Great fire of Rome

In addition to officially registered citizens, there lived a huge number of unaccounted for slaves, seasonal workers from neighboring provinces , as well as illegal migrants from countries adjacent to the borders of the empire. The fire spread very quickly, this was facilitated by the curved narrow streets and huge buildings, which also prevented the movement of crowds fleeing the fire. The Sacred Street with the Temple of Vesta and many other buildings were completely burnt out.

Suetonius says that the initiator of the fire was Nero himself and that in the courtyards they saw arsonists with torches. According to legend, when the emperor was informed of the fire, he rode towards Rome and watched the fire from a safe distance. At the same time, Nero was dressed in a theatrical costume, played the lyre and recited a poem about the death of Troy ^[1] .

However, modern historians are more likely to rely on the description of events given by Tacitus , who survived the fire in childhood. According to his testimony, Nero immediately went to Rome and at his own expense organized rescue teams to save the city and people. Also, even during the fire, he developed a new plan for the construction of the city. In it, Nero set the minimum distance between houses, the minimum width of new streets, obliged him to build only stone buildings in the city, and also to build all new houses in such a way that the main exit from the house was facing the street, and not into yards and gardens.

The fire raged for six days and seven nights. After its completion, it turned out that four of the fourteen districts of the city completely burned out, and another seven were very significantly affected. Nero opened his palaces for the homeless people, and also did everything necessary to provide the city with food and avoid starvation among the survivors.

In order to restore the city, huge funds were required. The provinces of the empire were lined with a one-time tribute, which allowed a relatively short time to rebuild the capital. Shortly after the fire, Nero laid the Golden Palace .

Although, most likely, Nero had nothing to do with the fire ^{[2] [3]} , it was urgent to find those responsible for the fire. And the Christians became these responsible (there is a version that Christians were only one of the representatives of Eastern religions and cults, accused of arson, and not the only ones). A few days after the fire, Christians were accused of setting fire to the city. A wave of pogroms and executions swept across Rome. Tacitus describes these events as follows:

And so Nero, in order to overcome the rumors, sought out the guilty and put to sophisticated executions those who, with their abominations, had incurred universal hatred and whom the crowd called Christians. Christ, on behalf of whom this name occurs, was executed under Tiberius by the procurator Pontius Pilate; suppressed for a while, this evil superstition began to break out again, and not only in Judea, where did this disaster come from, but also in Rome, where all the most heinous and shameful flocked from everywhere and where it finds adherents. So, at first, those who openly recognized themselves as belonging to this sect were captured, and then, according to their instructions, a great many others were exposed not so much in villainous arson as in hatred of the human race. Their killing was accompanied by bullying, for they were clothed in the skins of wild animals so that they could be torn to death by dogs, crucified on crosses, or set fire to doomed to death with the onset of darkness for night illumination.

- Annals XV. 44

• The fire of Rome and the subsequent executions of Christians are some of the central events of the historical novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz “ Camo Griadeshi ”. In the novel, the initiator of the arson of Rome is Nero.
• The organization of fire Nero is said in the television series Doctor Who in the series Hell (1965).
• The fact that Nero set fire to Rome is said in the Soviet television series " Big Change " (1973): Nestor Petrovich tells about this to his students in the classroom of the historical circle.

• Grant, Michael . Chapter 9. The Great Fire and Christians // Nero. Lord of the earthly hell . - M .: Centerpolygraph, 2003 .-- 336 p. - (Nomen est Omen). - 6000 copies. - ISBN 5-227-01895-2 .
• Sisek, Eugene. Fire in Rome // Nero . - Rostov-on-Don: Phoenix, 1998 .-- 448 p. - (Mark on history). - 5,000 copies. - ISBN 5-222-00197-0 .
• Cassius Dio, Roman History , Books 62 ( p. 229)
• Suetonius, The Lives of Twelve Caesars , the Life of Nero, 38 ( p. 121)
• Tacitus, Annals , XV ( p. 117)

•   How Nero saved Rome. Film produced by National Geographic Channel (2009)
• Secrets of the dead: PBS series investigates clues that Nero circumvented the Senate
• Tacitus describes the great Fire