famous cities. Th e worst aff ected was Sardis (also Sardes), the
old Lydian royal capital, and Tiberius made a grant of 10 mil-
lion sesterces toward its restoration as well as remitting all
taxation for a period of fi ve years. Th is magnanimous ges-
ture was recorded on a handsome sestertius type showing a
seated fi gure of the emperor accompanied by the inscription
CIVITATIBVS ASIAE RESTITVTIS (“the restoration of the
cities of Asia”).
Earthquakes in the Mediterranean basin were of quite
frequent occurrence in Roman times, as they are today. Th e
empire’s eastern provinces were especially aff ected, and in
the winter of 114 and 115 c.e. the Syrian capital of Antioch
(modern-day Antakya) was badly damaged by a major seis-
mic event. Th e emperor Trajan (r. 98–117 c.e.) happened to
be wintering in the city while on campaign in the ancient
Near East and had a lucky escape when, reputedly through
divine intervention, he was led from a building just prior to
its collapse. Th is miraculous deliverance was recorded on the
coinage of 115 c.e. by a type bearing the inscription CONSER-
VATORI PATRIS PATRIAE (“to the preserver of the Father of
his People”) and showing a colossal fi gure of Jupiter protect-
ing a much smaller image of the emperor.
Fire posed a constant threat to the populations of large
cities in the Roman world. Our knowledge of these events
tends to be focused on Rome itself, though similar events
were certainly taking place in the empire’s other great ur-
ban centers. Th e most famous confl agration is that which
occurred in the capital in July 64 c.e. during the reign of
Nero (r. 54–68 c.e.). Whether it was deliberately set by the
eccentric emperor (as charged by the historian Suetonius)
we cannot be sure, but the devastation of central Rome on
this occasion allowed Nero to launch an ambitious rebuild-
ing program, much of which was personally benefi cial to
him; for example, he had built the Domus Aurea, or Golden
House, an extravagant new imperial residence. Contempo-
rary coin types again make reference to these events. An ex-
tensive series in gold, silver, and brass was issued throughout
Nero’s fi nal years (64–68 c.e.) showing a handsome seated
fi gure of the goddess Roma symbolizing the restoration of
the city aft er the disaster of the fi re. Another type, appear-
ing on gold aurei and silver denarii only, depicts the restored
Temple of Vesta in the Roman Forum. It is a testament to the
frequency of fi res in central Rome that Nero’s restored struc-
ture was the sixth temple to occupy this site and was itself to
be destroyed in yet another confl agration late in the reign of
the emperor Commodus (r. 180–92 c.e.).THE AMERICAS
BY KEITH JORDAN
Th e cultures of the ancient Americas have not left us any
written records of natural disasters and their impact, either
because those cultures did not possess writing (as in North
America and Peru) or because (as in the case of the Maya)
they used their hieroglyphic scripts to record the military
and political prowess of kings rather than the adversities pre-
sented by nature. We have no New World Pliny the Younger
to bear literary witness to volcanic eruptions (as he did forRoman wall painting showing a coastal landscape (early fi rst century c.e.), from Boscoreale, Campania, Italy; Boscoreale was only one of many
sites on the Bay of Naples that were overwhelmed by the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 c.e. (© Th e Trustees of the British Museum)
782 natural disasters: The Americas