(64 A.D.)
There followed a dreadful disaster; whether fortuitously, or by the
wicked contrivance of the prince[117] is not determined, for both are
asserted by historians: but of all the calamities which ever befell
this city from the rage of fire, this was the most terrible and
severe. It broke out in that part of the Circus which is contiguous to
mounts Palatine and Coelius; where, by reason of shops in which were
kept such goods as minister aliment to fire, the moment it commenced
it acquired strength, and being accelerated by the wind, it spread at
once through the whole extent of the Circus: for neither were the
houses secured by enclosures, nor the temples environed with walls,
nor was there any other obstacle to intercept its progress; but the
flame, spreading every way impetuously, invaded first the lower
regions of the city, then mounted to the higher; then again ravaging
the lower, it baffled every effort to extinguish it, by the rapidity
of its destructive course, and from the liability of the city to
conflagration, in consequence of the narrow and intricate alleys, and
the irregularity of the streets in ancient Rome.[118] Add to this, the
wailings of terrified women, the infirm condition of the aged, and the
helplessness of childhood: such as strove to provide for themselves,
and those who labored to assist others; these dragging the feeble,
those waiting for them; some hurrying, others lingering; altogether
created a scene of universal confusion and embarrassment: and while
they looked back upon the danger in their rear, they often found
themselves beset before, and on their sides: or if they had escaped
into the quarters adjoining, these too were already seized by the
devouring flames; even the parts which they believed remote and
exempt, were found to be in the same distress. At last, not knowing
what to shun, or where to seek sanctuary, they crowded the streets,
and lay along in the open fields. Some, from the loss of their whole
substance, even the means of their daily sustenance, others, from
affection for their relations, whom they had not been able to snatch
from the flames, suffered themselves to perish in them, tho they had
opportunity to escape. Neither dared any man offer to check the fire:
so repeated were the menaces of many who forbade to extinguish it; and
because others openly threw firebrands, with loud declarations "that
they had one who authorized them"; whether they did it that they might
plunder with the less restraint, or in consequence of orders given.
Nero, who was at that juncture sojourning at Antium,[119] did not
return to the city till the fire approached that quarter of his house
which connected the palace with the gardens of Maecenas;[120] nor could
it, however, be prevented from devouring the house and palace, and
everything around. But for the relief of the people, thus destitute,
and driven from their dwellings, he opened the fields of Mars and the
monumental edifices erected by Agrippa,[121] and even his own gardens.
He likewise reared temporary houses for the reception of the forlorn
multitude: and from Ostia and the neighboring cities were brought, up
the river, household necessaries; and the price of grain was reduced
to three sesterces the measure. All which proceedings, tho of a
popular character, were thrown away, because a rumor had become
universally current, "that the very time when the city was in flames,
Nero, going on the stage of his private theater, sang 'The Destruction
of Troy,' assimilating the present disaster to that catastrophe of
ancient times."
At length, on the sixth day, the conflagration was stayed at the foot
of Esquilliae, by pulling down an immense quantity of buildings, so
that an open space, and, as it were, void air, might check the raging
element by breaking the continuity. But ere the consternation had
subsided the fire broke out afresh, with no little violence, but in
regions more spacious, and therefore with less destruction of human
life: but more extensive havoc was made of the temples, and the
porticoes dedicated to amusement. This conflagration, too was the
subject of more censorious remark, as it arose in the AEmilian
possessions of Tigellinus: and Nero seemed to aim at the glory of
building a new city, and calling it by his own name: for, of the
fourteen sections into which Rome is divided, four were still standing
entire, three were leveled with the ground, and in the seven others
there remained only here and there a few remnants of houses, shattered
and half-consumed.
It were no easy task to recount the number of tenements and temples
which were lost: but the following, most venerable for antiquity and
sanctity, were consumed: that dedicated by Servius Tullius to the
Moon; the temple and great altar consecrated by Evander the Arcadian
to Hercules while present; the chapel vowed by Romulus to Jupiter
Stator; the palace of Numa,[122] with the temple of Vesta, and in it
the tutelar gods of Rome. Moreover, the treasures accumulated by so
many victories, the beautiful productions of Greek artists, ancient
writings of authors celebrated for genius, and till then preserved
entire, were consumed: and tho great was the beauty of the city, in
its renovated form, the older inhabitants remembered many decorations
of the ancient which could not be replaced in the modern city. There
were some who remarked that the commencement of this fire showed
itself on the fourteenth before the calends of July, the day on which
the Senones set fire to the captured city. Others carried their
investigation so far as to determine that an equal number of years,
months, and days intervened between the two fires.
To proceed: Nero appropriated to his own purposes the ruins of his
country, and founded upon them a palace; in which the old-fashioned,
and, in those luxurious times, common ornaments of gold and precious
stones, were not so much the objects of attraction as lands and lakes;
in one part, woods like vast deserts: in another part, open spaces and
expansive prospects. The projectors and superintendents of this plan
were Severus and Celer, men of such ingenuity and daring enterprise as
to attempt to conquer by art the obstacles of nature, and fool away
the treasures of the prince: they had even undertaken to sink a
navigable canal from the lake Avernus to the mouth of the Tiber, over
an arid shore, or through opposing mountains: nor indeed does there
occur anything of a humid nature for supplying water, except the
Pomptine marshes; the rest is either craggy rock or a parched soil:
and had it even been possible to break through these obstructions, the
toil had been intolerable, and disproportioned to the object. Nero,
however who longed to achieve things that exceeded credibility,
exerted all his might to perforate the mountains adjoining to Avernus:
and to this day there remain traces of his abortive project.
