Page:Fires and Fire-fighters (1913).djvu/35

Rh eye a picture of a fire in ancient Rome. There is sufficient evidence that the Romans were distinctly human and no doubt an outbreak of fire provided a pleasant interlude when the discourse of a popular orator started to become tedious. Hence it can be imagined, even as today, that the "Nocturns," or fire police, were fully occupied in preventing the curious from hindering the firemen. The "Præfectus Vigilum," or Fire Chief, would arrive to take charge of operations and woe betide any one in the vicinity, were there any suspicion of incendiarism. The services of the "Questionarius," or Fire Marshal, would be hastily requisitioned and, judging by the comprehensive fashion in which the law was administered at that period, it may be hazarded that while no doubt the guilty eventually received their well merited reward, it is not unlikely that meantime a proportion of the innocent had also tasted of that official's ingenious skill. This assuredly must have had a discouraging effect upon the enthusiasm of the genus "firebug," for inasmuch as example is generally a deterrent, it mattered little whether the punishment reached the real offender, so long as the "modus operandi" of the punishment and the reason thereof were known and appreciated.

But to return to a more serious vein of thought, it is a fact that modern methods of procedure against incendiaries lack the finality and thoroughness of those early days. In a later portion of this volume the subject is treated at length and hence it is unnecessary further to pursue the question. Suffice it to say, that, broadly speaking, the Fire Department of Ancient Rome was as well organized and equipped for its duties as many a municipal force as late as the eighteenth century and it might not be exaggeration to hazard, even composed of as competent fire-fighters as some corps of today.