782 natural disasters: The Americas Roman wall painting showing a coastal landscape (early first century c.e.), from Boscoreale, Campania, Italy; Boscoreale was only one of many sites on the Bay of Naples that were overwhelmed by the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 c.e (© The Trustees of the British Museum) famous cities The worst affected was Sardis (also Sardes), the old Lydian royal capital, and Tiberius made a grant of 10 million sesterces toward its restoration as well as remitting all taxation for a period of five years This magnanimous gesture was recorded on a handsome sestertius type showing a seated figure of the emperor accompanied by the inscription CIVITATIBVS ASIAE RESTITVTIS (“the restoration of the cities of Asia”) Earthquakes in the Mediterranean basin were of quite frequent occurrence in Roman times, as they are today The empire’s eastern provinces were especially affected, and in the winter of 114 and 115 c.e the Syrian capital of Antioch (modern-day Antakya) was badly damaged by a major seismic event The emperor Trajan (r 98–117 c.e.) happened to be wintering in the city while on campaign in the ancient Near East and had a lucky escape when, reputedly through divine intervention, he was led from a building just prior to its collapse This miraculous deliverance was recorded on the coinage of 115 c.e by a type bearing the inscription CONSERVATORI PATRIS PATRIAE (“to the preserver of the Father of his People”) and showing a colossal figure of Jupiter protecting a much smaller image of the emperor Fire posed a constant threat to the populations of large cities in the Roman world Our knowledge of these events tends to be focused on Rome itself, though similar events were certainly taking place in the empire’s other great urban centers The most famous conflagration is that which occurred in the capital in July 64 c.e during the reign of Nero (r 54–68 c.e.) Whether it was deliberately set by the eccentric emperor (as charged by the historian Suetonius) we cannot be sure, but the devastation of central Rome on this occasion allowed Nero to launch an ambitious rebuilding program, much of which was personally beneficial to him; for example, he had built the Domus Aurea, or Golden House, an extravagant new imperial residence Contemporary coin types again make reference to these events An extensive series in gold, silver, and brass was issued throughout Nero’s final years (64–68 c.e.) showing a handsome seated figure of the goddess Roma symbolizing the restoration of the city after the disaster of the fi re Another type, appearing on gold aurei and silver denarii only, depicts the restored Temple of Vesta in the Roman Forum It is a testament to the frequency of fires in central Rome that Nero’s restored structure was the sixth temple to occupy this site and was itself to be destroyed in yet another conflagration late in the reign of the emperor Commodus (r 180–92 c.e.) THE AMERICAS BY KEITH JORDAN The cultures of the ancient Americas have not left us any written records of natural disasters and their impact, either because those cultures did not possess writing (as in North America and Peru) or because (as in the case of the Maya) they used their hieroglyphic scripts to record the military and political prowess of kings rather than the adversities presented by nature We have no New World Pliny the Younger to bear literary witness to volcanic eruptions (as he did for