A quiz question · hard
Where was Nero when the Great Fire of Rome began on 18-19 July 64 CE?
Nero was at his coastal villa at Antium (modern Anzio) when the fire began. He returned to organise relief. The 'fiddling' story is a later hostile reconstruction by Tacitus, Suetonius, and Cassius Dio.
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The Six-Day Roman Fire of July 64 CE That Destroyed Ten of the City's Fourteen Districts and Was Almost Certainly Not Started by the Emperor A fire began in the wooden Circus Maximus shops in Rome on the night of 18-19 July 64 CE. It burned for six days and destroyed three of Rome's fourteen districts completely, with substantial damage to seven more. Emperor Nero was at his villa in Antium when the fire began and returned to Rome to organise relief. The story that he "fiddled" while it burned was a hostile reconstruction recorded by Suetonius decades later.
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