Pliny the Younger Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus

c. AD 111 · Roman Empire · After reporting a great fire at Nicomedia, where people only stood and watched and there was not a pump or a bucket. The craftsmen's guilds served as fire brigades

Consider, my lord, whether you think a guild of craftsmen should be set up, of no more than a hundred and fifty men. I shall see to it that no one but a craftsman is admitted, and that the right once granted is not turned to other uses. It will not be hard to keep watch on so few.

tu, domine, dispice an instituendum putes collegium fabrorum dumtaxat hominum CL. Ego attendam, ne quis nisi faber recipiatur neve iure concesso in aliud utantur; nec erit difficile custodire tam paucos.

Letters 10.33, to the Emperor Trajan

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Trajan Marcus Ulpius Traianus

c. AD 111 · Roman Empire · He refused the guild, and told him to provide equipment so that the owners of houses could fight fires themselves

But let us remember that that province, and those cities above all, have been troubled by factions of this kind. Whatever name we give them, and for whatever reason, men who have been brought together will soon become political clubs.

Sed meminerimus provinciam istam et praecipue eas civitates eius modi factionibus esse vexatas. Quodcumque nomen ex quacumque causa dederimus iis, qui in idem contracti fuerint, hetaeriae eaeque brevi fient.

Pliny the Younger, Letters 10.34, to Pliny

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