Rome Burns, Arson Suspected

Between the 18th and 19th of January, 64 BC, a fire started that spread out over Rome destroying everything in it’s path, and it is suspected that Nero started them.

Nero became the emperor of Rome in 64 BC, mostly because of his mother. Nero’s mother had convinced Tiberius to elect Nero as the heir to the throne, and that is exactly what happened. At first, when Nero took the throne, his mother was controlling of what he did and he did not like that. He attempted to have her killed many times, but all of them failed except the final one. When he was ruling by himself, Nero made his decisions and was doing fine, when supposedly he wanted to have a better palace than any other emperor and his plot was to burn down this one and many other things to make it happen. One theory of what happened was he sent out some men to act drunk and set fires around Rome, while he was singing and playing the lyre. When he saw that people were beginning to suspect him of the crime, he realized that if he wanted to get out of this situation, he was going to have to blame someone else. He found the perfect set of people to take the blame: Christians. They were the perfect people to blame because tensions were tight between Rome and the Christians, and this would make sense because Rome has done many bad things to them.

The fires in Rome caused great damage, and it has been named The Great Fire of Rome because it was so huge. It was said to have started in shops where flammable goods were sold, so it would spread quickly. It was in the area of the Circus, which was near the Palatine Hill. It was also said to be a windy night, so the fire covered the neighbourhood of the Circus quickly. The people of the area fled to areas that hadn’t been touched by the fire, and then to wide open fields and rural roads. There were also people who took advantage of the fires: looters and arsonists. They would spread the flames with

torches, or raid abandoned stores for their goods. While all of this happened, Nero was away from Rome, and when he came back he brought measures of food supplies, and let refugees stay in open gardens and buildings. This made him seem like me was caring for the people and did not set the fire. Only 4 of Rome’s 14 districts were undamaged, and 3 were completely devastated. The Great Fire of Rome completely devastated the great empire, and the cause of it still remains a mystery.

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