This is a model of an apartment building (insula, literally "island") in Ostia, the port city of Rome. Note the shops on the first floor. Since Rome and other Italian cities had limited space for development, the only way to go was up (as in NY City). The most desirable apartments, however, were not on the top story, but on the lowest. The reason for this was the difficulty of escaping a fire from the upper stories. Collapse of apartment buildings less sturdy than the one above was also a fairly frequent occurrence. The apartments were quite cramped by modern standards, but the poor had no other option. Not all apartment buildings, however, were low cost housing. In his speech in defence of his protégé, Marcus Caelius Rufus, Cicero mentions an apartment building belonging to his political enemy, Clodius, that was located on the Palatine hill, the most exclusive residential area in Rome. Cicero's says that Caelius had rented an apartment in Clodius' building for 10,0001 sesterces a year. This rent would have been ten times the annual salary of a laborer of that period (Cael. 17).
The occupants of apartment buildings were also subject to a great deal
of noise from the street. Their apartment windows at best had some
kind of shutter or curtain that let every sound in. The poet Martial
lived on the third floor of an insula on the Quirinal hill, where
he found sleep difficult because of the noise. He complains of noise
from school teachers in the morning (schools were often nothing but a few
chairs on the sidewalk in the open air), bakers all night, and coppersmiths
(constant hammering), currency exchangers (jingle of coins on tables), worshipers
involved in ecstatic rites (singing and dancing), bawling beggars, and shopkeepers
(vocally advertising their wares) all day long (12.57.3-17).
Fire was always a great danger in Rome. Juvenal points out that
fires were most dangerous for those living in upper storeys of apartment
buildings:
Here, one neighbor discovers a fire and shouts for water, another neighbor moves out his shabby possessions. The third floor, where you live, is already smoking-but you don’t even know! Downstairs there is panic, but you, upstairs, where the gentle pigeons nest, where only thin tiles protect you from the rain, you will be the last to burn. (Juvenal, Satires 3, Shelton's translation)
In the absence of an effective fire department during the Republic,
unscrupulous people like Marcus Licinius Crassus took advantage of property
owners when their house was on fire:
Moreover, observing how extremely subject the city was to fire and falling down of houses, by reason of their height and their standing so near together, he [Marcus Licinius Crassus] bought slaves that were builders and architects, and when he had collected these to the number of more than 500, he made it his practice to buy houses that were on fire, and those in the neighborhood, which, in the immediate danger and uncertainty the owners were willing to part with for little or nothing…(Plutarch, Life of Crassus, North's translation).
In the early empire, Augustus established a force of 7000 vigiles,
who dealt with fires by demolishing the building on fire to prevent its
spread. Ancient Rome did not have a police force until the time of
Augustus, who created a force consisting of 3 cohorts (about 1500 men). Their
charge was not to prevent crime or catch criminals, but to protect the grain
supply and deal with sedition. That is why Juvenal found it so dangerous
to go out alone at night in Rome:
The violent drunk who has had the misfortune to mug no one feels unsatisfied…Yet, though young and heated with wine, he avoids the man whom a scarlet cloak, a very long line of attendants, and many torches and oil lamps warn should be avoided. Me, however, whom the moon usually escorts or, at best, the thin light of a candle whose wick I carefully nurture – me he fears not. [The mugger picks a fight] if indeed you can call it a fight when he does the beating and I am only beaten. (Juvenal, Satires 3, Shelton translation)
Note
1. The prosecutors of Caelius claimed that Caelius was paying 30,000
sesterces a year, but Cicero points out that they had a good reason to exaggerate
the rent.