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Timoleon › Who Was
Definition and Origins
Timoleon (c. 411 - c. 337 BCE) was a Corinthian statesman and general who famously defeated the tyrant of SyracuseDionysius II and an army of Carthage against the odds. Permanently settling on the island, he re-organized the governments of many Sicilian city -states by giving them political freedom and so set the foundations for a period of sustained prosperity thereafter. He is the subject of one of Plutarch ’s Lives biographies and ancient writers were remarkably consistent in their unstinting praise for Timoleon the tyrannt-slayer.
EARLY LIFE & CAREER
Timoleon was born in Corinth, and his father was Timodemus and mother Demariste so he grew up in an aristocratic family from both sides. Very little is known of Timoleon's youth or even the first half of his life besides that in c. 368 BCE he fought as a common soldier in the war between Corinth and Argos. Then, still in the mid-360s BCE, Timoleon took the dramatic step of murdering his brother, the power-mad and unpopular Timophanes and so ended his tyranny at Corinth. There is then a gap of two decades during which we know nothing of what Timoleon got up to. Plutarch suggests he withdrew from public life and lived as a hermit in remorse for killing his brother.
CAMPAIGN AGAINST SYRACUSE
When Corinth's former colony Syracuse on Sicily called for assistance in 344 BCE against the dual threat of the tyrant Dionysius II and possible invasion from Carthage, Timoleon was chosen to lead the expedition as general ( strategos ) and, as one friend said to him, he now had the opportunity to erase his reputation as the killer of his brother and gain glory as a tyrant killer. Things started well, according to Plutarch, when he received a welcome omen on his visit to the oracle at Delphi before setting off where a laurel crown of victory fell from the wall and landed on his head.
'HE OVERTHREW THE TYRANTS, SUBDUED THE BARBARIANS...AND THEN RESTORED THEIR LAWS TO THE PEOPLE OF SICILY' TIMOLEON'S EPITAPH
Timoleon's force consisted of 700 mercenaries and ten ships which included two ships from another Corinthian colony Corcyra ( Corfu ) and one from Leucas in the Ionian Sea. Timoleon arrived at Tauromenium (modern Taormina) in 344 BCE and then, in a battle at Adranum, promptly defeated the tyrant of Leontini, Hicetas. When reinforcements arrived Timoleon led an attack on Syracuse itself. He was supported by several Sicilian cities tired of Dionysius' oppressive reign over the region: Adranon, Katane, Tauromenium, and Tyndaris. The campaign was a success and Dionysius II was forced to live in exile back at Corinth. Timoleon even rather generously ensured that the former tyrant had a small allowance to live off in his enforced retirement.
TIMOLEON AGAINST CARTHAGE
Timoleon was not allowed to enjoy his success for long, though, as an army from Carthage chose this moment of political instability to invade Sicily yet again c. 341 BCE. Still, once more, he received a good omen when before the battle his troops passed some donkeys carrying loads of parsley which Timoloen said indicated the crown of victory just as had happened at Delphi, this time referring to Corinth's long tradition of giving crowns of parsley to victors at the Isthmian Games. The Corinthian general engaged the enemy near the river Crimisus (or Krimisos) in the west of the island and, by attacking first when their force was divided by the river and for a second time during a violent thunderstorm, managed to defeat the Carthaginians despite having a much smaller army at his disposal (6,000 against 70,000 according to Plutarch). Although defeated and having lost over 12,000 men, the Carthaginians could still field a sizeable army and so they hung around to cause trouble, offering their support to various other Sicilian city-states. The result was a bargain between Timoleon and the Carthaginians in 338 BCE which divided up the island into two spheres of influence. He would keep to the eastern half of the island if they stayed in the western part.
Magna Graecia
REORGANIZING & REJUVENATING SICILY
Timoleon then proceeded to systematically take over the government of the various tyrannies in his domain, gave cities a greater level of autonomy, and he established a new constitution at Syracuse. It is not clear what exactly the form of government was in the latter city. Suggestions of a democracy do not match the history of Corinth which had never had such a system. Certainly, Timoleon gave himself extensive powers and perhaps ruled as a benevolent autocrat ( strategos autokrater). To consolidate this new regime some 60,000 settlers were brought in from the Greek and Italian mainlands, a cultural and financial presence attested by the huge number of Corinthian coins (both from Corinth and locally minted) with their distinctive Pegasus design found across the island. Piracy was also quashed in the area, and any lingering mercenaries were cleared out of the island. Thereafter, Sicily saw something of a renaissance both in city-life and the island's agriculture.
DEATH & LASTING REPUTATION
Timoleon died peacefully of old age in the mid-330s BCE after earlier retiring voluntarily from public office when his eyesight had failed him. He was buried in the agora of Syracuse and the following inscription made to commemorate his deeds: 'He overthrew the tyrants, subdued the barbarians, repopulated the largest of the devastated cities, and then restored their laws to the people of Sicily' (Plutarch, 187). The historical sources are in accordance and present Timoleon as a just, modest, and pious man who was known as one of the few political leaders to have ruled in the interests of his people rather than his own.No wonder then, that on his death, not only was he buried with the status of an oikistes (a colony founder) but the Syracusans also dedicated a new gymnasium to him called the Timoleonteum and organised annual games in his honour.
Vigiles › Who Was
Definition and Origins
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.
EVOLUTION
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.
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 cache 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.
THE VIGILES HAD THEIR OWN CAMP WHILE FIREFIGHTING EQUIPMENT WAS KEPT IN EACH ZONE OF ROME, IN A FACILITY KNOWN AS AN EXCUBITORIUM.
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.
ORGANISATION & DUTIES
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).
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 vigilespatrolled 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.
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.
FIREFIGHTING
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.
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.
LEGACY
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.
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