THE GREat fire
The Great Fire is an event remembered and written about by many historians as being the true beginning of when citizen of Rome began to question their emperor. The fire swept Rome in 64 A.D, destroying hundreds of buildings and killing many with Tacitus claiming ‘Of Rome’s fourteen districts only four remained intact” (Tacitus, 1971). The citizens of Rome fled to the country fields to escape the raging fire, many having just lost everything they owned in turn making little distinction between the rich and the poor. Nobody had attempted to fight the fire as it was far too dangerous with the lack of resources back then (Tacitus, 1971).Yet while the fire raged on in his city Nero was nowhere to been seen, only attending to the fire when it had breached his mansion. Although being absent at the time of the fire, Nero opened up his land and gardens for the homeless to stay until their homes could be rebuilt and imposed strict laws to stop future breakouts (Holland, 2000).
Despite these noble acts of care Nero kept almost a third of the city’s land to build his own ‘Golden Palace”, with many citizens claiming to be big enough to fit a 40 meter tall statue of Nero himself. (Tacitus, 1971) This Golden Palace angered many senate members as Nero continued to spend the money they did not have on lavish art projects in turn jeopardising the financial stability of the city. With the every growing frustration and Nero’s idea of The Golden Palace coming to light many started to question whether or not Nero himself had lit the fire in order to be able to build his dream. (Channel, 2014) Historian Dio claims ‘he climbed onto the place roof, from there was the best overall view of the greater part of the fire and sang ‘The capture of Troy’,’ with this recount corroborating with Tacitus’s recount of ‘ At the very time that Rome burned, he mounted his private stage, reflecting present disasters in ancient calamities, sang about the destruction of Troy!’ (Museums, Capitoline, 2012).Both historians do later on point out that the idea of Nero fiddling as Rome burned was just a rumour yet were enough to make people suspicious. (Museums, Capitoline, 2012)