For six days and seven Nox the citizens of ancient Rome look out impotently as their city burned . The greatfirethat consumed Rome in A.D. 64 go around quickly and savagely . After it was over , 70 percent of the urban center had been destroy . " Of Rome ’s 14 districts , only four remained intact . Three were leveled to the ground . The other seven were reduced to a few parched and mangled ruins , " writes the contemporary Roman historianTacitus . Of the million - personpopulation , an estimate one-half was made newly homeless by the fire [ Montgomery County ( Md. ) Schools ] .
As is usually seen in such mass tragedies , rumors began to lift through the devastated streets . write up emerged that somemenseen fanning the flames claim they were under order . As a result of the tremendous red ink , the Roman people , feeling the effects of paranoia , looked for someone who might be responsible for the fervidness . They pick their emperor – Nero .
Some rumors speculated that Nero himself had set the fire , others that he had regulate it . As Nero rebuilt Rome in a new style more to his liking , some believed he used the flame as an excuse for new construction . But perhaps the most interesting rumour that emerged from the cracking fire was that Nero had played his fiddle while Rome burn .
In the face of such charge , Nero searched for a scapegoat for the fire . He chose the Christians and persecuted them ruthlessly , torturing and execute them in hideous elbow room . Despite this public spectacle , Nero still found himself blame for the fervor .
The idea that Nero fiddled while Rome burn down is odd . But a mad autocrat who preferred to play music rather than tender succor to his mass is n’t unbelievable , and Nero was unquestionably vicious . The myth is bust , however , when one clear that the violin was n’t invented for another 1,500 years after the fire [ beginning : Berkeley ] . In other words , it ’s impossible that Nero shrink from while Rome burned . So where did this idea come from ?
Read the next page to find out more about the origins of the fiddling Nero story .
Nero and Rome’s Burning
The story that Nero played the fiddle while Rome burned conjures up images of the emperor , dramatically backlit by the flames from the bite city , alone , calmly act as his violin while his citizenry cry out in suffering .
To the contrary , Nero really did take immediate and expansive measures to render relief for his citizen . He rushed back to the city when news of the fire reached him at his castle at Antium , on the outskirt of Rome . The historiographer Tacitus , who was a son in Rome during the blaze , provides accounts of the steps Nero lease in the thick of the fire . The emperor butterfly himself coordinated flaming combat sweat on the first night . He also opened the public building and his owngardensas temporary protection for roofless occupier . Nero imported texture from nearby city and supplied his citizens with food at a fraction of the normal cost .
Yet the idea that he had fiddled while Rome burned remain , and still does to this day . Why ?
One account is that Nero actually did count himself a serious instrumentalist . While he certainly did n’t play the fiddle – since it was not yet invent – Nero did run another stringed instrument , the harp - likecithara .
Roman historians record that Nero had a tangible passion for the cithara . In conquered earth , Nero coordinated festivals that boast melodious contest on such dates that he could attend and contend in them all . Nero is said to have been very emotionally invested in these competitions [ source : Gyles ] .
Nero ’s interest in these musical contender apparently bothered some of his rivals in the Senate , who establish the approximation of the Saturnia pavonia competing side by side with vulgar musician unseemly .
Nero’s Fall
Mary Francis Gyles offers another interpretation of the narration : Nero ’s fiddling may not have anything to do with music at all , but rather is ametaphorfor his ineffectiveness . fiddle , after all , can also stand for that a somebody is expending energy on something useless or ill-conceived . If the metre Nero took following the firing were perceive as demoralize or inadequate , then saying Nero fiddle while Rome burn takes on a whole raw meaning . It ’s possible that the idea is a relic of propaganda so efficient that it ’s survived 2,000 years .
Although history has vagabond him in an unjust lightness regarding the fervour , it ’s unmanageable to feel sorry for Nero . The emperor has a well - document history of ferociousness . He ascended to the throne after his mother killed his uncle ; Nero subsequently had her killed . In the face of blame for the great fire , he select to look for scapegoat . His persecution of the other Christians was the first the religion would endure , and it resulted in the martyrdom of the apostles Peter and Paul , both of whom were execute during the persecutions .
Ultimately , the capital flak helped get Nero down . Discontent with his reign , hisinfantriesthreatened mutiny , and he was declared a public foe by the Senate . confront execution , Nero press a sticker into his pharynx and contain his life four years after the fire [ germ : New York Times ] .
