For six days Rome blazed like a torch in the hottest month of July 64 years from the birth of Christ. For six days, a blood-red glow rose over the valley of the Tiber, and its waters were colored purple. And all these days there was an incessant human cry. The chronicles of that long time ago did not preserve information about the number of residents who died during the fire. But these were many hundreds, maybe thousands of people.
In six days, the capital of the Roman Empire burned down to ashes, palaces, temples, libraries, baths, stables, statues of emperors and gods disappeared in the flames. For six days people rushed about, trying to save their goods from the fire, for six days the flame roamed freely through the streets.
“Fires in Rome happened quite often, and just as often they were accompanied by atrocities and robberies, especially in neighborhoods inhabited by poor people and barbarians,” - this is how the fire of Rome was described in his famous novel “Camo Hryadeshi?” Polish writer Henryk Sienkiewicz.
… The great-great-grandson of the divine emperor Augustus, Nero was the son of Agrippina, the fifth wife of the emperor Claudius. According to legend, Agrippina poisoned the weak-willed Claudius and offered her son Nero in his place. And the Praetorians, the elite guard of the palace, proclaimed him their leader, and then forced the Senate to approve him as emperor of all Rome.
The novel by the German writer Lyon Feuchtwanger "False Nero" tells how this emperor got the idea to set fire to the city. He hated the poor, he was irritated by the narrow, cramped streets. When, sitting in the palanquin, he was forced to stop, the smell of rotting vegetables and rotten meat, the cries of street vendors and the disgusting cry of donkeys came to his sensitive nostrils. Cruel and evil thoughts arose in the head of the emperor: to throw living people into the arena, whom he accused of violating the Roman faith (Christians), and on the other hand he wanted to glorify himself … But with what?
It was, however, an artistic version. But the ancient Roman writer, author of the famous book "The Life of the Twelve Caesars" Gaius Suetonius, to whom modern scholars very often refer, also argued that Rome was set on fire by Nero - a man who knew no pity for his people or his country. It was Nero who heard from someone the phrase expressed in their hearts: "When I die, let the earth burn with fire!" - corrected the interlocutor, saying: "No, let it burn while I live!" Here is how Gaius Suetonius answers the question about the burning of Rome.
“As if ugly old houses and narrow crooked alleys disgusted him, he set Rome on fire so openly that many consulars caught his servants with torches and tow in their yards, but did not dare to touch them; and the granaries that stood near the Golden Palace and, in Nero's opinion, took up too much space from him, were as if first destroyed by military machines, and then set on fire, because their walls were made of stone. For six days and seven nights calamity raged, and the people sought refuge in stone monuments and crypts. In addition to countless residential buildings, houses of ancient commanders were burning, still decorated with enemy booty, temples of the gods, erected and consecrated during the years of the kings, and then - the Punic and Gallic wars, burned, everything worthy and memorable that was preserved from ancient times was burning. He looked at this fire from the Maecenas Tower, enjoyingaccording to him, with a magnificent flame, and in theatrical attire he sang "The Fall of Troy". But even here he did not miss an opportunity for booty and profit: having announced that the wreckage and corpses would be burned at the expense of the state, he did not allow people to approach the remnants of their property; and he not only accepted donations from provinces and private individuals, but also demanded, completely exhausting their means."
This dispute has been going on for almost twenty centuries, at different times various versions have been put forward about the fire in Rome. Some historians blamed Nero for everything and said that at one fine moment, circumstances developed in such a way that the emperor found an opportunity to get rid of an obnoxious mother, a useless wife and a jealous mistress husband. It was as if a thought arose in his head that would horrify even the greatest villain. He decided to set fire to his palace, which was connected to the house of his beloved Epicharisa, in order to destroy those persons who (as he thought) interfered with his well-being. Neither the beautiful decoration and splendor of the palace, nor the treasures and antiquities and rarities collected in it - nothing could turn Nero away from his terrible intention. So this vast building, the adornment of Rome, in one minute became the prey of the flame.
