[PAULUS libro singulari de officio praefecti uigilum. ] §1.15.1.prApud uetustiores incendiis arcendis triumuiri praeerant, qui ab eo quod excubias agebant nocturni dicti sunt: interueniebant nonnumquam et aediles et tribuni plebis.
[PAULUS, in his single book On the Office of the Prefect of the Watch.] Among the ancients, triumvirs were in charge of preventing fires, who, from the fact that they kept watch, were called "nocturnal"; sometimes both aediles and tribunes of the plebs also intervened.
erat autem familia publica circa portam et muros disposita, unde si opus esset euocabatur: fuerant et priuatae familiae, quae incendia uel mercede uel gratia extinguerent.
Moreover, a public slave-force was stationed around the gates and walls, from where, if there was need, it was summoned; there had also been private slave-forces, which would extinguish fires either for pay or out of favor.
deinde diuus Augustus maluit per se huic rei consuli
Afterwards, the deified Augustus preferred that this matter be attended to through himself.