A Market-Based Fire Department

Marcus Licinius Crassus was a Roman Republican. He was ambitious and an entrepreneur, the kind of man Ayn Rand might have appreciated. Crassus made money by operating a fire brigade in Rome that would rush to the scene of a fire and buy the property at a bargain price before agreeing to put the fire out.

It was Crassus who defeated the Roman people for the dictator Sulla, and Crassus who led the drive that defeated Spartacus slave revolt.