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Subsequently, they recalled that Nero had an almost inborn passion for fire, which he tested in childhood: the future emperor willingly played with his peers in the "fire of Troy" … And now he retired to Capitol Hill and from there looked at his terrible deed. Countless mournful groans were addressed to Nero, but he was not moved by the crying and sobs that came to him from all sides. Instead, dressed in the Apollo actor's dress, he sang poetry about the destruction of Ilion. His courtiers saw their houses engulfed in flames, but were forced to stay with the emperor and applaud him.
But this is only one of the versions. Other scholars have just as vehemently cited the historical justification for the emperor. Russian writer A. V. Amphitheater dedicated the four-volume work "The Beast from the Abyss" to Nero. In it, he cites many historical evidence of ancient people, both pro and contra. However, all historians agree that this disaster was catastrophic for ancient Rome. Never before had a fire caused such terrible and terrible harm to Rome.
The fire started at night in that part of the circus, which was adjacent to the Palatine and Celian hills. The flame, spreading to the neighboring roofs, spread even with some incomprehensible speed. The fire suddenly spread through the shops filled with flammable goods, and soon the whole area was blazing like a huge bonfire. There was no fenced house, no high-walled temple, no other obstacle.
To the stricken Romans, the fire seemed a sight all the more terrifying because help and extinguishing it seemed impossible. First of all, because the fire spread very quickly, and besides, the streets of ancient Rome curved in all directions and huge buildings impeded movement. The flames reached the highest towers, and many Romans began to believe that the gods themselves multiplied the ferocity of the fire.
With a terrifying speed, the flames engulfed many streets, and the hollow between the Aventine and Palatine hills gave the fire a terrible additional thrust. A. V. Amphitheatrov writes that “trimmed in marble and wood, it turned into a gigantic pipe through which the flames rushed to the Forum, the buildings of Velabra and Karin. The Sacred Street with the Temple of Vesta, the Temple of Hercules at the Cattle Market and many other buildings were completely burnt out. During these days, the works of entire centuries were destroyed by fire - everything that was the most magnificent in this magnificent city."
From all sides came the screams and screams of those who perished under the rubble of crumbling buildings. The women, shedding tears, ran through the streets along which it was still possible to walk, looking for their children who had fled from fear. Some of the confused and distraught Romans tried to somehow fight the flame in order to save at least a small part of their property. Among them were those who were less horrified by death than by poverty, to which they were brought by this disaster, and they themselves threw themselves into the flames. Many people died in the fire, because with the rapid, almost instantaneous spread of the fire and the crowded population in the narrow streets and back streets of the capital, it could not be otherwise. In Rome, a million people crowded and tossed about in mortal terror. “Some carried out the sick, others stood motionless, and still others fussed. Someone looked backand meanwhile a flame enveloped him from the front and from the side; some thought that they had already fled far from the fire, and also came across. Some, despite the fact that they could have been saved, perished out of love for their neighbors whom they could not save. No one even dared to defend themselves from the flames, menacing voices from all sides forbade extinguishing the fire. Some apparently threw lighted torches at houses, shouting that they were ordered; maybe in order to make it more convenient for them to rob, and maybe, in fact, on orders, "the historian wrote.shouting that they were ordered to; maybe in order to make it more convenient for them to rob, and maybe, in fact, on orders, "the historian wrote.shouting that they were ordered to; maybe in order to make it more convenient for them to rob, and maybe, in fact, on orders, "the historian wrote.
When the fire broke out, Nero was in Antium. He returned to the capital when the fire was already approaching his residence. The horror of the majestic spectacle delighted the emperor, and therefore the story was subsequently formed that he admired the fire from the high tower in the Patron Gardens and in a theatrical costume, with a wreath on his head and a lyre in his hands, sang the same fiery death of sacred Troy.
Of the fourteen parts of Rome, three were completely leveled to the ground, from seven there were only blackened walls, and only four parts of the Roman capital were spared by fire. What was to replace now the sacred fence of Jupiter Strator, the palace of Numa Pompilius, the Penates of the Greek people, the wonders of Greek art? Many magnificent temples and buildings, the most precious Roman antiquities, the historical houses of commanders decorated with the spoils of past victories, trophies and Roman cult objects perished in the flames.
HUNDRED GREAT DISASTERS. N. A. Ionina, M. N. Kubeev