by commanding

957-424: The size of the other cohorts. Each of its five centuriae was a double centuria of 200 men (rather than 100). The first cohort thus consisted of 1,000 men. Centurions of these first-cohort double centuriae were called primi ordinis ("first rank"), except for the leader of the first centuria of the first cohort, who was referred to as primus pilus (the name denoted the first maniple , Latin : pilus , of

990-476: The streets. Their most famous prefect, Naevius Sutorius Macro , succeeded Lucius Aelius Sejanus as Prefect of the Praetorian Guard after his men had been used by the Emperor Tiberius to retake control of the city from Sejanus's soldiers. Vigiles were stationed at the harbour cities of Ostia and Portus . A vexillatio (detachment) of four centuries was detached from Rome for four months at

1023-418: The supply of water. The ordinary firefighters were called milites (soldiers). The Vigiles were organized into seven cohorts each 1,000 men strong. The cohorts contained seven centuries . The centuries were commanded by centurions , and the cohort was commanded by a tribune . The commander of the Vigiles was the Praefectus Vigilum. The centurions of the Vigiles would often go on to become centurions in

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1056-469: The vigiles of Vesunna, Roman Gaul (now modern Périgueux , France ) are tasked to hunt down two murderers from the future , whose victim was a prominent citizen in the city whom they murdered with a pistol . Despite initial bafflement, the head of the vigiles is able to solve the case with help from his Greek doctor friend and arrest the murderers despite their previously unknown weapon. Triumviri Too Many Requests If you report this error to

1089-466: Was the most common punishment for negligence according to the Digest of Justinian, "where persons have paid insufficient attention to their fire, the prefect ... orders them to be beaten". During the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64 over one third of Rome was destroyed by flames. The young Emperor Nero helped to direct the Vigiles in fighting the flames. It was rumoured that the Vigiles intentionally allowed

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