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The Great Fire of Rome: Life and Death in the Ancient City Joseph J. Walsh. The Great Fire of Rome: Life and Death in the Ancient City. Witness to Ancient History Series. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019. Illustrations. 192 pp. $19.95, paper, ISBN 978-1-4214-3371-4. Reviewed by Linda R. Gosner (Texas Tech University) Published on H-Environment (January, 2021) Commissioned by Daniella McCahey (Texas Tech University) Fires in ancient Rome were common, but the Chapter 1 is a colorful introduction to the di‐ Great Fire was the longest and largest incendiary verse hazards of everyday life in ancient Rome. disaster in the city’s history. It sprang up on July 18, Walsh vividly describes the sights, smells, sounds, 64 CE, and raged for nine days, devastating the city and tastes of the ancient city, an excellent counter and displacing thousands of residents. The event to the usual whitewashed depictions of Rome that also brought us the infamous story of the emperor focus on public monuments and urban layout Nero fiddling from his palace as the fire burned. without much of a nod to the sensory experiences Joseph J. Walsh’s new book is a lively account of of the city. He outlines the evidence for flooding, the catastrophe and its aftermath. This book is building collapse, crime, pollution, disease, and part of John Hopkins University Press’s Witness to fire. He draws primarily from poetry and prose of Ancient History series, which publishes short-form, the late republic and early empire, in which au‐ engaging monographs on events, places, and thors—including Cicero, Martial, Seneca, Plutarch, people in classical antiquity. Given this context, and Tacitus, among others—provide anecdotes the book’s concise format is appropriate. It unfolds and historical context to illustrate these myriad in a prologue and five chapters: an overview of the dangers. The section on fire is especially helpful, as dangers of life in Rome followed by chapters or‐ it explains just how frequent small fires were, giv‐ ganized chronologically about the fire, its immedi‐ en the wooden construction of most houses and ate consequences, the emperor’s role and reaction, the need for fire for cooking, heating, bathing, and and the legacy of the tragic event. End materials other quotidian tasks. He also describes the devel‐ include appendices describing the ancient written opment of the fire brigade beginning with Augus‐ sources, a concise timeline of the Great Fire, and tus in the first century CE and the significant im‐ suggested further reading. perial investment in labor and equipment for fire‐ fighting. Across the chapter, Walsh’s argument is H-Net Reviews simply that life in Rome for everyone, but espe‐ workers whose livelihoods were destroyed as well cially for the urban poor, was wrought with diffi‐ as the opportunities for others (for example, con‐ culty. In this context, the Great Fire seems much struction workers and wagon drivers) dovetail less like a historic outlier and more of an inevitab‐ well with current discussions in Roman history ility, and rightly so. concerning urban labor.[1] The bulk of the chapter The next chapter concerns the fire itself: it re‐ is devoted to the argument—as old as the fire itself constructs the path of the blaze within the topo‐ —about whether Nero orchestrated the fire or graphy of the city, assesses Nero’s troublesome be‐ simply benefited from it, acquiring land to build havior during the disaster, and describes the result‐ his lavish new palace and clearing some of the less ing damage. Tidy maps illustrate the fire’s progres‐ slightly, poorer neighborhoods. While Walsh does sion across the low-lying parts of the city and, not take a strong stance, he presents a dialogue later, some of Rome’s hills. Walsh makes a convin‐ between the sources that blame Nero (Cassius Dio cing argument that certain buildings and hills es‐ and Suetonius) and those that do not (Tacitus), an‐ caped severe destruction because the fire brigades other helpful step-by-step lesson in recognizing bi‐ concentrated their efforts around the most import‐ ases of historical sources of the era. Importantly, ant symbolic monuments—such as the Temple of he suggests that the rumor could be based on a Jupiter on Capitoline Hill—as well as on places of misunderstanding of firefighting technology on most significance to the Roman imperial family, the part of witnesses: controlled burning and including the palaces of Palatine Hill and the firebreak construction may have been misinter‐ theater district in the Campus Martius. He notes preted as deliberate, malicious destruction on the that firefighting techniques, such as fire breaks, part of Nero’s fire brigade. Nero was blamed by were likely employed, but primarily to protect many for arson, and the chapter concludes with these key places rather than to safeguard residen‐ an analysis of the emperor’s decision to use the tial neighborhoods. A great deal of the chapter is early