【简译】古罗马城内的消防与警务队伍——警备队 (Vigiles)

2022-11-07 11:08 作者:神尾智代 0人读过 | 我要投稿

The vigiles (or cohortes vigilum) were formed during the reign of Augustus to act as ancient Rome's permanent firefighting service. Evolving from earlier slave teams, the vigiles were organised as an urban military unit and eventually recruits came from the Roman citizenry. The body, with a permanent camp of its own and equipment stations dotted around the city, patrolled the streets of Rome each night and also performed certain nocturnal policing duties to ensure public order.

警备队（或称守夜人队）是在奥古斯都统治时期成立的，他们为古罗马的城市消防服务。他们早期是由被释放的奴隶自由民组成，后来逐渐发展为一个城市常备军事单位，组成人员也变为罗马市民。该队伍拥有自己的常备营地和遍布城市的哨所，夜间在罗马的街道上巡逻，并执行某些夜间治安任务以确保公共秩序稳定。

演变

The vigiles were created by Augustus in 6 CE to meet the high risk of fires in the capital presented by its high population density and widespread use of wooden housing and other buildings which had timber parts. It was not the first time such a force had been created for the avaricious Marcus Licinius Crassus, one of Rome's all-time richest men, had spotted the chance of making money by offering low prices for burning buildings and then having his team of slaves extinguish the fire so that it could be saved for redevelopment. If the property owner refused Crassus' offer, then the fire was left to rage on unabated.

警备队是奥古斯都在公元6年创建的，以应对首都人口密度高、广泛使用木制住房和其他有木材部分的建筑物所带来的火灾风险。这并不是第一次建立这样的部队，因为贪婪的马库斯·李锡尼·克拉苏（罗马有史以来最富有的人之一）发现了通过为燃烧的建筑物提供低价而赚钱的机会，然后让他的奴隶团队将火扑灭，这样就可以为重新开发节省资金。如果业主拒绝克拉苏的报价，那么克拉苏就会让火继续燃烧而不去扑灭。

The next step towards a proper fire service was taken by the aedile Egnatius Rufus who, like Crassus, created a force of slaves to put out fires but, unlike Crassus, seems to have been more motivated by issues of public safety. He may have sought political cachet from his creation, but it did not do him much good as the Senate later dealt him the death sentence for conspiring against the state. Another idea to protect the city, particularly at night, was the creation of the tresviri nocturni - three magistrates set on night watch. Yet again, this trio's workforce was composed of slaves, and it was their duty to prevent any disturbances in the city. Some wealthy private individuals even formed their own personal fire brigades, though, such was the need for a larger ever-present response team to fires.

埃格内修斯·鲁弗斯（Egnatius Rufus）在建立适当的消防服务方面迈出了下一步，他和克拉苏一样，建立了一支由奴隶组成的救火队伍，但与克拉苏不同的是，他似乎是出于对公共安全问题的考虑才这样做的。他可能从他的创造中寻求政治上的好处，但这对他没有什么好处，因为元老院后来以阴谋反对国家的罪名判处他死刑。另一个保护城市的想法，特别是在夜间，是设立了tresviri nocturni——三个负责夜间值班的治安法官。同样，这个三人组的劳动力也是由奴隶组成的，他们的职责是防止城市中出现任何骚乱。一些富有的市民甚至组建了自己的私人消防队，尽管如此，城市也很有必要维持一支常备消防队。

C. 21 BCE Augustus took matters in hand and reorganised what was left of Rufus' slaves, creating a force of 600 slaves to fight fires if and when they arose. The aediles were put in charge of this new force, but they seem to have been ineffectual for, following serious fires in 7 BCE, Augustus reorganised them again. This time the force was split to cover 14 zones, each further divided into vici. Thus, each of the 265 vici had its own designated group of firefighting public slaves commanded by the viciomagister. This was an improvement on the previous system, but there remained problems with coordination between different vici. This led to Augustus finally creating a single force, the vigiles.

公元前21年，奥古斯都接手此事，他重组了鲁弗斯剩下的奴隶，建立了一支由600名奴隶组成的部队，在火灾发生时负责灭火。市政官被安排负责这支新的部队，但他们似乎效率低下，因为在公元7年发生严重火灾后，奥古斯都再次重组了他们。这一次，部队被划分覆盖14个区域，每个区域又被划分为小区域。因此，265个区中的每个区都有自己指定的消防小组，由viciomagister指挥。这是对以前系统的一个改进，但不同小区域之间的协调仍然存在问题。这导致奥古斯都最终创建了一支单一的部队——警备队（守夜人队）。

组织与职责

The vigiles were composed of freedmen, with officers coming from the army. They were organised into seven 1000-man cohorts (although perhaps initially only half this number), each led by an equestrian tribune. Each cohort was divided into seven units led by a centurion. The entire force was commanded by an equestrian prefect, the Praefectus Vigilum. In the reign of Tiberius (14-37 CE) the term of service for vigiles was set at six years, after which they could claim Roman citizenship. During the reign of Trajan (98-117 CE) the prefect was given a sub-prefect as his second-in-command. Eventually, the term of service in the vigiles was reduced to a mere three years and the force began to attract citizens leading to an expansion under Septimius Severus (r. 193-211 CE).

