Invejition of Fire Efigines. 241 



Pliny complains, and which he had himfelf fupplied. This 

 conjefture, however, I cannot confirm ; and anlient as well 

 as modern examples prove that the police regulations efta- 

 bliOied in fmall towns are not always to be found in capitals. 

 Antioch and feveral cities had ftreet-lanterns, which were 

 wanting in the proud Rome. But what excites fome doubt 

 is, that thcfe fire engines are never mentioned in the Roman 

 laws, nor in the accounts of the fires which frequently hap- 

 pened at Rome. When a misfortune of this kind happens 

 at prefent, it is always mentioned whether a fufficient number 

 of engines were prefent, and what efliicl they produced; and 

 Pliny^ indeed, does not omit them in the fliort account he 

 gives of the fire at Xicomedia. 



One paila^e onlv in Ulpian is commonly produced as a. 

 proof that, m his time, there were fire engines at Rome. 

 Where he enumerates thole things that belong to a houfe 

 when fold, he mentions, befides other articles, \\\<t Jiphones * 

 employed for exlinguilhing fires. But if this term here 

 means a fire engine, the pailage appears to prove too much ; 

 for, in that cafe, we nmlt Ijelieve that each houfe then was 

 furniflied with an engine of its own: iffo, thefe engines 

 mu(t have been fmall portable ones, fuch as arc common in 

 many houfes at prefent ; and the paflage therefore cannot be 

 adduced as a proof of public engines, fuch as Pliny regrets 

 the want of at Nlcomedia. But it is more probable that 

 Ulpian only alludes to thofe Jiphones which according to 

 Strabo's account were to be found in every houle at Rome; 

 that is, pipes which conveyed water into them for domeflic 

 purpofes. From the totaf want of fire engines, or the im- 

 perfect manner in which they were conftrufted, what Seneca 

 fays muft have been very true, that the height of the houfes 

 at Rome rendered it impofliblc to extinguifli the fires which 

 happened in that city f. That the houfes there were exceed- 

 ingly high, and the Itreets, bridges, and highvvays, very nar- 



■' Digejl.wii.m. 7. iS. Acetum quoquc, quod exting\tcndi incendii caufa 

 paratur, item ceniones, fiphoncs, pcrticae qu^que et lea las, et formioncs el 

 fpongias et hamas ct fcopas contincri, plcrique et l^egafus aiunf. Alex- 

 ander ab Alexandre, whofe authority however is not jecifivc, undiMftaiids 

 here engines. Dier. Gaiial. v. 24. p. 541. Siphoiics vcro, flftulas fol- 

 libus juntlas feu machinas hydraulicas.qviibus agitatis, at fuperiora sedium 

 exhauriunt squam, qui etiam organa pneumatica A\Si\. Thefe jijiuia fot- 

 libus juniJee, which no commentator lias explained, are thofe tubes which 

 were before propofed by Apollodorus. 



t Contro-jrrf.'w. lib. 2. p. 153. j^dcs, quas in tantum exfiruxere, ut 

 domus ad ufum cr munimentum paratae, fint nunc pcriculo, non pra;fidio i 

 tanta altitudo aedificionim clV, taniique viarum cngufViae, iit ncquc ad- 

 verfus igncm prxfidiuni, neque ex rviinis ullum uUam la partem cfFu- 

 giun; (\t. 



Vol. Xr. Ql row. 



