Sive deo - sive deae

Forms of Preventing and Overcoming Fear During Earthquake Catastrophes in Roman Antiquity

Abstract

A sudden, unforeseen invasion of natural phenomena such as earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, etc. often cause havoc or even potentially fatal disruptions of numerous processes within a society. The collision of the environment against man is labelled a natural catastrophe. Yet this is not a momentary event, but always involves extremely complex processes which are the object of research of different sciences. A marked breakthrough in the growing study of the multidisciplinary disaster research is the knowledge that mechanisms which are formed by the society when disaster strikes are not nature-given. Therefore they are also not always constant and unchangeable, but reflect specific conditions of given social circumstances. The attitude toward natural disasters is therefore also historically conditioned; this is why historic sciences research such phenomena as well.