The Vigiles Urbani were created by the Emperor Augustus to be a firefighting force for the city of Rome. Their role was extended to include patrols of the city, to prevent public disturbances. For this reason, the vigiles urbani, or city watch, are sometimes described as being Rome’s police force. This is where most of the confusion comes in. Their duties were nothing like those we would associate with a police force. In this post, I would like to explain the origins of the vigiles and try to help you to better understand exactly what their duties were.
The Vigiles or more properly the Vigiles Urbani (“watchmen of the City”) or Cohortes Vigilum (“cohorts of the watchmen”) were the firefighters and night watch of Ancient Rome.
During the republic Rome had no major fire service. There is reference to a small group called the trevisiri nocturni, or ‘three men of the night’. These men seemed to help the aediles to put out fires. The trevisiri nocturni had a small group of slaves which would help the public to fight fires. These were privately owned slaves and seem to have been small in number.
“Among the ancients, three men were in charge of fighting the fire and, as they carried out night watches, they were called the Nocturni. The aediles and the tribunes of the plebs sometimes joined them; and there were also, in addition, a detachment of public slaves on duty near the gates and walls, which could be called in. There were also certain corps of private slaves who extinguished fires, either for payment or for free. , the Divine Augustus preferred that this duty be accomplished under his supervision. ” (Paul, “Digest”, I – 15.)
The first ever sizeable Roman fire brigade was created by Marcus Licinius Crassus. He took advantage of the fact that Rome had no fire department, by creating his own brigade—500 men strong—which rushed to burning buildings at the first cry of alarm. Upon arriving at the scene, however, the firefighters did nothing while Crassus offered to buy the burning building from the distressed property owner, at a very low price. If the owner agreed to sell the property, his men would put out the fire, if the owner refused, then they would simply let the structure burn to the ground. In this way Crassus was able to increase his wealth as slum lord, becoming Rome’s richest citizen.
A proper fire fighting service was first brought to Rome by an aedile by the name of Egnatius Rufus, who created a band of slaves that were tasked with putting out fires, unlike Crassus his motivation was either to help the Roman people or to gain political status. The slaves were quite effective and the work was completely funded by Egnatius Rufus. It made him so popular that when one of the consuls died, Egnatius had enough support to win the election for consul, without the support of Augustus, who was in the habit of appointing consuls each year. Augustus promptly had Egnatius arrested and executed for treason, but he also realised just how much popularity a fire service could offer him, as well as the benefit that it would offer the city.
In 21 BC, Augustus reorganized Rufus’ slaves, creating a new group of 600 slaves led by the aediles. Eventually, Augustus created a fire brigade called the Vigiles Urbani in 6 AD.The Vigiles numbered 7,000 men, and were divided into cohorts of 1,000 men. Each cohort was responsible for two regions. Overall, the Vigiles were commanded by an equestrian called the praefectus vigilum.
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” which was given to them because of the buckets they carried water in, which were made of rope sealed with pitch.
Roman Emperor Nero took the basic idea from Augustus and then built on it further. He had teams of vigiles with buckets patrolling the city from AD 60, in order to respond more quickly to any conflagration. The vigiles would combat fires using bucket brigades and pumps, as well as poles, hooks and even ballistae to tear down buildings in advance of the flames. The Vigiles patrolled the streets of Rome to watch for fires and served as a peace keeping force. When there was a fire, the men would line up to the nearest water source and pass buckets hand in hand to the fire.
Because the vigiles were used to patrol the city, serving in a policing role, they are often thought of as being similar to the legions in equipment, appearance and organisation. Although some of the same terms are used for the units and officers, the basic membership is very different. In AD 6, Augustus levied a 4% tax on the sale of slaves and used the proceeds to set up the new force. The first Vigiles units were under the command of Aediles and the Vicomagistri. There were only 6000 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 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 cohorts were doubled in size in AD 205. The early Vigiles were all slaves, but by Nero’s time, they were made up of freedman.
In the beginning, the corps had difficulty recruiting men. Life expectancy for the vigiles appears to have been low. The emperors either needed to fund the cost of thousands of slaves every few years, to keep up their numbers, or encourage poor freedmen or Latins to join (note: freedmen under 30, were also classed as Latins). In an effort to entice men to enlist the Lex Visellia was passed in 24 AD, granting full citizenship and a bonus cash stipend to Vigiles after six years of service.
From Ulpian: “A Latin receives Roman citizenship by military service in virtue of the Lex Visellia, if he have served six years in the Roman vigiles: but afterwards by a senatus-consultum it was allowed him to obtain Roman citizenship by serving three years in the vigiles.”
By contrast legionaries would get citizenship and a stipend after 25 years of service. I assume the difference in the length of service is due to the health risks associated with the role. Since the Romans had no special breathing aparatus, I would expect that respiratory illness from smoke inhalation would have been a common cause of death. By the 2nd century, citizens were also allowed to enlist.
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 a time, with two centuries being stationed at each city.
