Examine individual changes

'[[Image:Siemiradski Fackeln.jpg|thumb|right|380px|''The Torches of Nero'', by [[Henryk Siemiradzki]]. According to Tacitus, Nero targeted [[Christian]]s as those responsible for the fire.]] The '''Great Fire of Rome''' ({{lang-la|Magnum Incendium Romae}}) was an urban [[fire]] that occurred beginning July 19, AD 64.<ref>{{cite book|last=Dando-Collins|first=Stephen|title=The Great Fire of Rome| url = http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780306818905 | date= September 2010|publisher= Da Capo Press | isbn= 9780306818905}}</ref> ==Background== According to [[Tacitus]], the fire spread quickly and burned for five and a half days.<ref name= "Tacitus, Annals">{{citation | last = Tacitus | title = Annals}}.</ref>{{rp |XV.40}} Only four of the fourteen districts of [[Rome]] escaped the fire; three districts were completely destroyed and the other seven suffered serious damage.<ref name="Tacitus, Annals" />{{rp |XV.40}} The only other contemporaneous historian to mention the fire was [[Pliny the Elder]], who wrote about it in passing.<ref>Pliny the Elder, ''Natural Histories'', XVII, Pliny mentions trees that lasted "down to the Emperor Nero's conflagration"</ref> Other historians who lived through the period (including [[Dio Chrysostom]], [[Plutarch]] and [[Epictetus]]) make no mention of it.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Jews under Roman rule|last=Smallwood|first= E. Mary|publisher= Brill Archive|location= Leiden | year =1976|isbn=90-04-04491-4|page=217}}</ref> The only other account on the size of fire is an interpolation in a forged Christian letter from [[Seneca the Younger|Seneca]] to [[Paul of Tarsus|Paul]]: "A hundred and thirty-two houses and four blocks (''[[insulae]]'') have been burnt in six days; the seventh brought a pause".<ref>[http://wesley.nnu.edu/biblical_studies/noncanon/writing/plnsenca.htm The Correspondence of Paul and Seneca] (forged), M.R. James, the translator, says the document is from the 4th century and "is of the poorest kind".</ref> This account implies less than a tenth of the city was burnt. Rome contained about 1,700 [[domus|private houses]] and 47,000 ''insulae'' or tenement blocks. It was said by [[Cassius Dio]] that [[Emperor Nero|Nero]], the emperor at the time, sang the "[[Sack of Ilium]]" in stage costume as the city burned.<ref>Suetonius, ''The Lives of Twelve Caesars'', Life of Nero, [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Nero*.html#38 38]; Cassius Dio, ''Roman History'' [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/62*.html#16 LXII.16]</ref> However, Tacitus' account has Nero in [[Anzio|Antium]] at the time of the fire.<ref name="annals-xv-39">Tacitus, ''Annals'' [[s:The Annals (Tacitus)/Book 15#39|XV.39]]</ref> Tacitus said that Nero's playing his [[lyre]] and singing while the city burned was only a rumor.<ref name="annals-xv-39"/> According to Tacitus, upon hearing news of the fire, Nero rushed back to Rome to organize a relief effort, which he paid for from his own funds.<ref name="annals-xv-39"/> After the fire, Nero opened his palaces to provide shelter for the homeless, and arranged for food supplies to be delivered in order to prevent starvation among the survivors.<ref name="annals-xv-39"/> In the wake of the fire, he made a new urban development plan. Houses after the fire were spaced out, built in brick, and faced by porticos on wide roads.<ref>Tacitus, ''Annals'' [[s:The Annals (Tacitus)/Book 15#43|XV.43]]</ref> Nero also built a new palace complex known as the [[Domus Aurea]] in an area cleared by the fire.<ref>Tacitus, ''Annals'' [[s:The Annals (Tacitus)/Book 15#42|XV.42]]</ref> The size of this complex is debated (from {{convert|100|to|300|acre|ha|1|disp=or}}).<ref>{{cite book|last=Roth|first=Leland M |year= 1993| title = Understanding Architecture: Its Elements, History and Meaning | edition = First | location = Boulder, CO| publisher = Westview Press| pages = 227–8|isbn=0-06-430158-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Ball|first=Larry F | year = 2003|title=The Domus Aurea and the Roman architectural revolution|publisher=Cambridge University Press | isbn = 0521822513}}</ref><ref>Warden reduces its size to under 100 acres. Warden, P.G., "The Domus Aurea Reconsidered," Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 40 (1981) 271–8</ref> To find the necessary funds for the reconstruction, tributes were imposed on the provinces of the empire.<ref>Tacitus, ''Annals'' [[s:The Annals (Tacitus)/Book 15#45|XV.45]]</ref> ==Rumors of arson and the persecution of Christians== It is uncertain who or what actually caused the fire — whether accident or [[arson]]. According to Tacitus, some in the population held Nero responsible.<ref name="annals-xv-44">Tacitus, ''Annals'' [[s:The Annals (Tacitus)/Book 15#44|XV.44]]</ref> To diffuse blame, Nero targeted the [[Christian]]s.<ref name="annals-xv-44" /> There were Christians who confessed to the crime, but it became known that Christians were forced to confess by means of torture,<ref name="annals-xv-44" /> and the passage is unclear as to what the Christians confessed to — being arsonists or Christians. Suetonius and Cassius Dio favor Nero as the arsonist with an insane desire to destroy the city as his motive,<ref>Suetonius, Life of Nero, 38; Cassius Dio, ''Roman History'' LXII.16</ref> or to rebuild Rome in a new style more to his liking. However, major accidental fires were common in ancient Rome. In fact, Rome burned again under [[Vitellius]] in 69<ref>during Vespasian's siege</ref> and under [[Emperor Titus|Titus]] in 80.