Malaria and Rome: A History of Malaria in Ancient Italy by Robert Sallares (beach read .TXT) 📕

ka≥ t¤ß kat¤ t¶n c*ran ØdoŸß, prÎsqenteß ƒkkop3ß te lÎfwn ka≥ ƒgc*seiß koil3dwn (they constructed roads throughout the land, with cuttings through hills and embankments across valleys); Pliny, NH 36.24.125: vias per montes excisas (roads cut through mountains).

¹³² Klein (1972: 140–1).

¹³³ Plutarch, Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus 28, ed. Ziegler (1971); Potter (1979: 79–83, 101–9) on the Roman road network in south Etruria.

¹³⁴ Varro, RR 1.4.4: quod permagni interest, ubi sint positae villae, quantae sint, quo spectent porticibus, ostiis ac fenestris.

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a description which fits a lot of traditional housing in Mediterranean countries.¹³⁵ Sambon described the habits of what was then called A. maculipennis at Ostia at the end of the nineteenth century: The adult insects were found in great numbers in the houses and stables of the district. In stables they seemed to rest by preference on the old dusty cobwebs which heavily curtained the ceilings. In the houses they chose the darkest corners, often resting under beds, tables, and chairs, or on dark-coloured clothing, but more frequently on the ceilings, especially when these were begrimed with the smoke of winter fires and well out of the way of danger. In the bedrooms of an inn at Ostia, which had a blue stripe all round their whitewashed ceilings, the Anopheles seemed to settle by choice on the dark stripe for protection. It is almost ridiculous how these insects escape detection by those who are not in the habit of looking for them.¹³⁶

A. labranchiae is a non-diapausing species of mosquito. It remains active indoors and continues to bite humans nearly all the year round, although malaria parasites cannot develop inside it in the winter when it is too cold. Consequently it was very vulnerable to the modern malaria-control strategy of spraying the interior walls of dwellings with the insecticide DDT. In contrast the other main vector of malaria in Mediterranean countries, A. sacharovi, hibernates outdoors in the winter cold and does not become active until May each year. The northern European malaria vector A. atroparvus tolerates cold temperatures well but does not hibernate completely, unlike A. sacharovi. Consequently it sometimes bites humans in houses in winter.¹³⁷

Since mosquitoes dislike flying upwards, theoretically the upper storeys of multi-storey buildings in the city of Rome should have been healthier than the ground-floor levels. In the seventeenth century Doni emphasized the importance of building design and town planning.¹³⁸ There was a view in early modern literature that tall buildings with narrow streets provided protection against ‘bad air’. This point of view had antecedents in antiquity, since Tacitus reports that after the great fire in Rome in  64 some people did not like Nero’s plan to rebuild the city with lower buildings and wider streets, since they thought that the old layout was healthier:¹³⁹

¹³⁵ Jones (1908: 534) on impluvia; Tognotti (1996: 98).

¹³⁶ Sambon (1901 a: 199).

¹³⁷ Coluzzi (1999); Shute (1951).

¹³⁸ Doni (1667: 18–23).

¹³⁹ Grandazzi (1997: 182) on the history of the old layout of the city, attributed in antiquity to the haste with which it was rebuilt after the sack by the Gauls in 390 .

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However, there were some people who believed that the old layout was more conducive to health because the narrowness of the streets and the height of buildings kept out the heat of the sun; but now the lack of shade in the broad open spaces meant that the summer heat was more intense.¹⁴⁰

However, people who lived in the upper storeys still had to go out periodically. The evidence of the ancient medical authors (discussed in detail in Ch. 8 below) indicates that malaria was common in the city of Rome both before and after the new town-planning regulations introduced by Nero, in spite of the frequency of multi-storey buildings. The hills of Rome, although healthy for those (the elite) who lived on top of them, probably had an adverse effect on those who lived below them. North made the significant observation that ‘experience shows that the benefit obtained [sc.

from living above ground-floor level] is not always as great as might be expected, and this is especially the case when the building is sheltered in any way by neighbouring hills’.¹⁴¹ He collected interesting information on housing and malaria in the Roman Campagna and followed Tommasi-Crudeli and earlier writers such as Knight in concluding that the custom of building houses around the four sides of a square or rectangle, with virtually all the windows opening internally on to the quadrangle, was intended to keep ‘bad air’ out.¹⁴² Modern experience shows that well-designed housing can help to keep mosquitoes out, although such measures may have little effect if people are in the habit of sleeping outside (at ground level) in hot weather, as frequently happens in the countryside in hot countries, to protect their crops.¹⁴³ Consequently the anecdote recounted by Varro in relation to the Pompeian forces on Corcyra during the civil war does have some plausibility, although it also ¹⁴⁰ Tacitus, Annals 15.43: Erant tamen qui crederent veterem illam formam salubritati magis con-duxisse, quoniam angustiae itinerum et altitudo tectorum non perinde solis vapore perrumperentur: at nunc patulam latitudinem et nulla umbra defensam graviore aestu ardescere.

¹⁴¹ North (1896: 103–5); De Tournon (1831: i. 201–2); Baccelli (1881: 191–2). The advantages of tall buildings against ‘bad air’ might have been discussed in Rutilius’ book de modo aedificiorum (Suetonius, Augustus 89). However, it should be noted that contrary views were also expressed in antiquity. The medieval Arab writer Ibn Ridwan quoted Rufus of Ephesus as recommending flight from cities with tall buildings and narrow streets because they were unhealthy (Dols (1984: 105) ). Similar sentiments were expressed by Sabinus in the second century  (Nutton (2000 b: 69–70)).

¹⁴² Knight (1805: 33).

¹⁴³ Gamage-Mendis et al. (1991). The study of Barber and Rice (1935) in Greece reached inconclusive results in relation to the question of malaria and housing.

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