Explanation: Marcus Licinius Crassus was a politician of the Late Roman Republic. Already fabulously wealthy, he became disgustingly, insanely rich by his cunning and real estate investments.
One such scheme that contributed to his wealth was the creation of a firefighting service! Rome’s first, for that matter! Rome was notoriously fire-prone at this time, and it was extremely difficult to coordinate people at a moment’s notice to get back from their jobs (on foot - no cars in Ancient Rome) and help with putting out the neighborhood fire.
… but as it was a private service, it did not fight fires out of the goodness of its heart. You see, once they found a fire, they would find the owner (typically waiting outside, fighting the fire themselves or bewailing their poor fortune)… and offer to buy the property from them at fire sale (ha) prices.
If the owner refused, they would let it burn a little while longer… and then offer a lower price. And a lower price. And a lower price. Until the owner either gave in, the fire consumed the building, or the neighborhood managed to extinguish the flames themselves.
While incredibly shitty from a moral standpoint, on a societal level, this was better than the previous system of ’no professional firefighters at all’ that Rome suffered under. Some time after Crassus’s death, the first Emperor of Rome, Augustus, would institute a public firefighter system modeled off of Crassus’s, who were called the vigiles… but without the predatory bidding on homes! Funded by taxes, and operating in service of the public good!
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Explanation: Marcus Licinius Crassus was a politician of the Late Roman Republic. Already fabulously wealthy, he became disgustingly, insanely rich by his cunning and real estate investments.
One such scheme that contributed to his wealth was the creation of a firefighting service! Rome’s first, for that matter! Rome was notoriously fire-prone at this time, and it was extremely difficult to coordinate people at a moment’s notice to get back from their jobs (on foot - no cars in Ancient Rome) and help with putting out the neighborhood fire.
… but as it was a private service, it did not fight fires out of the goodness of its heart. You see, once they found a fire, they would find the owner (typically waiting outside, fighting the fire themselves or bewailing their poor fortune)… and offer to buy the property from them at fire sale (ha) prices.
If the owner refused, they would let it burn a little while longer… and then offer a lower price. And a lower price. And a lower price. Until the owner either gave in, the fire consumed the building, or the neighborhood managed to extinguish the flames themselves.
While incredibly shitty from a moral standpoint, on a societal level, this was better than the previous system of ’no professional firefighters at all’ that Rome suffered under. Some time after Crassus’s death, the first Emperor of Rome, Augustus, would institute a public firefighter system modeled off of Crassus’s, who were called the vigiles… but without the predatory bidding on homes! Funded by taxes, and operating in service of the public good!