<ref>Suetonius, ''Lives of Twelve Caesars'', Life of Titus, 8</ref> According to Tacitus, Nero ordered Christians to be thrown to dogs, while others were crucified or burned to serve as lights.<ref name="annals-xv-44"/> He describes the event as follows:{{quote|As a consequence, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians [or Chrestians<ref>In the earliest extant manuscript, the second Medicean, the ''e'' in "Chrestianos", Chrestians, has been changed into an ''i''; cf. Gerd Theißen, Annette Merz, ''Der historische Jesus: ein Lehrbuch'', 2001, p. 89. The reading ''Christianos'', Christians, is, therefore, doubtful.</ref>] by the populace. [[Jesus|Christus]], from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of [[Tiberius]] at the hands of one of our procurators, [[Pontius Pilatus]], and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in [[Iudaea Province|Judaea]], the first source of the evil, but, even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. In accordance, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not as much of the crime of firing the city as of hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired.<ref name="annals-xv-44"/>}} ==Historical accounts== The varying historical accounts of the event come from three secondary sources — [[Cassius Dio]], [[Suetonius]] and [[Tacitus]]. The primary accounts, which possibly included histories written by [[Fabius Rusticus]], [[Cluvius Rufus]] and [[Pliny the Elder]], did not survive. These primary accounts are described as contradictory and gross exaggerations.<ref name="annals-xv-38">Tacitus, ''Annals'' XV.38</ref> At least five separate stories circulated regarding Nero and the fire: * Motivated by a desire to destroy the city, Nero secretly sent out men pretending to be drunk to set fire to the city. Nero watched from his palace on the Palatine Hill singing and playing lolololololol the lyre.<ref>Cassius Dio, ''Roman History'' LXII.16-17</ref> * Motivated by an insane whim, Nero quite openly sent out men to set fire to the city. Nero watched from the Tower of Maecenas on the Esquiline Hill singing and playing the lyre.<ref>{{citation | last = Suetonius | title = Lives of Twelve Caesars | contribution = Life of Nero | page = 38}}.</ref> * Nero sent out men to set fire to the city. Nero sang and played his lyre from a private stage.<ref name = "Tacitus, Annals" />{{rp |XV.38–44}} * The fire was an accident. Nero was in Antium.<ref name = "Tacitus, Annals" />{{rp |XV.38–9}} * The fire was caused by Christians.<ref name = "Tacitus, Annals" />{{rp |XV.44}} ==Modern scholarship== Modern scholars tend to agree with Tacitus and believe that Nero probably did not cause the fire. It is postulated that the fire had been intentionally started to create room for Nero's [[Domus Aurea]], but the fire started {{convert|1|km|mi|1|abbr=in}} away from the site where this palace would later be built, on the other side of the [[Palatine Hill]]. Moreover, the fire destroyed parts of Nero's own palace, the [[Domus Transitoria]]. It seems unlikely that Nero wanted to destroy this palace since he actually salvaged some of the marble decoration and integrated it into the new [[Domus Aurea]]. Even the paintings and wall decorations of the new palace were similar to the ones that had been burned. Last, the fire started just two days after a full moon, a time that, it is presumed, would not have been chosen by arsonists who would not have wished to be observed.<ref>{{cite book| last =Griffin|first=Miriam T |year=2000|title=Nero: The End of a Dynasty|publisher=Routledge|page= 132|isbn= 0-415-21464-5}}</ref> ==See also== * [[List of historic fires]] ==References== * Cassius Dio, [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/home.html ''Roman History'', Books 62 (''c.'' 229)] * Suetonius, [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Nero*.html ''The Lives of Twelve Caesars'', the Life of Nero, 38 (''c.'' 121)] * Tacitus, [http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/txt/ah/Tacitus/index.htm ''Annals'', XV (''c.'' 117)] ==Notes== {{Reflist|2}} ==External links== * [http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/case_rome/ "Secrets of the dead":] PBS series investigates clues that Nero circumvented the [[Roman Senate|Senate]] by burning Rome * [http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/rome.htm Tacitus describes the great Fire:] (in English) [[Category:64]] [[Category:Ancient city of Rome]] [[Category:Julio-Claudian Dynasty]] [[Category:Fires in Italy]] [[Category:Nero]] [[Category:Christianity under the Roman Empire]] [[af:Groot brand van Rome]] [[ang:Grēat Rōmisc Fȳr]] [[ar:حريق روما الكبير]] [[bg:Големият пожар в Рим]] [[ca:Gran incendi de Roma]] [[ceb:Dakong Sunog sa Roma]] [[da:Roms brand]] [[de:Großer Brand Roms]] [[el:Μεγάλη πυρκαγιά της Ρώμης]] [[es:Gran incendio de Roma]] [[fr:Grand incendie de Rome]] [[ko:로마 대화재]] [[id:Kebakaran Besar Roma]] [[it:Grande incendio di Roma]] [[he:השריפה הגדולה של רומא]] [[ka:რომის დიდი ხანძარი]] [[la:Magnum incendium Romae]] [[lv:Lielais Romas ugunsgrēks]] [[ms:Kebakaran Agung Rom]] [[nl:Grote brand van Rome]] [[ja:ローマ大火]] [[pl:Wielki Pożar Rzymu]] [[pt:Grande incêndio de Roma]] [[ro:Marele incendiu din Roma]] [[ru:Великий пожар Рима]] [[fi:Rooman palo]] [[th:อัคคีภัยครั้งใหญ่ในกรุงโรม]] [[tr:Büyük Roma Yangını]] [[vi:Đại hỏa hoạn thành Roma]] [[zh:羅馬大火]]'