Rome suffered a number of serious fires, most notably the fire on 19 July AD 64 which eventually destroyed two thirds of Rome. During the Great Fire of Rome the Vigiles took to looting the city rather than enforcing law and fighting the fires. This probably led to the rumors that Nero was responsible for starting the fire. He was not. On hearing of the fire he rushed to the city. Although his main palace had been destroyed by the blaze, he opened his other palaces to those made homeless in the blaze. He then initiated strict new fire prevention laws.
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.
Structure and orgaisation
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 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 the supply of water. The ordinary firefighters were called milites (soldiers).
Within each cohort, there are men specialized in specific tasks. There are thus the Acquarii Vigils (who organize the water supply and work in close collaboration with those in charge of the aqueducts), the siphonarii (responsible for the maintenance and use of the pumps), the emitularii (they have a rescue mission, and have for example mattresses on the ground to allow the inhabitants prisoners of buildings in flames to jump), the balneari (they supervise the public baths, which remain open at night from the reign of Diocletian or Caracalla ), the horreari(who ensure the surveillance of the warehouses), the carcerarii (jailers), the quaestionarii (in charge of the interrogation of prisoners), the sebaciarii (they carry the torches and accompany the rounds at night or escort important figures), etc. The cohorts even have in their ranks their own doctors (four per cohort, who also come to the aid of the victims) and a victimarius, responsible for maintaining the cult of the Emperor and the protective gods of the barracks, in particular Vulcan and Vesta.
Beyond the office of the prefect, the Vigiles were ordered by rank similar to the military. Although the general rank and file troops were freedmen, it is likely that the officers were drawn from the legions and followed the same terms of service. While some terms of service could extend beyond twenty years, most commissioned ranks were much shorter. Since the Vigiles never achieved 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.
The centurions of the Vigiles would often go on to become centurions in the Urban Cohorts, followed by becoming a centurion in the Praetorian Guard. They might then transfer to the Legions, where they could reach the rank of Primus Pilus.
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 prefect was also known as the Prefect of the Watch. He was an equestrian, appointed by the emperor to command the seven cohorts. It was not a particularly sought after office until the 3rd century.
Prominent jurists with 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 is a person of such thuggish and infamous character … the case is sent on to the prefect of the city”. Occasionally the Praefectus Vigilum would go on to be prefects of the Praetorian Guard.
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. An inscription from Macro’s hometown attests to him being praefectus vigilum, before being given command of the Urban Cohort.
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 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 below 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 the Via Lata.
Fighting Fires
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 powerful pumps were operated by five or six siphonarii. At high pressure the water from the pumps could reach a height of 20 to 30 metres.
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 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 the ground for people to jump onto from the upper levels.
“We call a siphon an instrument which pours water by blowing; the Orientals use it. As soon as they learn that a house is on fire, they run with their siphons full of water and extinguish the fire; projecting water to the upper parts, they also clean the vaults. ” (Isidore of Seville , “The Etymologies”, XX – 6 – 9.)
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 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”.
“And since, for the most part, the fires are caused by the negligence of the inhabitants, he [the prefect of Vigils] must whip those who have been reckless about the fires, or else spare them the whip and give them a severe warning. . ” ( Paul , “Digest”, I – 15.)
The Great Fire of Rome
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 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.
Historians from the era of the Flavian dynasty or later were quick to blame everything on Nero, despite evidence to the contrary. Cassius Dio claimed “He secretly sent out men who pretended to be drunk,” “and caused them at first to set fire to one or two or even several buildings.”
Cassius Dio claimed that “Many [houses] were set on fire by the same men who came to lend assistance,” Nero’s men, he claims, ran through the town, setting buildings on fire. “The soldiers, including the night watch, having an eye to plunder, instead of putting out fires, kindled new ones.”
Tacitus also reports people encouraging the fire, but does not say who sent them. “No one dared to stop the mischief, because of incessant menaces from a number of persons who forbade the extinguishing of the flames,” he said they; “kept shouting that there was one who gave them authority, either seeking to plunder more freely, or obeying orders.”
Dio also reports that Nero stood on the roof of his palace and played the lyre while Rome burned. That would have been very hard to do, because according to Tacitus he was at Antium, Tacitus reported that he rushed to Rome as soon as he heard. By the time he’d made it, though, his palace—the place where Dio claims he played the lyre—had already been destroyed.
According to Tacitus “To relieve the people, driven out homeless as they were, he threw open to them the Campus Martius and the public buildings of Agrippa, and even his own gardens, and raised temporary structures to receive the destitute multitude,” To provide further relief: “Supplies of food were brought up from Ostia and the neighboring towns, and the price of corn was reduced to three sesterces a peck.”
“The water was misused by certain individuals for their use: so that it flowed more abundantly and that it was in more places at the disposal of the public, he established monitors; should be made available to everyone in a place of easy access; finally, dwellings should not have party walls, each house having its own particular enclosure. These measures, well received, because they were useful, also contributed to beautification of the new town. ” ( Tacitus, “Annals”, XV – 43 – 4.6.)
The fire was apparently blamed on the Christians. Tacitus says that this was the beginning of the persecution of Christianity. “An arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty,” he says. “Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired.”