Christians in Rome as scapegoats and punish spent on the infamous account of Nero fiddling them in elaborate, cruel public spectacles. from his palace as the fire raged. Walsh contends In chapter 4, Walsh presents a longer-term that, even if the story is embellished, it is consist‐ perspective on Nero’s transformations to the city ent with our knowledge of Nero’s behavior and the after the fire. The first section is dedicated to the Roman cultural context. Throughout, he presents urban reconstruction program, which included thoughtful interpretation of Tacitus’s written his‐ wider streets and open spaces to serve as tory of the fire and does an expert job of assessing firebreaks, limits to the heights of dwellings, and the limits and intentions of Roman historical the increased use of stone construction, among sources, which he describes as being more con‐ other safety measures. Nero also cleared land for cerned with expressing moralizing truths than ac‐ his lavish private garden estate and new palace, curate facts. This is especially helpful for the non- the Domus Aurea (golden house). Walsh describes expert, who might otherwise be perplexed by the the estate based on the written descriptions and lack of detail recorded in antiquity quantifying limited archaeological evidence. The chapter lives lost and damage done. brings keen attention to the social and economic Chapter 3 deals with the immediate aftermath difficulties that reconstruction would have of the Great Fire. Opening with a description of the brought, including altered property lines and grueling work of clearing rubble and dead bodies, Nero’s seizure of an immense space for his private Walsh paints a grim picture of the fire’s con‐ enjoyment, which had devastating financial and sequences. His thoughts on the economic losses for symbolic impacts on Rome’s displaced residents. 2 H-Net Reviews The brief final chapter outlines the legacies of synopsis of known archaeological traces of the fire the catastrophe. Highlighted are the ways Nero has could have added welcome detail to his description become an archetypical “superstar bad boy” and of the fire’s progression based on Tacitus’s ac‐ his personality is often used to illustrate the short‐ count.[3] comings of historical and modern political vil‐ Ultimately, the book serves as a concise, enga‐ lains. Walsh also points to enduring transforma‐ ging read on the history and significance of tions the fire had on Rome, both the redesign of Rome’s Great Fire. Walsh brings into sharp focus large urban sectors and the later reversals of some the human impacts of the tragedy and presents a of Nero’s most objectionable modifications (for ex‐ thoughtful and detailed analysis of the unfolding ample, the construction of the Colosseum at the of the fire and its aftermath. His style, with fre‐ spot of Nero’s former private lake, a gesture that quent contemporary analogies (for example, sim‐ returned land back to the people). In the longer ilarities with Hurricane Katrina) and references to term, Nero’s architectural legacy has had an influ‐ the modern topography of Rome, makes the book ence on European art and architecture, especially accessible for the novice reader and those familiar following the rediscovery of the Domus Aurea in with the city’s contemporary places. The book is the Middle Ages. Walsh also emphasizes the signi‐ well suited for undergraduate teaching or as an ap‐ ficance of the fire to Christianity and especially to pealing read for the educated traveler. For the en‐ Catholicism. Setting aside arguments about its vironmental historian without a background in veracity, Tacitus’s account of the persecution of Roman history, the book provides an excellent the Christians following the fire became one of the entryway into this particular environmental dis‐ earliest stories about Christian martyrdom. The aster. He does what so much classical scholarship most influential of these, of course, is that of St. on disaster, environmental change, and hardship Peter’s martyrdom in the Circus of Caligula and does not: he clearly centers the human experience. burial nearby, where St. Peter’s Basilica and the Notes rest of Vatican City would later be constructed. [1]. For example, see Sarah Bond, Trade and Citations are relatively sparse and collected in Taboo: Disreputable Professions in the Roman the endnotes rather than as footnotes or in-text Mediterranean (Ann Arbor: University of citations, which makes the text less useful for spe‐ Michigan Press, 2016); Andrew Wilson and Miko cialist scholarly research. From an archaeological Flohr, eds., Urban Craftsmen and Traders in the Ro‐ perspective, the book also leaves something to be man World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, desired. The author does a superb job describing 2016); and Seth Bernard, Building Mid-Republican relevant urban topography, but other material Rome: Labor, Architecture, and the Urban Eco‐ evidence is used only sporadically.
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