Nero's Fire Folly

 An old story has passed down from the history of the ancient Roman empire: while the ancient city of Rome went up in flames, the emperor Nero “fiddled while Rome burned.”

That may true; or it may not be. But we do know, according to the ancient Roman historian Tacitus,  it is not far from the truth.

Tacitus wrote a report on the disaster, an uncontrollable, raging fire that consumed the capital city of the Roman empire in the year 64.

Here are a few excerpts from his account:

Before the disaster started. . . 

“On the quays (wharfs) were brothels stocked with high-ranking ladies. Opposite them could be seen naked prostitutes, indecently posturing and gesturing.”

“Nero was already corrupted by every lust, natural and unnatural.  But he now refuted any further surmises that no further degradation was possible for him. . . a few days later he went through a formal wedding ceremony with one of the perverted gang called Pythagorus. The emperor, in the presence of witnesses, put on the bridal veil. Dowry, marriage bed, wedding torches, all were there. Indeed everything was public which even in a natural union is veiled by night.”

“Disaster followed. Whether it was accidental or caused by a criminal act on the part of the emperor is uncertain—both versions have supporters. Now started the most terrible and destructive fire which Rome had ever experienced. . .”

“First, the fire swept violently over the level spaces. Then it climbed the hills… when people looked back, menacing flames sprang up before them or outflanked them. . . . Nobody dared fight the flames.” . . .

 “. . . rumor had spread that, while the city was burning, Nero had gone on his private stage and, comparing modern calamities with ancient, had sung of the destruction of Troy.”

After the fire:

“Of Rome’s fourteen districts only four remained intact. Three were levelled to the ground. The other seven were reduced to a few scorched and mangled ruins.”

Such are the inflammatory destructions of a self-obsessed demagogue. Tacitus concluded his report with this statement about what the people thought:

“ People believed that Nero was ambitious to found a new city to be called after himself.”

It seems the self-aggrandizing control freak  was willing to destroy the whole city so that he could rebuild it with his own identity dominating it.

The above  selected excerpts were lifted from John Carey’s book, “Eye-witness to History.” published by Harvard University Press, 1988.

Later, much later, long after Nero and Tacitus had turned to dust,  an American observer of human history, Mark Twain, said:

“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes.”

Let us hope that there are no modern-day Nero-wannabes out there waiting to destroy our “city” for the sake of rebuilding it in their own image.

Glass half-Full