Retro Raunch Revisit

JUL 19, 64 AD: The Great Fire of Rome rages for 6 days (and a re-ignition that burned for another 3 more) resulting in widespread devastation & over three quarters of the city destroyed. The fire had started in merchant shops around the Circus Maximus chariot stadium as flammable stored goods had been ignited causing embers & flames to spread rapidly as they were carried by strong fanning night winds. Through narrow twisting streets & tightly packed apartment blocks, the conflagration expanded which drove many into open fields & rural roads outside the city. As vulnerable Rome had suffered a number of previous fires, the common place nature of the earlier disasters had led to the funding of a fire brigade, the demolition of buildings to create a natural fire break, and for the city's Curator Aquarum (Water Commissioner) to oversee the repairing of aqueducts, but looters & arsonists were reported to be acting in groups under orders, and intentionally prevented help by interfering with some fighting the inferno. Emporer Nero was said to be in the coastal town of Antium, 35 miles south of Rome, when the fire broke out. When he returned, he organized relief having brought in food supplies and opened gardens & public buildings as shelters to accomodate the surviving inhabitants, provided corpse removal, rebuilt infrastructure and raised taxation on the Empire provinces by devaluing Roman currency to cover the costs. The long-standing historical account of the Great Fire is that Nero had fiddled while the city was ablaze owing to his nature of being an impulsive tyrant having come to power in In Oct 54 AD at age 16. [Allegedly encouraged by his mistress Poppea, he had his mother Agrippina murdered and later dismissed his top advisor Seneca who had fallen out of favor and was forced to commit suicide. Poppea herself died in 65 AD rumored to have been kicked to death while pregnant but more likely from a miscarriage]. It is disputed whether or not he started the fire -- supposedly to clear space for a new palace Domus Aurea (Golden House) as well as his separate personal residence that included a 2.5 km² extension. Claims that he ordered the ruination have fed arguments in his quickness to rebuild in the ostentatious Greek style. The counterpoint to such treachery however is that even if Nero had greedy designs on ownership and urban planning for grand temples & statues, a deliberate fire at the expense of innocent lives lost still wouldn't have been necessary as he could've just easily requsitioned necessary land of which most was already in his possession. The enduring accusations have combined in 6 main stories: (1) Nero's intention was to destroy Rome by sending out men pretending to be drunk who set the fires while watching in his palace on the Palatine Hill, singing & playing the lyre. (2) The men were sent out and he watched from the Tower of Maecenas on the Esquiline Hill while singing. (3) The men were sent out and during the fires, he supposedly sang in stage costume from a private play. (4) The city's destruction was plotted allowing him to bypass the Senate and for the reconstruction to satisfy his extravagance & vanity. (5) Nero had started the fire and blamed the Christians out of his penchant for cruelty & punishment with many arrested and atleast 1000 killed either by crucifixion or torn apart by hunting dogs as spectator entertainment. (6) The fire was indeed an accident while Nero was in Antium and there was no conspiracy. Nero died in Jun 68 AD.