Can an Earthquake Bring About the Fall of Rome?
Sometime in the fifth or sixth century A.D., a Roman consul named Decius Marius Venantius Basilius paid out of his own pocket to have the Colosseum repaired. Several columns in the stands that circled the arena — at least 20 of them, maybe more — had collapsed, crushing bleachers and balustrades. Sections of the underground chambers had been destroyed. Decius commemorated his contribution with an inscription on a stone that can still be seen not far from the monument’s entrance. The damage, he wrote, had been caused by “the violence of a terrible earthquake.”
The Italian capital isn’t generally considered to be at high seismic risk but ever since I heard about the damage of the giant amphitheater, I’ve looked at Rome in a different light. The rest of the country is so often wracked by the trembling of the earth — as evidenced by the recent destruction near Bologna. What kind of risks does the Eternal City face? The ground underneath is free of faults. Volcanic activity is mercifully distant. But the historic record tells a different story, of a city struck again and again by minor — but nonetheless damaging — earthquakes.
In 15 A.D., an earthquake collapsed a section of the Severan wall, according to Paolo Galli, a researcher at Italy’s Department of Civil Protection, who has combed the historic and archaeological record for evidence of earthquake damage. In 801, another brought down the roof and rafters of St. Paul’s Basilica. In 1044, the city trembled so hard church bells began ringing. The biggest event occurred in 1349, when, as recorded by the Italian poet Petrarch, “the ancient buildings neglected by the citizens and admired by the pilgrims fell down.” The powerful earthquake battered the St. Peter’s and St. Paul’s Basilicas, took off the top of the Conti Tower, and likely destroyed the southern wall of the Colosseum. “Up until then, they were still using it as a bullring,” says Galli. “From then on the Colosseum falls into neglect and becomes a quarry for travertine.”