Rome Is Burning: Nero and the Fire That Ended a Dynasty

365 Pages·2020·13.17 MB·English

by  Anthony A. Barrett

ROME IS BURNING
TURNING POINTS IN ANCIENT HISTORY
Barry Strauss, Series Editor
Turning Points in Ancient History pre sents accessible books,
by leading scholars, on crucial events and key moments in the
ancient world. The series aims at fresh interpretations of both
famous subjects and little- known ones that deserve more attention.
The books provide a narrative synthesis that integrates
literary and archaeological evidence.
Rome Is Burning: Nero and the Fire That Ended a Dynasty,
Anthony A. Barrett
1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed, Eric H. Cline
ROME IS
BURNING
NERO AND THE FIRE THAT ENDED A DYNASTY
ANTHONY A. BARRETT
p r i nc e t on u n i v e r s i t y p r e s s
prince ton and oxford
Copyright © 2020 by Prince ton University Press
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Barrett, Anthony, 1941- author.
Title: Rome is burning : Nero and the fire that ended a dynasty /
Anthony A. Barrett.
Description: Princeton : Princeton University Press, 2020. |
Series: Turning points in ancient history | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020017929 (print) | LCCN 2020017930 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780691172316 (hardback) | ISBN 9780691208503 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Great Fire, Rome, Italy, 64. | Rome—History—Nero,
54–68. | Nero, Emperor of Rome, 37–68.
Classification: LCC DG285.3 .B37 2020 (print) | LCC DG285.3 (ebook) |
DDC 937/.6307—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020017929
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020017930
British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available
Editorial: Rob Tempio and Matt Rohal
Production Editorial: Sara Lerner
Text Design: Lorraine Doneker
Jacket Design: Karl Spurzem
Production: Erin Suydam
Publicity: Maria Whelan and Amy Stewart
Copyeditor: Karen Verde
Jacket Credit: Alphonse Mucha, Nero Watching the Burning of Rome, 1887.
Oil, 73.3 x 113 cm. Aclosund Historic / Alamy Stock Photo
This book has been composed in Sabon LT Std with Perpetua Std
Printed on acid- free paper. ∞
Printed in the United States of Amer ic a
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations vii
Series Editor’s Foreword ix
Acknowl edgments xi
Timeline xiii
Prologue 1
I
Introduction 7
the fIre
II
Fires in Ancient Rome 27
III
The Great Fire 57
IV
Responsibility 114
the aftermath
V
The Christians and the Great Fire 143
VI
The New Rome 175
VII
The Significance of the Great Fire 223
Epilogue
The Great Fire as an Enduring Cultural
Phenomenon 253
Principal Sources: Tacitus, Suetonius, and Dio 259
Notes 269
Glossary 305
Bibliography 311
Index 335

ILLUSTRATIONS
Map xiv
1.1. Traditional hills of Rome 18
2.1. The Augustan Regiones 45
3.1. Proposed chronology of the Fire 59
3.2. The Circus Maximus 61
3.3. Domus Tiberiana 67
3.4. Bagni di Livia 69
3.5. Houses on north edge of Palatine destroyed in the Fire 76
3.6. Compitum Acilii 77
3.7. Area around the Meta Sudans 78
3.8. Augustan Meta frieze fragment with traces of burning 79
3.9. The Augustan Meta destroyed in the Fire 80
3.10. Collapsed debris, area of the Meta Sudans 81
3.11. Dedication, inscription of musicians 82
3.12. Burned steps leading to the Small Temple 83
3.13. Grate distorted by heat 84
3.14. Road surface shattered by heat and falling masonry 85
3.15. Workshops and houses 86
3.16. Workshops and houses in perspective 87
3.17. Compacted burned material 88
3.18. Workshop B. Burned floor 89
3.19. Workshop C. Burned wall and floor 89
3.20. Burned metal 90
3.21. Burned pot 90
3.22. Burned floor beneath Colosseum 91
3.23. Ludus Magnus 92
3.24. Grating distorted by fire 93
3.25. Lanciani’s section 95
3.26. Piranesi drawing 97
3.27. Pos si ble extent of the Fire 102
3.28. Ara Incendii on Quirinal 109
6.1. Pos si ble traces of the Golden House and Domus Transitoria 183
6.2. Reconstruction of the Golden House, looking west 184
6.3. Neronian Dupondius 185
6.4. Circular structure, Golden House, Palatine 194
6.5. Substructure of rotating chamber below Vigna Barberini 195
6.6. Base and inner steps, central pillar 195
6.7. Reconstruction of portico. Southern edge of vestibule 199
6.8. Lake and vestibule 203
6.9. Area between vestibule and lake 205
6.10. Southern corner of vestibule and lake 206
6.11. Van Deman’s Sacra Via and vestibule 207
6.12. Van Deman’s reconstruction of Nero’s portico 208
6.13. Detail of portico 209
6.14. Reconstruction of Oppian Wing 211
6.15. Oppian Wing and Baths of Titus 212
6.16. Octagon Room 215
6.17. Octagon Room, construction of vaults 216
6.18. Octagon Room plan 217
6.19. Oppian Wing painting 219
6.20. Odysseus mosaic, Oppian Wing 220
7.1. Neronian Silver Denarius AD 64–65 247
viii • List of Illustrations
SERIES EDITOR’S FOREWORD
This is an exciting, if troubling, time to be a historian. As I write, a
global pandemic and the ensuing dislocations demonstrate all too well
that small events can change the world in a big way. So it was with the
Great Fire of Rome in AD 64.
In this, the second volume in the series Turning Points in Ancient
History, Anthony Barrett offers an eloquent, scholarly, and innovative
account of one of the most infamous events of antiquity. Our focus in
the series is to look at a crucial event or key moment in the ancient
world whose consequences rippled outwards. Each book combines
archaeology and literary texts and ranges in focus from the elite to
ordinary people. In Rome Is Burning: Nero and the Fire That Ended
a Dynasty, Barrett does all that.
Although Nero may not have fiddled while Rome burned, there are
plenty of other reasons to think the emperor misbehaved during the
conflagration, the worst in Rome’s history. Indeed, some claimed he even
unleashed the fire, in order to have an excuse to rebuild Rome on a grander
scale, as indeed happened afterwards. That is unlikely, but neither the
calamity nor its consequences is in doubt, as Barrett shows.
The Great Fire ended Nero’s golden years and turned the Roman
elite against him for good. Nero supposedly tried to deflect the blame
onto Rome’s Christians, whom he persecuted. Many scholars doubt the
veracity of that tale but even if it is true, it didn’t save Nero. Four years
after the Great Fire, his many enemies forced him out of office and he
committed suicide. The result was the end of the dynasty founded by
Augustus (Nero’s great-great-grandfather). It was the beginning of a
new way of choosing the emperor, one that opened up the purple to a