Rome, Was theKing Nero arsonist or any other ideal suspects?

Mid night of July 18 or19 in 64BC a great fire broke out in the capital city Rome. It raged for several days and nights. The flame consumed 40,000 blocks of apartments; 132villas all belonged to the Nobles of Roman Emperor even a major part of the Emperor’s palace and many shrines and temples were burnt in to ashes.

When the fire broke out the Roman Emperor Nero was not in the capital city. Later he returned to the capital and had taken the emergency measures like temporary shelters for the homeless, supplies of food and supply of Wheat for the fair prize. The Romans were deeply hurtled by the catastrophe and held ceremonies of penance to appease the Gods.

There was a great mystery surrounded the real cause of the fire. Some suggested that was an accident because of in adequate town planning. There was no proper plan adapted to the expansion the seven hill city that expanded beyond the hills. The poor construction methods also another major reason for the rapid spread of the fire. Apart from these reasons the metropolis was over populated.

During 470-427 BC the speculation the real estate fuelled by high rents, had compounded the problem of over crowing.

Not surprisingly the fire occurred more frequently and that too spread easily, as the houses were built very close together. Cooking even done in the open, fire places and the families used pans filled charcoal for heating, those increased the risk of fire. Many houses adjoined temples and the roofs rested on thick wooden beams.

Hanging over all this was the unbalanced personality of the Emperor Nero. He was described as the tyrant, eccentric king. He had a long track of evil deeds. He got only murdered his mother and his wife. These give the ground for suspicion. Many people doubted him as the reason behind the fire.

The emperor had a great passion for the theatre leads the rumors that he wanted an opportunity to sing a poem about the burning of Troy. By coincidence the fire cleaned the land that Nero needed to build his golden palace ,of which hardly anything remains today.

The colonnade was built 1.5 Km length. He laid the responsibility at the Christians the minority people. It was easy to blame Christians because they were small in number and they were poor and they were poor and they were considered as foreigners by the Romans .The Christianity was banned in Rome but it was practiced secretly the fire gave the Emperor a good opportunity to prosecute the Christians to divert the peoples opinion in his favor.

The Christians were cruelly killed and made to torn in to pieces by the wild animals in the arenas, nailed them to the cross or set alight as living torches to illuminate the emperors garden at night.

Still the question of guilt was not completely settled. Not only the peoples belongings but also Nero’s palace also was badly damaged. The symbol of Imperial power” THE CIRCUS MAXIMUS” was reduced to rubble. After this great disaster the next coming emperors followed the Urban planning to minimize the risk of another fire.

A Costly Lesson Indeed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!