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Reviews
| Floods of the Tiber in Ancient Rome, by Gregory S. Aldrete. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007. 368 pages. $60.00, cloth.
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| Scholarship on the ancient environment and its influence on ancient societies has flourished during the past half century. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, climate change, even El Nino have all been the subjects of scholarly examination. Floods of the Tiber in Ancient Rome is a valuable addition to this literature, considering in detail the relationship between the ancient Mediterranean's largest city and the river that both made its existence and destruction possible. It is surprising that this is the first full scale study of so important a topic. Professor Aldrete treats his subject in six lucid chapters, skillfully combing Greek and Latin texts, archaeology, hydrological studies of the Tiber, and comparative evidence from better documented medieval and modern Tiber floods. The result is a vivid and illuminating description of a too often ignored aspect of the realities of daily life in ancient Rome. |
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The book's six chapters fall into three groups. The first two chapters consider the evidence for and pattern of Tiber floods in antiquity. Professor Andrete provides Greek and Latin texts and translations and detailed analyses of every ancient reference to Tiber floods from the late fifth century BCE to the end of the fourth century CE and concludes that floods were a much more frequent occurrence than is usually believed. Specifically, Romans could expect to experience relatively minor flooding at least twice a decade and catastrophic floods every twenty to twenty-five years. The next two chapters consider the short and long-term effects of Tiber flooding, highlighting impacts that comparative evidence would lead us to expect and impacts that the ancient evidence suggests did not occur. In the former category are extensive structural damage and collapse of buildings, property loss, and death of animals and people by drowning. The latter includes primarily health hazards such as those caused by extended exposure to moisture and mud, contaminated drinking water, destruction of food stocks and famine, and, of course, disease. Surprisingly, however, the author found only limited evidence for large-scale destruction of buildings despite the fact that most Roman public buildings were located in the Tiber flood plain. Even more surprising, he found no evidence for significant loss of life due to contaminated water, spoiled food, famine, or drowning. |
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The final two chapters shift focus from the realities of Tiber flooding to the Roman response to the dangers they faced from the river. His conclusions are unexpected. Although the Romans did take some steps that could mitigate flood damage, such as constructing buildings on podiums and strengthening the Tiber embankments, they did not implement a major flood control program to eliminate the danger of serious flooding despite having the engineering knowledge and resources to do so. The reasons for this situation were both environmental and cultural. The hydrology of the Tiber basin led to floods developing gradually and draining quickly so that Rome was spared destructive flash floods. The peculiar topography of Rome in which hills were immediately adjacent to low-lying areas liable to flooding such as the forum and Campus Martius afforded inhabitants of the city ready access to high ground and safe refuge during a flood. At the same time, the unique design and massive construction of Roman warehouses and other public buildings protected both the food in them and the buildings themselves during floods. Moreover, Rome's gravity driven aqueduct system continuously refreshed the city's water supply with fresh water from distant sources, while simultaneously flushing away contaminated water and waste through the city's extensive drainage system, thereby preventing famine and disease outbreaks. Finally, religion encouraged the Romans to view floods as divine portents and omens rather than natural dangers to be eliminated, reducing the incentive to interfere with the Tiber's natural flood pattern, especially since Rome normally did not experience the most serious and destructive effects of flooding thanks to the factors just mentioned. |
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Floods of the Tiber in Ancient Rome is that rare thing in scholarship, a work that genuinely fills a gap in the scholarly literature. Professor Aldrete has brilliantly illuminated an aspect of ancient Rome that was ever present to the city's inhabitants but almost invisible to modern historians, and in so doing, he has provided a model study of the interaction of a city and its environment. Historians of the ancient environment and Rome will both find much to interest them in this excellent monograph. |
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| California State University, Los Angeles |
Stanley Burstein |
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