The waters becomes corrupt and the air infected: How the ancient Greeks and Romans viewed pollution and what they did about it?

Hi readers! doesn’t it sound strange that water is corrupt?

Yes, it does but why and how? Let me explain it through the viewpoint of ancient Greeks and Romans.

Live Science published a story about three days ago, written by Konstantine Penegyres about what the Roman and Greeks taught the world regarding the environment

For details, Please visit the following website

https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/romans/the-waters-become-corrupt-the-air-infected-how-the-ancient-greeks-and-romans-viewed-pollution-and-what-they-did-about-it?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pushly&

Dear readers, every day we hear different stories about how the earth and the environment is being damaged by human beings? The issue is not new but goes back to Millenia (a period of 1000 years). The story under discussion is what the ancient Roman and the Greeks think and did about the issue.  

The Roman and Greeks literature contains many references that deals with the environment and the harms it suffers. The soil, air and water that had been polluted has serious consequences for human health for which the humanity is now paying heavy toll.

Pliny the Elder: an ancient Roman writer and army commander who lived in first century AD, wrote in Natural History that, 

“We taint the rivers and the elements of nature, and the air itself, which is the main support of life, we turn it into a medium for the destruction of life”

He consider the planet as something that humanity should protect rather than harm, because we owe our existence to Mother Earth. He further wrote that,

“It is my pleasant duty first of all to champion Earth’s cause and to support her as the parent of all things”

Do we think the same way? No. we don’t.

It is about two millennia (2000 years) now that the environment have become one of the hottest political topics: says a survey conducted last year in Australia using about 20,000 young people of which 44% says that environment is the most  important issue of our time.

Roman writers noted that their soldiers (busy in defending the boarders and/or fighting the enemies poisoned the water and the air around their camps. The military writer Flavius Renatus Vegetius observed:

if an army continues long in one place in the summer or in the autumn, the waters become corrupt, and the air infected, from whence proceed malignant and fatal distempers, which can be prevented by frequent change of encampments.

Just imagine what could be the situation in war torn countries like Afghanistan, Palestine and Ukraine?

This information is new to me

The Roman  biographer Suetonius (born around 70AD)  saw a river “filled with rubbish and narrowed by buildings stick out above or beyond the surface (is this not what is frequently seen in our big cities like Karachi and elsewhere?) which later on were cleaned by the order of the  emperor Angustus  (63BC-14AD).

He wrote, that bad policies had polluted the river’s waters. For example, the emperor Nero (37–68AD) dumped  huge amounts of rotten grain into the river Tiber (image above) and converted it into a gushing sewer. It polluted the water in Tiber river to the extant that fish caught there was not safe to eat. 

The Greeks and Romans adopted several measure to save rivers from such harms. For example, they introduced a law in 420BC to protect river Llissus (in Athens, Greece) through which it was prohibited to soak the animal fur and throwing the laundry residues in the river which help the river to stay clean.

No such law can work in our dear country and others like of us

Modern researchers think this measure might have helped the Llissus stay clean. Other measures to reduce pollution included banning public defecation and urination (very common in our country: I personally witnessed the latter in the city of USA too). Bans on washing clothes or throwing rubbish into rivers were also imposed. But it’s unlikely the public adhered to such restrictions all the time (not possible in Pakistan).

Some rulers also tried to construct sewers and canals/water courses to clean pollution. For example, the emperor Nerva, who ruled 96–98AD, undertook a series of construction projects to make Rome cleaner and healthier.

In early second century AD, the Roman aristocrat and lawyer Pliny the Younger wrote a letter to the emperor Trajan, and complained about a public health issue in the city of Amastris  in modern Turkey saying that,

“Among the chief features of Amastris, Sir, is a long street of great beauty. Throughout the length of this, however, there runs a stream, but is in fact a filthy sewer, a disgusting eyesore which gives off a noxious stench. The health and appearance of the city will benefit if it is covered, and with your permission this shall be done”

Do you think the countless filthy rich in this country will dare to do such activity. They have only learned one sentence and that is,

“Why should we pay taxes? What the Government is doing for us?” How mentally sick we people are?

The emperor replied that,  

“There is every reason, my dear Pliny, to cover the water stream which you say flows through the city of Amastris, if it is a danger to health while it remains uncovered”.

This story indicated that the ancients were aware or the interconnection of the health, land, air and water with human health. So, when the environment is unhealthy it can be damaging for our health and wellbeing.

The message from the ancient Greeks and Romans is as true today for us as it was for them. The bottom line is keeping the planet in a healthy state is not just healthy for the environment, but also for us. Today, when stories about pollution and related environmental problems frequently appear in the news, this message of the ancients Roman and Greeks  is worth remembering.

What do you think dear readers? The problems of today’s environment can be solved by the simple methods used two millennia ago. No rocket science and no fanfare?

See you next week

Take care,

Bye