警备队是由自由人组成的，其军官来自军队。他们被组织成七个1000人的队列（尽管最初可能只有这个数字的一半），每个队列由一个军事护民官领导。每个队列又分为七个单位，由一个百夫长领导。整个部队由一名护民官，即警备队长（Praefectus Vigilum）负责指挥。在提比略统治时期（公元14-37年），警备队的服务期限被设定为六年，之后他们可以申请罗马公民身份。在图拉真统治时期（公元98-117年），护民官配有一个副护民官作为二把手。在某些时候，警备队的服役期被缩短到仅为三年，这支部队开始受公民欢迎，并在塞普蒂米乌斯·塞维鲁（Septimius Severus，公元193-211年）时期得到扩张。

The 14 zones of the city of Rome were assigned so that each cohort was responsible for fires in two zones. The vigiles had their own camp built in the city while firefighting equipment was kept in each zone in a designated storage facility known as the excubitorium. Here too, a small number of the cohort was stationed on a permanent basis, presumably on rotation. The vigiles patrolled the city each night, literally earning their name and keeping a vigil for any outbreaks of fire. Another duty was to arrest anyone out on the streets at night and looking suspicious. Anyone arrested was taken to the city prefect, the commander of the city's urban cohorts, for judgement.

罗马市的 14 个区域以这样的方式进行分配，每个队列负责两个区域的火灾。警备队在城市中有自己的营地，而消防设备则存放在每个区的一个被称为excubitorium的指定储存设施中。有少量的部队长期驻扎，估计是轮流驻扎。警备队每晚都会在城市里巡逻，并对任何火灾保持警惕。他们另一项职责是逮捕任何夜间在街上出现的可疑人物。被逮捕的人都会被带到城市长官那里，也就是城市的指挥官那，接受审判。

Although officers of the vigiles, particularly centurions and prefects, often rose to take on roles in the more prestigious urban cohorts and Praetorian Guard, Rome's other military organisations, Roman historians such as Tacitus did not consider the vigiles as fighting soldiers. Having said that, in the crises of the 69 CE and 193 CE civil wars, they did see military action. In the 4th century CE, the vigiles were disbanded and replaced by specialised guilds responsible for firefighting.

尽管警备队的官员，特别是百夫长和护民官，经常在更有声望的城市队列和禁卫军（罗马的其他军事组织）中担任职务，但塔西佗等罗马历史学家并不认为警备队是作战士兵。然而，在公元69年和193年的内战危机中，他们确实参与了军事行动。在公元4世纪，警备队被解散，由负责消防的专门组织所取代。

消防

As equipment was primitive and the only sure way to contain a fire was to demolish a building (and sometimes its neighbours to prevent the blaze spreading), the best action the vigiles could provide was to spot a fire before it took a real hold. Another preventative measure was to limit the height of the large tenant blocks in Rome, increase the space between buildings and the width of streets, and build firewalls.

由于设备很原始，控制火势唯一可靠方法是拆除建筑物（有时还包括其邻居，以防止火势蔓延），警备队能够提供的最佳行动是在火灾真正发生之前排除隐患。另一个预防措施是限制罗马的大型租户街区的高度，增加建筑物之间的空间和街道的宽度，并建立防火带。

If a serious fire did break out, then the vigiles had the following equipment at their disposal, which was also required by tenants to provide too: fire buckets (amae), sponges (spongiae), force-pumps (siphones), axes (dolabrae), picks (secures), ladders (scalae), grappling hooks (falces), quilted blankets (centones), wicker mats (formiones), poles (perticae), brooms (scopae) and vinegar. With these, they could douse the fire, smother it, and pull down parts of or all of the burning buildings.

如果真的发生了严重的火灾，那么警备队有以下设备可供使用，业主和租户也需要提供这些设备：消防桶（amae）、海绵（spongiae）、水力泵（siphones）、斧头（dolabrae）、镐（secures）、梯子（scalae）、抓钩（falces）、软垫毯子（centones）、柳条垫（formiones）、杆（perticae）、扫帚（scopae）和醋。有了这些东西，他们就可以参与灭火，扑灭并全部或部分拆除正在燃烧的建筑物。

传承

The ruins of the excubitorium of cohors VII can still be seen today in Rome near the bridge which crosses to the Tiber Island. Another excubitorium, that of the cohors V, is known to lie beneath the church of Santa Maria in Domnica, which was built in the 19th century CE. The idea of a permanent firefighting service spread to other Roman cities. Claudius (r. 41-54 CE) created two additional units of vigiles to safeguard Ostia and Puteoli, and other fire brigades are known at Carthage, Lyon, Ravenna, and Constantinople in Late Antiquity. The vigiles name also lives on in the city of Rome and across the country as Italy's fire and rescue service is today called the Vigili del Fuoco.

今天，在罗马通往台伯河岛的桥附近，仍然可以看到第七列队的excubitorium遗址。另一处excubitorium，即第五excubitorium，位于多姆尼卡的圣玛丽亚教堂下面，该教堂建于公元19世纪。常备消防服务的想法传播到了其他罗马城市。克劳狄乌斯（公元41-54年）组建了两个额外的治安队来保护奥斯蒂亚和波佐利，其他消防队在迦太基、里昂、拉文纳和君士坦丁堡也有记载。警备队的名字也在罗马和全国各地流传，意大利的消防和救援服务今天被称为Vigili del Fuoco（意大利消防部队）。