Did Nero Really Fiddle While Rome Burned?

Did Nero Really Fiddle as Rome Burned? | Britannica

"Nero Fiddled While Rome Burned" — Classical Journal 42:211‑217 (1947)

Jul 18, 64 CE: Great Fire of Rome | National Geographic Society

Tzeela: Hi I'm Tzeela and I'm 17

Rina: Hi I'm Rina and I'm 15

Dalia: Hey, I'm Dalia and I'm 11

All: And this is Things You Thought You Knew About History!

Tzeela: Where we tell you the real story behind historical misconceptions.

Tzeela: Speaking of bad leaders, Emperor Nero literally fiddled while Rome burned!

Dalia: Umm, he probably didn’t play the fiddle, seeing that there was no such thing as a fiddle in 64 CE when the Great Fire of Rome happened.

Rina: Yeah, the two main string instruments of the time were the lyre and the cithara, which the Romans adopted from the Greeks.

Dalia: So what did Nero play?

Tzeela: Nero was very interested in music. He set up music competitions in Rome and performed his music in concerts. There’s no doubt he played the cithara in these events, many Roman historians mention it, so we can assume he played the cithara in this story too.

Dalia: Okay right, so it wasn’t a fiddle it was a cithara. But did this story really happen at all?

Tzeela: Maybe, it could have, sort of happened

Rina: What does that mean?

Dalia: In the early second-century historian Tacitus writes that people weren’t happy with Nero’s response to the fire since they’d heard that while Rome burned Nero sang. He supposedly sang a song comparing the current tragedy to past ones, called Destruction of Troy.

Rina: Suetonius, a historian at the same time as Tacitus, writes the story as fact, rather than a rumor going around, and calls the song he sang the Sack of Ilion.

Tzeela: In 225 CE a historian named Dio Cassius is the first to mention that Nero played an instrument while he sang. He says that Nero “assumed the cithara player’s garb” which implies he used the cithara too.

Dalia: In the ancient version of the myth Nero was accused of sadly singing about the destruction while the fire raged outside. Now people think he fiddled carelessly while completely ignoring the tragedy. How did the myth change?

Tzeela: the word "fidicula" was common by the 600s but it seemed to have been used to refer to a lot of different string instruments. This word evolved into the modern English word fiddle.

Rina: In the 1500s fiddlers were associated with beggars and fools. The English parliament at the time passed a law called Act for the Punishment of Rogues, Vagabonds, and Sturdy Beggars. Many fiddlers were counted as Study beggars.

Tzeela: In around 1590 Shakespeare writes “Plantagenet, I will; and like thee, Nero,/ Play on the lute, beholding the towns burn.” in Henry VI. The cithara is in the lute family, but Shakespeare was probably referring to the fiddle when he wrote it.

Dalia: In 1624 an unknown author wrote The Tragedy of Nero where Nero plays the fiddle. And in 1649 George Daniel wrote, "Let Nero fiddle out Rome's obsequies.”

Tzeela: Nero became widely known as a fiddle player, and the bad connotations of fiddlers at the time made people think he was more careless and ignorant during the Great Fire of Rome than the original myth said. And this is the myth that has lasted until today.

Rina: Great! We’ve covered the story behind the myth that Nero fiddled while burned. But what was happening in Rome?

Dalia: On July 18, 64 CE, a fire started in the Circus Maximus, a stadium in Rome. The fire lasted six days and burned through 10 of the 14 districts in Rome.

Tzeela: Nero was in Antium when he heard about the fire. He quickly returned to Rome, opened his gardens and buildings to the public, and brought in grain from other cities to replace what was lost in the fire.

Rina: Some ancient historians blamed Nero for setting the fire possibly to build a new palace. Tactus writes that Nero blamed a new small religious sect, the Christians.

Dalia: Most modern historians explain that because Rome was very big, with buildings very close together, a small fire could start and spread incredibly quickly, without Nero or anyone else purposely starting it.

Tzeela: Now that it’s all cleared up it’s time for… Ancient Rome Trivia!!!

Dalia: When was Rome founded according to tradition?

10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1

753 BCE

Rina: Who was the last king of Rome before it became a republic?

10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1

Lucius Tarquinius Superbus or Tarquin the Proud

Tzeela: Which Roman emperor began the Pax Romana a peaceful Period in Rome?

10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1

Augustus or Octavian

Dalia: When did the Roman Empire reach its largest size?

10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1

117 CE

Rina: Which Roman Emperor was the last of the Pax Romana?

10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1

Marcus Aurelius

BYE