Gates Package — page 925

Cohortes Vigilum--which ittle Bucket Fellows." 2 In America, Chapter 2 Create a pandemic prevention team In the year 6 CE, a fire devastated the city of Rome. In its aftermath, the emperor, Augustus, did something that had never been done in the history of the empire: He created a permanent team of firefighters. 1 The fire brigade, which would grow to include 7,000 men, was equipped with buckets, brooms, and axes and divided into seven groups that stood watch at barracks placed strategically throughout the city. (One of these barracks was discovered in the mid-nineteenth century and is sometimes open to visitors.) Officially, the squad was known as the Cohortes Vigilum--which can be loosely translated as "Brothers of the Watch"--but locals came to use the term of endearment Sparteoli, or "Little Bucket Fellows." Elsewhere around the world, China's first professional brigade was established in the eleventh century by Emperor Renzong. Europe followed roughly 200 years later.2 In America, there were volunteer groups before the American Revolution, formed at the urging of a young Benjamin Franklin (who else?), as well as private ones that were paid by insurance companies to save burning buildings.3 But the United States didn't have a single government-run, full-time firefighting corps until 1853, when one was established by Cincinnati, Ohio.