We don’t know if any of this was true. We know that St Peter and St Paul were both executed on the orders of Nero a few years later. Other Romans talk about the persecution of Christians, although they don’t specifically connect it to the fire like Tacitus does. Suetonius praises Nero for his punishments of them, writing, “Punishment was inflicted on the Christians, a class of men given to a new and mischievous superstition.”
Historian Gordon Stein suggests that the account in Tacitus may have been a later addition by Christian monks. “It is present almost word-for-word in the Chronicle of Sulpicius Severus (died in 403 A.D.), where it is mixed in with obviously false tales.” Stein thinks that this passage was added hundreds of years after the Great Fire. “Copyists working in the Dark Ages,” he claims, “copied the passage from Sulpicius into the manuscript of Tacitus.”
Police force
Starting about 27 BC, Augustus added a police function to the Vigiles to counterbalance the urban mobs that had run rampant during the latter days of the Republic. It is here that they become most misunderstood. It should be remembered that this role was limited in its authority and had no mandate to investigate crimes. These were freedmen and slaves, not citizens. Membership of the vigiles was beneath the dignity of Roman citizens.
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 these novels, the vigiles are presented as much like an early 20th century police force, which they were not. At the time in which the novels are set, the vigiles did not even have a single watch house.
Their duties, as the night watch of the city, included apprehending thieves and robbers and capturing runaway slaves. Since they did not conduct investigations, these duties were only if the culprit was known, or if there was a hue and cry. They dealt primarily with petty crimes and looked for disturbances of the peace while they patrolled the streets. They would break up brawls and arrest unruly drunks. The task of guarding the public baths was added as a duty of the Vigiles during the reign of Alexander Severus when the baths remained open during the night. 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 responsible for investigating murders, but I expect that they would have been responsible for reporting and taking custody of bodies, found in the streets or the river at night.
The Vigiles were not considered a para-military unit. There is no evidence that the vigiles wore metal armour, something that wouldn’t have been practical for firefighting. Even the praetorian guard were not allowed to wear armour within the city, unless explicitly ordered to do so by the emperor. I expect that the vigiles would usually only be armed with firefighting tools. Try to shake off the idea of them being legions of troops marching through the city streets. The Urban Cohort and the Praetorian Guard served those roles. The vigiles were the little bucket boys of Rome.
Quarters
The Urban Cohort and the Praetorian Guard had a vast, custom built barracks building on the edge of the city. The vigiles had nothing like that, for centuries.
The first Vigiles sequestered private homes and buildings to use as their command posts. This was the case for the whole of the first century, including the period when my own novels are set. I speculated that a insula would have been a suitable, low cost accomodation for each cohort of the vigiles, during this period. It was not until 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:
- I Cohort: On the east side of the Via Lata opposite the Saepta;
- III Cohort: On Viminal;
- IV Cohort: On the Aventine, near the Baths of Caracalla;
- V Cohort: On Caelian Hill near present site of S. Maria in Domnica.
The VII Cohort was probably housed in a statio provisionally identified near the Aemiian 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. After the governmental reforms of Diocletian the jurisdiction of the Praefectus Urbi extended as far as 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.
It is interesting to note that the Emperors of the late first century were wary of groups like the vigiles urbani, feeling that any large body of men might potentially become a threat to the security of the cities they served in. This is noted in the letters between Pliny and the Emperor Trajan.
Pliny wrote about the need for fire fighting organizations:
“While I was making a progress in a different part of the province, a most extensive fire broke out at Nicomedia, which not only consumed several private houses, but also two public buildings; the town-house and the temple of Isis, though they stood on contrary sides of the street. The occasion of its spreading thus far was partly owing to the violence of the wind, and partly to the indolence of the people, who, manifestly, stood idle and motionless spectators of this terrible calamity. The truth is the city was not furnished with either engines, buckets, or any single instrument suitable for extinguishing fires; which I have now however given directions to have prepared. You will consider, Sir, whether it may not be advisable to institute a company of fire-men, consisting only of one hundred and fifty members. I will take care none but those of that business shall be admitted into it, and that the privileges granted them shall not be applied to any other purpose. As this corporate body will be restricted to so small a number of members, it will be easy to keep them under proper regulation.”— Pliny, Letters of Pliny
Trajan, the emperor at the time responded by saying:
“You are of opinion it would be proper to establish a company of firemen in Nicomedia, agreeably to what has been practised in several other cities. But it is to be remembered that societies of this sort have greatly disturbed the peace of the province in general, and of those cities in particular. Whatever name we give them, and for whatever purposes they may be founded, they will not fail to form themselves into factious assemblies, however short their meetings may be. It will therefore be safer to provide such machines as are of service in extinguishing fires, enjoining the owners of houses to assist in preventing the mischief from spreading, and, if it should be necessary, to call in the aid of the populace.”— Trajan, Letters of Pliny
For people who want to know more, a fantastic resource, including all quotes relating to the legal duties of the vigiles can be found here.
Novels of Colin Hough 