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The art of man is able to construct monuments far more
permanent than the narrow span of his own existence; yet
these monuments, like himself, are perishable and frail; and
in the boundless annals of time, his life and his labors
must equally be measured as a fleeting moment. Of a simple
and solid edifice, it is not easy, however, to circumscribe
the duration. As the wonders of ancient days, the pyramids(9)
attracted the curiosity of the ancients: a hundred
generations, the leaves of autumn, have dropped (10) into the
grave; and after the fall of the Pharaohs and Ptolemies, the
Caesars and caliphs, the same pyramids stand erect and
unshaken above the floods of the Nile. A complex figure of
various and minute parts to more accessible to injury and
decay; and the silent lapse of time is often accelerated by
hurricanes and earthquakes, by fires and inundations. The
air and earth have doubtless been shaken; and the lofty
turrets of Rome have tottered from their foundations; but
the seven hills do not appear to be placed on the great
cavities of the globe; nor has the city, in any age, been
exposed to the convulsions of nature, which, in the climate
of Antioch, Lisbon, or Lima, have crumbled in a few moments
the works of ages into dust. Fire is the most powerful
agent of life and death: the rapid mischief may be kindled
and propagated by the industry or negligence of mankind; and
every period of the Roman annals is marked by the repetition
of similar calamities. A memorable conflagration, the guilt
or misfortune of Nero's reign, continued, though with
unequal fury, either six or nine days. (11) Innumerable
buildings, crowded in close and crooked streets, supplied
perpetual fuel for the flames; and when they ceased, four
only of the fourteen regions were left entire; three were
totally destroyed, and seven were deformed by the relics of
smoking and lacerated edifices. (12) In the full meridian of
empire, the metropolis arose with fresh beauty from her
ashes; yet the memory of the old deplored their irreparable
losses, the arts of Greece, the trophies of victory, the
monuments of primitive or fabulous antiquity. In the days
of distress and anarchy, every wound is mortal, every fall
irretrievable; nor can the damage be restored either by the
public care of government, or the activity of private
interest. Yet two causes may be alleged, which render the
calamity of fire more destructive to a flourishing than a
decayed city. 1. The more combustible materials of brick,
timber, and metals, are first melted or consumed; but the
flames may play without injury or effect on the naked walls,
and massy arches, that have been despoiled of their
ornaments. 2. It is among the common and plebeian
habitations, that a mischievous spark is most easily blown
to a conflagration; but as soon as they are devoured, the
greater edifices, which have resisted or escaped, are left
as so many islands in a state of solitude and safety. From
her situation, Rome is exposed to the danger of frequent
inundations. Without excepting the Tyber, the rivers that
descend from either side of the Apennine have a short and
irregular course; a shallow stream in the summer heats; an
impetuous torrent, when it is swelled in the spring or
winter, by the fall of rain, and the melting of the snows.
When the current is repelled from the sea by adverse winds,
when the ordinary bed is inadequate to the weight of waters,
they rise above the banks, and overspread, without limits or
control, the plains and cities of the adjacent country.
Soon after the triumph of the first Punic war, the Tyber was
increased by unusual rains; and the inundation, surpassing
all former measure of time and place, destroyed all the
buildings that were situated below the hills of Rome.
According to the variety of ground, the same mischief was
produced by different means; and the edifices were either
swept away by the sudden impulse, or dissolved and
undermined by the long continuance, of the flood. (13) Under
the reign of Augustus, the same calamity was renewed: the
lawless river overturned the palaces and temples on its
banks; (14) and, after the labors of the emperor in cleansing
and widening the bed that was encumbered with ruins, (15) the
vigilance of his successors was exercised by similar dangers
and designs. The project of diverting into new channels the
Tyber itself, or some of the dependent streams, was long
opposed by superstition and local interests; (16) nor did the
use compensate the toil and cost of the tardy and imperfect
execution. The servitude of rivers is the noblest and most
important victory which man has obtained over the
licentiousness of nature; (17) and if such were the ravages
of the Tyber under a firm and active government, what could
oppose, or who can enumerate, the injuries of the city,
after the fall of the Western empire? A remedy was at length
produced by the evil itself: the accumulation of rubbish and
the earth, that has been washed down from the hills, is
supposed to have elevated the plain of Rome, fourteen or
fifteen feet, perhaps, above the ancient level; (18) and the
modern city is less accessible to the attacks of the river. (19)