great fire & cloaca maxima

[qselby]

Something struck me; there is no mention by either Tacitus, Dio, or Suetonius regarding the cloaca maxima during the great fire. Naturally, Robert Taylor knew about it and used it to escape the flames in the flick Quo Vadis. By 64 the great sewer was enclosed. It's my assumption that during the inferno the place was filled with fumes and wasn't a serviceable escape route. It was too thin, too, unlike the flick which has it resembling a NY subway lane.

 

Any ideas?

[Faustus]

Something struck me; there is no mention by either Tacitus, Dio, or Suetonius regarding the cloaca maxima during the great fire. Naturally, Robert Taylor knew about it and used it to escape the flames in the flick Quo Vadis. By 64 the great sewer was enclosed. It's my assumption that during the inferno the place was filled with fumes and wasn't a serviceable escape route. It was too thin, too, unlike the flick which has it resembling a NY subway lane.

 

Any ideas?

 

There would've been a great deal of water flowing in the cloaca at all times, fire or not. The accesses into the sewer at ordinary street locations, if they were the same as those in Pompeii, were very restricted in size, as mere gutter openings. No doubt there were maintenance "manhole" type accesses but their locations were probably not well known by the general public. Fires like the great fire mentioned spread from a source and are not all encompassing all at once so it would be a natural thing to flee, always from the edges of the fire.

 

It is true that the flow in a sanitary sewer, even in modern times, with a relatively high proportion of human waste, is not all that "crappy" in its mix. But there is the problem of sewer gasses in modern systems. Since the lines are long, gas (methane?) is emitted and begins moving back up the lines. It is quite dangerous and is kept from acumulating upstream in homes by inverted water traps, diverting it to rooftop pipe vents. I have wondered about that problem in the cloaca, but concluded that the minimal amount of waste in the mix may have reduced the problem to a bare minimum.

 

Access may have been limited into the manholes, as they are somewhat today, by weight and design of a casting to make the access not a simple task. Still, HERE can be seen a round drain opening, this one on grade, is also a gravity inlet, which shows the modern equivalent in very similar circumstances. It suggests easy access.

 

The cloaca would have followed the original drainage channels through the city, and other than the main cloaca and perhaps the other main valley channel tributaries, most tributaries would've been quite small. I for one would've taken my chances in flight on foot, unless optionless.

 

Faustus

Edited April 23, 2008 by Faustus

[qselby]

Good assessment. The cloaca maxima ITSELF ran from the forum boarIum up between the Capitol and THE Palatine and would naturally only have been an option for people fleeing in that area. I truly feel the other channels would have been too small to support large numbers fleeing and agree with you about opting to flee on foot.

Edited April 23, 2008 by qselby

[caldrail]

Something struck me; there is no mention by either Tacitus, Dio, or Suetonius regarding the cloaca maxima during the great fire. Naturally, Robert Taylor knew about it and used it to escape the flames in the flick Quo Vadis. By 64 the great sewer was enclosed. It's my assumption that during the inferno the place was filled with fumes and wasn't a serviceable escape route. It was too thin, too, unlike the flick which has it resembling a NY subway lane.

 

Any ideas?

 

Isn't there a quote somewhere about the cloaca maxima being large enough to drive a cart through?