1 00:00:00,560 --> 00:00:03,760 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how 2 00:00:03,800 --> 00:00:13,880 Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:13,960 --> 00:00:17,319 Speaker 1: I'm editor Candice Skipson, joined by Curious like a cat 4 00:00:17,440 --> 00:00:23,239 Speaker 1: staff right, Josh Clark. How's it going, Josh Rare Candice Rare. Um, 5 00:00:23,239 --> 00:00:25,279 Speaker 1: I can't sing the lyrics quite as fast as the 6 00:00:25,320 --> 00:00:28,120 Speaker 1: incomparable Billy Joel. But we are kind of wondering who 7 00:00:28,120 --> 00:00:32,640 Speaker 1: started the fire? And back in eight six Rome was burning. Yes, 8 00:00:32,840 --> 00:00:36,400 Speaker 1: it was a bad burn too. I think half of 9 00:00:36,479 --> 00:00:40,040 Speaker 1: the citizens of Rome, which was pretty expansive at the time, 10 00:00:40,240 --> 00:00:45,560 Speaker 1: lost their homes. Yeah. Burn for six days and seven nights. 11 00:00:45,680 --> 00:00:49,360 Speaker 1: About the city was destroyed. Yeah. There were fourteen districts 12 00:00:49,400 --> 00:00:52,280 Speaker 1: to Rome at the time and only three were left intact, 13 00:00:52,600 --> 00:00:54,480 Speaker 1: and most of the other ones that were birn were 14 00:00:54,520 --> 00:00:57,840 Speaker 1: just totally leveled. It was a horrible fire. And at 15 00:00:57,840 --> 00:01:01,120 Speaker 1: the time, the person running the show in Rome was 16 00:01:01,240 --> 00:01:05,840 Speaker 1: the Emperor Nero, who was wildly unpopular. Um. I think 17 00:01:05,880 --> 00:01:09,679 Speaker 1: people kind of perceived him as a distracted leader. Um. 18 00:01:09,760 --> 00:01:13,160 Speaker 1: He seemed kind of Namby Pamby From the research I did, 19 00:01:13,200 --> 00:01:16,240 Speaker 1: he he just didn't really seem like a He was 20 00:01:16,280 --> 00:01:19,080 Speaker 1: no Alexander. Let's just put it like that, Okay, fair enough, 21 00:01:19,280 --> 00:01:22,560 Speaker 1: And there were actually rumors that he started the fire 22 00:01:22,720 --> 00:01:24,880 Speaker 1: on purpose because he didn't like the way that the 23 00:01:24,920 --> 00:01:26,880 Speaker 1: city looked and he wanted to rebuild it to his 24 00:01:26,959 --> 00:01:30,240 Speaker 1: own esthetic standards. Yeah yeah, And you know, once people 25 00:01:30,280 --> 00:01:33,240 Speaker 1: start throwing rumors like that around, you're in big trouble. 26 00:01:34,520 --> 00:01:37,280 Speaker 1: But one of the other accusations that um I came 27 00:01:37,319 --> 00:01:40,720 Speaker 1: across when I was researching the Roman Fire of sixty 28 00:01:40,760 --> 00:01:45,600 Speaker 1: four um was that Nero played the fiddle while Rome burned, 29 00:01:45,760 --> 00:01:50,000 Speaker 1: which is just seems mad, uh, And I've heard it before, 30 00:01:50,080 --> 00:01:52,720 Speaker 1: but I'm asking you what is it fact or is 31 00:01:52,760 --> 00:01:56,720 Speaker 1: that fiction? That's fiction. We're not quite sure where this 32 00:01:56,800 --> 00:01:59,960 Speaker 1: idea came from. I mean, the idea of a city 33 00:02:00,280 --> 00:02:05,000 Speaker 1: leader sitting around in his palace, you know, um plucking 34 00:02:05,040 --> 00:02:08,840 Speaker 1: the strings of his instrument while his city's residents became 35 00:02:08,880 --> 00:02:12,280 Speaker 1: homeless and utterly distraught. Again is just very sad and tragic. 36 00:02:12,560 --> 00:02:14,160 Speaker 1: And we know for a fact that he did play 37 00:02:14,160 --> 00:02:16,480 Speaker 1: a string instrument, but it wasn't the fiddle, and that 38 00:02:16,600 --> 00:02:20,600 Speaker 1: actually wasn't invented until fifteen years after the event anyway, 39 00:02:20,639 --> 00:02:23,320 Speaker 1: So that blows a story right out of the water. 40 00:02:23,880 --> 00:02:27,800 Speaker 1: But there are historical accounts from Tacitus that show neuro 41 00:02:27,919 --> 00:02:31,720 Speaker 1: Is actually present at the burning, and he was coordinating 42 00:02:31,760 --> 00:02:35,640 Speaker 1: firefighting efforts, he was housing the homeless and his own gardens, 43 00:02:35,680 --> 00:02:37,880 Speaker 1: and he was trying to get food available at a 44 00:02:37,919 --> 00:02:41,080 Speaker 1: discount to the city's residents. But despite all of this, 45 00:02:41,160 --> 00:02:43,240 Speaker 1: he still didn't do a very good job trying to 46 00:02:43,320 --> 00:02:47,120 Speaker 1: coordinate the raised city as it were. Yeah, but even 47 00:02:47,160 --> 00:02:51,760 Speaker 1: though he did try something, that's that in stark contradiction 48 00:02:51,800 --> 00:02:54,960 Speaker 1: of the image, the public image he had, So at 49 00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:57,200 Speaker 1: least he tried something right. He tried, but then he 50 00:02:57,200 --> 00:02:59,600 Speaker 1: tried to blame it on the Christians too and persecuted 51 00:02:59,639 --> 00:03:02,960 Speaker 1: them horribly, and he became even more unpopular when the 52 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:05,639 Speaker 1: Senate declared him a public enemy. And then his own 53 00:03:05,680 --> 00:03:08,440 Speaker 1: soldiers started to revolt, and he realized that things were 54 00:03:08,480 --> 00:03:12,040 Speaker 1: going really downhill. So four years after the fire, he 55 00:03:12,080 --> 00:03:16,760 Speaker 1: took his own life. He stabbed himself in the throat. Indeed, 56 00:03:17,040 --> 00:03:20,280 Speaker 1: so Nero was a ritual zero, and you can read 57 00:03:20,639 --> 00:03:23,480 Speaker 1: more about him, and in Nero really played the fiddle 58 00:03:23,760 --> 00:03:27,880 Speaker 1: while Rome burn on half stuff works dot Com. We're 59 00:03:27,880 --> 00:03:30,280 Speaker 1: more on this than thousands of other topics because at 60 00:03:30,280 --> 00:03:33,480 Speaker 1: how stuff works dot Com let us know what you think. 61 00:03:33,760 --> 00:03:43,280 Speaker 1: Send an email to podcast at how stuff works dot com.