The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-04-18
sKY-scRAPERs OF ANTIQUITY.
Not TO Mentfon the Tower OF Babel,
Ten and rweIve-StOry Buildings
Were Not Uncommon.


From the Stuttgart Antiquitaten zeitung
People of the present day seem TO nave
a very erroneous idea Of the life in the
large cities OF antiquity. It is generally
believed that there were no large cities
Of our modern type in antiquity. but this
is a great mistake. For II there have
at all existed in the cultivated life Of the
ancients certain features in which, fol-
lowing our historic researches, We rec
OBnlze prototypes of our modern life, we
must NOTICE nrst Of all the temporary
accumulation of beings in large cities.
which, In point of size and population, of
contrasts between splendOr and squalOr.
OF wealth and unmir.gated misery, differ
out little from the larger cities Of our
time What We know OF the structure,
the general aspect and the life in the
large cities of the Roman empire counts
among the most interesting examples OF
ancient culture.
Prominent in this respect is the hight
OF the houses We are inclined TO mag
me tnat the ancient houses, as a rule,
mad only one or at most two stories, while
IN the middle ages the narrow. high-ga-
Dled structures in the Ommercial cities,
and IN recent years the ridiculous ten
ana twenty-story tOwerfke buildings,
raised by American speculation, are
type OF the time. We are, however,
strongly reminded of the inevitable and
vicious circle, when We read that the Ro-
man empire mad its Skyscrapers or tower
houses just as We find them now in New
number of 4-story houses; some cities
in East India carried many of their house
to a hight of seven stories. In Carthage
there were many buildings six stories
high, while in Rome the police authori-
ties, under the Emperor Augustus, limit
ed the maximum of houses to night
not exceeding twenty metres. which,
considering the low-studded rooms of the
Romans, was equal TO six or nearly seven
stories. In or about go a. ID. ConStan-
tinople allowed the construction of houses
n a of me
to their depriving the neighbors OF both
light and air-in fact, there were at that
time quite number OF ten and twelve
story houses, such as we see in New York
in our day.
There were then, moreover, two points
which made these high buildings for more
remarkable and more dangerous than in
our day-the manner of construction and
the narrowneSs of the streets. Private
houses in ancient Rome were in many in
stances so badly built that their collapse
was a matter of frequent occurrence, rem
dered all the more dangerous from the
fact that they were chiefly built of wood.
which would easily produce a confiagra-
ton, and be all the more destructive OF
life and limb, as there were few regular
staircases, the communication between
the different stories being kept up by
simple ladders. For this reason the Ro-
man fire brigade was constantly inspecting
the kitchens, as the most vulnerable parts
of the houses and most likely to cause
fires which, once broken out, it was al
most impossible to put out.
The streets in Rome and in nearly all
the large cities of antiquity were so mar
row that no vehicles could pass them.
The largest streets in Rome had a width
of seven meters, most of the others bare
ly four or five meters-the width of the
sidewalks in many of the large cities of the
present day. Two of the great arteries
in Rome were the Vicus Tuscus and the
Vicus Ingarius-the former was Az and
the latter 5Iz meters wide II we con-
trast these with some of our modern ones,
of from twenty to fifty meters in width,
with houses of a hight of ten meters on
each side, an idea may be formed of the
appearance of the narrow lanes in An
Client Rome, with their three and four
story houses, which at times must have
looked like a hive of swarming bees. II
we furthermore take into consideration
the irregular mode of construction of the
ancients, who had no idea or care of a
proper alignment of their houses, which
either receded from or projected beyond
that of their neighbor; and finally. the in
different pavements of the streets, If any
pavement at all--it will readily be seer
that the large cities of antiquity mus
have appeared as picturesque as they die
unclean and disorderly.