While Rome Burned: Fire, Leadership, and Urban Disaster in the Roman Cultural Imagination
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University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2013 While Rome Burned: Fire, Leadership, and Urban Disaster in the Roman Cultural Imagination Virginia Margaret Closs University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Classics Commons Recommended Citation Closs, Virginia Margaret, "While Rome Burned: Fire, Leadership, and Urban Disaster in the Roman Cultural Imagination" (2013). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 844. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/844 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/844 For more information, please contact [email protected]. While Rome Burned: Fire, Leadership, and Urban Disaster in the Roman Cultural Imagination Abstract Images of urban conflagration had a powerful hold on the ancient Roman literary imagination. This phenomenon represents a unique confluence between literary tradition and urban reality: Greco-Roman literature offers a wide array of poetic, philosophical and historiographic reflections of cities destroyed by fire, yet daily life in ancient Rome was haunted by the very real fear of conflagration. The major investigative goal of this project is the exploration of the ways in which Romans authors used powerful images of fiery destruction, often drawn from the broader literary tradition, to address contemporary moments of political crisis in the early imperial period. In three chapters, I follow the intersection of urban fires and claims to power, as expressed both in urban space and in the literary city of Rome, during three critical periods from early imperial history: Augustan, Neronian, and post-Neronian Rome. In each period, a distinct set of fire-related problems arose for the current leader: in the aftermath of disaster, each leader in different ways, attempted to configure himself as protector of and provider for the urban population, with varying outcomes. Augustus faced the task of renewing Rome after the defining rupture of the triumviral conflicts and the fall of the republic; Nero came to power after generations of jeopardized successions and often-violent transitions had produced significant civic anxiety and suspicion of new leadership, a precarious dynamic even before the unprecedented destruction of 64 CE; and Vespasian, founder of the Flavian dynasty, came to power in 69 CE, after Rome had been ravaged by the violent (and incendiary) Year of Four Emperors. Each ruler, in his own way, worked to equate his restoration of Rome after disaster, which included efforts to prevent future fires, with his larger claims to political control and even mastery of the cosmos. Likewise, authors working in an increasingly repressive environment found in images of urban destruction a productive set of metaphors and figures for addressing the fears and tensions attached to contemporary ideology. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Classical Studies First Advisor James Ker Keywords Disaster, Fire, Rome Subject Categories Classics This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/844 WHILE ROME BURNED: FIRE, LEADERSHIP, AND URBAN DISASTER IN THE ROMAN CULTURAL IMAGINATION Virginia M. Closs A DISSERTATION in Classical Studies Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2013 Supervisor of Dissertation ___________________________ James Ker Associate Professor of Classical Studies Graduate Group Chairperson ___________________________ Emily Wilson Associate Professor of Classical Studies Dissertation Committee: Joseph Farrell Professor of Classical Studies Cynthia Damon Professor of Classical Studies WHILE ROME BURNED: FIRE, LEADERSHIP, AND URBAN DISASTER IN THE ROMAN CULTURAL IMAGINATION COPYRIGHT 2013 Virginia M. Closs iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project has gone through many stages, and numerous people have generously contributed their time, support, and expertise in helping me see it through to its completion. The greatest measure of thanks is due to my committee: Cynthia Damon, Joseph Farrell, and especially my supervisor James Ker have been as insightful and encouraging a group of readers as I could ever have imagined. I am grateful to Emily Wilson, our graduate chair and leader of our prospectus workshop, for her contributions to the early development of this project. I am also extremely grateful to Henry Hurst and Nicola Terrenato, who provided me with a grounding in urban archaeology and Roman topography, as well as with opportunities to do fieldwork in Italy. I thank Lothar Haselberger for his support in obtaining funding to travel to Rome to investigate Roman epigraphy and topography related to my work in 2009. Harriet Flower’s contributions to and comments on an earlier exploration of the Domitianic altars discussed in this dissertation were of immense value. Peter Wiseman, Kirk Freudenburg, and Timothy Joseph were all kind enough to spend time discussing my project with me at different stages, and all made helpful suggestions for further thought and reading. I thank Lucas Rubin for lending me his extremely useful 2004 dissertation, and for meeting with me to discuss my project. The friends and associates who have read, listened, corrected, questioned, and sympathized throughout this process are too many to mention here, but special thanks must go to Matt Farmer, Sam Beckelhymer, and Lydia Spielberg. The contributions of the aforementioned are infinitely appreciated; all errors herein remain entirely my own. ABSTRACT iv WHILE ROME BURNED: FIRE, LEADERSHIP, AND URBAN DISASTER IN THE ROMAN CULTURAL IMAGINATION Virginia M. Closs James Ker Images of urban conflagration had a powerful hold on the ancient Roman literary imagination. This phenomenon represents a unique confluence between literary tradition and urban reality: Greco-Roman literature offers a wide array of poetic, philosophical and historiographic reflections of cities destroyed by fire, yet daily life in ancient Rome was haunted by the very real fear of conflagration. The major investigative goal of this project is the exploration of the ways in which Romans authors used powerful images of fiery destruction, often drawn from the broader literary tradition, to address contemporary moments of political crisis in the early imperial period. In three chapters, I follow the intersection of urban fires and claims to power, as expressed both in urban space and in the literary city of Rome, during three critical periods from early imperial history: Augustan, Neronian, and post-Neronian Rome. In each period, a distinct set of fire- related problems arose for the current leader: in the aftermath of disaster, each leader in different ways, attempted to configure himself as protector of and provider for the urban population, with varying outcomes. Augustus faced the task of renewing Rome after the defining rupture of the triumviral conflicts and the fall of the republic; Nero came to power after generations of jeopardized successions and often-violent transitions had produced significant civic anxiety and suspicion of new leadership, a precarious dynamic even before the unprecedented destruction of 64 CE; and Vespasian, founder of the v Flavian dynasty, came to power in 69 CE, after Rome had been ravaged by the violent (and incendiary) Year of Four Emperors. Each ruler, in his own way, worked to equate his restoration of Rome after disaster, which included efforts to prevent future fires, with his larger claims to political control and even mastery of the cosmos. Likewise, authors working in an increasingly repressive environment found in images of urban destruction a productive set of metaphors and figures for addressing the fears and tensions attached to contemporary ideology. TABLE OF CONTENTS vi INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................... 1 Chapter Outline and Parameters of Research. ................................................................. 4 Recurring Motifs: A Thematic Tour. ............................................................................. 14 CHAPTER ONE. The Vigilant Princeps: Augustan Responses to Fire at Rome. ............ 31 Divi Filius, Master of Disaster. ..................................................................................... 36 Republican Ruins in Recovering Rome. ....................................................................... 38 Firefighting and Social Control. .................................................................................... 45 Fire and the Imperial Residence. ................................................................................... 51 Vergil and the Augustan Literary Tradition: Foundations in Destruction. ................... 54 Incendiary Environments: Vitruvius on the City and Vergil on the Grove. .................. 55 Chariots of Fire: Georgics 1. ......................................................................................... 64 Vestigia veteris flammae: Aeneid 1 and 4. ..................................................................... 68 Burning Ships, Searing Memories: the Trojan Fleet in Aeneid 5. ................................. 76 Ovidian Instigations. ...................................................................................................... 80 Eternal Flame: