115 A.D. Earthquake
Sources of the Earthquake Records
A long excerptum of Cassius Dio (68.24-25), more or less well-preserved by Joannes Xiphilinus, gives an accurate description of the major seismic event which devastated the Roman East in 115 AD; this is one of the best extant accounts of an earthquake in classical Antiquity
'While he (the emperor) was tarrying in Antioch, a devastating earthquake occurred; many cities suffered injury, but Antioch was the most unfortunate of all. Since Trajan was passing the winter there and many soldiers and many civilians
had flocked thither from all sides in connection with law-suits, embassies, business or sightseeing, there was no nation of people that went unscathed; and thus in Antioch the whole world under Roman sway suffered disaster. There had been many thunderstorms and portentous winds, but no one would ever have expected so many evils to result from them. […] Even Mount Kasios itself was so shaken that its peaks seemed to lean over and break off and be falling on the city. Other hills also settled, and much water not previously in existence came to light, while many streams disappeared'
A passage in Juvenal’s sixth Satire seems also to hint at this event. Among the considerable amount of victims, was one of the consules ordinarii, M. (Popillius) Pedo Vergilianus:
'Nevertheless, many even of these were saved, as was to be expected in such a countless multitude; yet not all such escaped unscathed. Many lost legs or arms, some had their heads broken, and still others vomited blood. Pedo the consul was one of these, and he died at once.'
Dio’s account of the victims is possibly the first detailed description in a classical text of the human casualties in a seismic disaster:
'There was a sudden and great bellowing roar; it was followed by a tremendous quaking of the land. The ground was heaved up, and buildings thrust into the air; some were carried a loft only to collapse on themselves and be broken in pieces; others were tossed every which way as if by the swell of the sea, and then over turned; and the wreckage was spread out to a great extent, even into the open countryside. The frightful grinding and splintering of timbers, tiles and stones and the inconceivable quantity of dust which arose made it impossible to see anything or to speak or hear a word. As for the people, many were hurt, even those outside the houses being snatched up and tossed violently and then dashed to the ground as if from a cliff. Some were maimed, others killed. Even trees, roots and all, were thrown into the air. The number of those who were trapped and perished in their houses was impossible to establish; multitudes were killed by the force of the falling debris, others suffocated in the ruins. The worse off were those trapped by stones or timbers, who suffered a lingering death.'
Dio’s sympathetic and “pathetic” description gives some interesting details on the victims, usually omitted by other historiographical accounts of earthquakes:
'Nevertheless, many of the trapped were saved, as was to be expected with such a throng, but not all were unscathed. Several lost legs or arms, some had their heads broken, others vomited blood from internal wounds; Pedo, the consul, was one of the latter and he quickly expired. […] the Trapped were in dire straits and helpless, some of them eventually crushed and perishing under the weight of the ruined buildings; others, while preserved from injury by being in clear spaces, formed of fallen timbers or even upstanding colonnades, most miserably died of hunger. When at last the evil had subsided, one who ventured to climb the rubble caught sight of a woman trapped yet still alive. She was not alone, but had by her an infant, and had kept themselves alive by feeding herself and her child with her milk. She was dug out with her child, and her rescuers quickly sought other rubble heaps for others in like circumstances; yet found none still living, save one child suckling at the breast of her dead mother. And as they dug out the dead, even those who lived could find little pleasure at their ownescape.'
The importance of the event is confirmed by the account of Malalas. First of all, he records the religious reaction of the survivors:
'The surviving Antiochenes who remained then built a temple in Daphne on which they inscribed «Those who were saved erected this to Zeus the Saviour»'
However, the reconstruction of the city was mostly provided by Trajan. Malalas records his activity as a founder of many buildings and public works:
'The most pious Trajan erected buildings in Antioch the Great, beginning first with the building known as the Middle Gate near the temple of Ares where the Parmenios torrent flows down, very close to what is now called the Macellum; he had carved above it a statue of a she-wolf suckling Romus and Remus, so that it should be recognized that the building was Roman. He sacrificed there a beautiful virgin girl from Antioch, named Kalliope, as an atonement and for the purification of the city, holding a bridal procession for her. He also restored immediately the two great colonnades, and he built many other things in the city of Antiochos, including a public bath and an aqueduct, having diverted the water pouring out from the springs of Daphne into what are known as the Agriai. He named both the baths and the aqueduct after himself. He completed the theatre of Antioch, which was unfinished, and he placed in it a gilded bronze statue of the girl whom he had sacrificed. The statue stood above four columns in the middle of the nymphaion in the proscenium; she was seated above the river Orontes and was being crowned by the emperors Seleukos and Antiochos in the guise of the city’s tyche'
Reference
“Revue Des ÉTudes Tardo-Antiques RET ; Histoire, Textes, Traductions, Analyses, Sources et Prolongements de L’antiquité Tardive.” 2011.
ISSN: 2115-8266