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The Great Fire of Rome erupted on the night of 18 July, in the
year 64, in the mercantile district of Rome. The fire
quickly spread throughout densely populated areas of the city due to the fact that many Romans lived in insulae, wooden apartment buildings of three to four floors. These conditions allowed the fire to grow until it destroyed
almost half of Rome.
The Roman Emperor Nero
reportedly played his lyre while he watched the fire burn from a safe distance at his villa
on the Quirinal Hill. Nero himself was even suspected of causing the fire
in order to clear room for his planned palace. However, historians from Tacitus on have doubted these allegations, believing them rumours given life by Nero's
unpopularity. (Suetonius and Dio
Cassius repeat the story without qualification; Tacitus describes it as a "rumor" which arose during the fire.) Nero,
possibly to avoid blame for the incident, accused the Christian sect for starting
the fire and embarked on one of the earliest persecutions of Christians in
Roman history.
Rome was rebuilt after the fire and Nero played a large role in the reconstruction; it was now that the building of his famous
Domus Aurea palace began.
Accounts of the fire are found in the Annals of Tacitus (15.38ff), in Suetonius' Life of Nero (ch. 38), and
in the Roman History of Dio Cassius (ch. 62).
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