But the rest of the old site not occupied by his palace, was laid out,
not as after the Gallic fire, without discrimination and regularity,
but with the lines of streets measured out, broad spaces left for
transit, the height of the buildings limited, open areas left, and
porticoes added to protect the front of the clustered dwellings: these
porticoes Nero engaged to rear at his own expense, and then to deliver
to each proprietor the areas about them cleared. He moreover proposed
rewards proportioned to every man's rank and private substance, and
fixt a day within which, if their houses, single or clustered, were
finished, they should receive them: he appointed the marshes of Ostia
for a receptacle of the rubbish, and that the vessels which had
conveyed grain up the Tiber should return laden with rubbish; that the
buildings themselves should be raised to a certain portion of their
height without beams, and arched with stone from the quarries of Gabii
or Alba, that stone being proof against fire: that over the water
springs, which had been improperly intercepted by private individuals,
overseers should be placed, to provide for their flowing in greater
abundance, and in a greater number of places, for the supply of the
public: that every housekeeper should have in his yard means for
extinguishing fire; neither should there be party-walls, but every
house should be enclosed by its own walls. These regulations, which
were favorably received, in consideration of their utility, were also
a source of beauty to the new city: yet some there were who believed
that the ancient form was more conducive to health, as from the
narrowness of the streets and the height of the buildings the rays of
the sun were more excluded; whereas now, the spacious breadth of the
streets, without any shade to protect it, was more intensely heated in
warm weather.
Such were the provisions made by human counsels. The gods were next
addrest with expiations and recourse had to the Sibyl's books. By
admonition from them to Vulcan, Ceres, and Proserpina, supplicatory
sacrifices were made, and Juno propitiated by the matrons, first in
the Capitol, then upon the nearest shore, where, by water drawn from
the sea, the temple and image of the goddess were besprinkled; and the
ceremony of placing the goddess in her sacred chair, and her vigil,
were celebrated by ladies who had husbands. But not all the relief
that could come from man, not all the bounties that the prince could
bestow, nor all the atonements which could be presented to the gods,
availed to relieve Nero from the infamy of being believed to have
ordered the conflagration.
Hence, to suppress the rumor, he falsely charged with the guilt, and
punished with the most exquisite tortures, the persons commonly
called Christians,[123] who were hated for their enormities. Christus,
the founder of that name was put to death as a criminal by Pontius
Pilate, procurator of Judea, in the reign of Tiberius: but the
pernicious superstition, represt for a time, broke out again, not only
through Judea where the mischief originated, but through the city of
Rome also, whither all things horrible and disgraceful flow, from all
quarters, as to a common receptacle, and where they are encouraged.
Accordingly, first those were seized who confest they were Christians;
next, on their information a vast multitude were convicted, not so
much on the charge of burning the city, as of hating the human race.
And in their deaths they were also made the subjects of sport, for
they were covered with the hides of wild beasts, and worried to death
by dogs, or nailed to crosses, or set fire to, and when day declined,
burned to serve for nocturnal lights. Nero offered his own gardens for
that spectacle, and exhibited a Circensian game, indiscriminately
mingling with the common people in the habit of a charioteer, or else
standing in his chariot. Whence a feeling of compassion arose toward
the sufferers, tho guilty and deserving to be made examples of by
capital punishment, because they seemed not to be cut off for the
public good, but victims to the ferocity of one man.[124]
In the mean time, in order to supply money, all Italy was pillaged,
the provinces ruined: both the people in alliance with us, and the
states which are called free. Even the gods were not exempt from
plunder on this occasion, their temples in the city being despoiled,
and all their gold conveyed away, which the Roman people, in every
age, either in gratitude for triumphs, or in fulfilment of vows, had
consecrated, in times of prosperity, or in seasons of dismay. Through
Greece and Asia, indeed, the gifts and oblations, and even the statues
of the deities were carried off; Acratus and Secundus Carinas being
sent into those provinces for the purpose: the former, Nero's
freedman, a prompt instrument in any iniquity; the other, acquainted
with Greek learning, as far as relates to lip-knowledge, but unadorned
with virtuous accomplishments. Of Seneca it was reported, "that to
avert from himself the odium of this sacrilege, he prayed to retire to
a seat of his, remote from Rome, and being refused, feigned
indisposition, as tho his nerves were affected, and confined himself
to his chamber." Some authors have recorded, "that a freedman of his,
named Cleonicus, had, by the command of Nero, prepared poison for his
master, who escaped it, either from the discovery made by the
freedman, or from the caution inspired by his own apprehensions, as he
supported nature by a diet perfectly simple, satisfying the cravings
of hunger by wild fruits, and the solicitations of thirst from the
running brook."
V