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Episode 1 Transcript While Rome Burns Episode 1 Hello, and welcome to the first episode of While Rome Burns, part of the 1up Podcasts Network. I am your host, Josh Fisher. In this Podcast I will be your guide through moments in history where inept leadership, foolish planning, or just plain bad luck brought about the fall of some great person or civilization. I am not a trained historian but I am a storyteller and stories are what I intend to bring you here on this podcast. This means that some of the things I will share with you may be open to interpretation or there may be disagreement between the scholars in the field. But again, I am here to bring you stories. And tonight's first story begins in none other than Ancient Rome! Sit back, Relax, and let me tell you a story: While Rome Burns. Our story begins on a hot July night in the city of Rome in the year 64 CE. The market district around the circus maximus is all but abandoned. The windows are shuttered, the doors to the shops locked, and the candles and torches are snuffed out. A mother rocks her child to sleep as she gazes out from the top floor of the butcher shop she helps run with her husband. This is all she has in the world: this shop, the apartment above it, her husband, and her child. She hopes the young child will marry well, into a family of wealth and prestige, worthy of the honor and glory that is due all Romans. But all of those dreams will be violently taken from her and her husband this night. No one sees the mysterious men, moving quietly through the market district. One by one they fan out to the buildings, finding bundles of firewood, hay bales, dried grass, or anything else they can use as an accelerator. They drop their torches and flee the scene quickly, allowing nature and simple combustion to complete their dark deeds of murder and mayhem. It isn't too long before the fires are engulfing buildings and spreading fast through the market district. The young mother, quickly noticing the smell of smoke, rouses her husband, grabs her now awakened and crying child, and flees the market district, getting lost in the throng of other lucky residents who were fortunate enough to be awakened by the fire. Not all will fare as lucky. Meanwhile, about 32 miles south of Rome, the Emperor Nero sat in his Antium Estate, writing poetry and playing songs on his Lyre, dreaming of the day when he could perform yet again for his people. His opportunity was fast approaching. He was just about to retire for the evening when one of his praetorian guard came bursting into his chambers. Excusing his impertinance for the moment, Nero asked the man “What ever is the matter?” “Rome is burning, my lord, your people are dying and the city will soon lie in ruins.” Nero did not hesitate. He quickly dressed himself in practical clothes, ordered his horse to be readied, and raced back to Rome, desperate to help his fellow citizens, his loyal subjects. Or so Nero Loyalists would have you believe. When Nero arrived the fire was in full effect, sweeping through the Circus Maximus, the palatine hill and the Caelian hill. The winds were strong that night and so helped fan the fires through the most densely packed sections of the city claiming lives, homes, businesses, and dreams. Those fleeing the fire raced for their lives as the flames licked at their backs, as if a riding crop from an angry horseman were urging them forward. Eventually, the only place left to flee was to the fields and country roads outside the gated city. The people of Rome had to stand by and watch as The Eternal City was engulfed in flames. As the emperor arrives he immediately springs into action, a rare instance for Nero, who was not what one would call a “hands-on” Emperor when it came to the management of his empire. Firefighting efforts, as rudimentary as they were in the ancient world, were begun immediately. The refugees were herded into the private residences of the emperor, turning them into make-shift refugee camps as the city burned around them. The surrounding towns, citys and even the port of Ostia were ordered to have provisions brought so that all who needed help could obtain it. As the refugees huddled together, receiving food, water and other provisions from the imperial guard, rumors began to circulate: Men had been seen setting more fires as the refugees fled. The men had claimed to be acting under the orders of Nero. No, said another, it was that strange group of cultists calling themselves Christians. They started the fire as a way to herald the coming of their god. And still others claimed it was a punishment from the Roman gods themselves. Throughout the 6 days and nights that the fire initially burned, the mood was grim and dark in the refugee camps. Finally, having done all he could to order his guards into the city to fight the fire, Emperor Nero returned to one of his estates and began to play his Lyre. He sung of the great Greek Heroes: their triumphant victories, their tragic defeats. He sung of Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of Rome. He then sung of the fall of Troy. Nero's love for all things Greek culture was no surprise to anyone. Romans were completely Hellenized well before Nero was ever born. But his choice in music was seen as oddly suspicious and further fed into the rumors that the emperor himself had ordered the men to set the fire. After six days and nights had passed, the fire had finally been put out and people felt they could go back to their lives and try to pick up the pieces. But no sooner had this sense of relief come over the citizens of Rome that the fire flared back up again and burned for another 3 days and nights. Rumors started up again in earnest: the flare up was caused by the emperor, Nero wanted this to happen, the Emperor was a deranged arsonist! Now, the fact that Nero arrived immediately back to the city from Antium to coordinate the response to the fire, the fact that he provided food, water and shelter to the homeless and newly destitute and the fact that he had tried, in vain, to raise the spirits of the refugees with his music are all solid points in favor of Nero the Benevolent Ruler. According to the ancient sources, Once the fire had finished burning, 3 districts of Rome had been completely destroyed, 7 were mostly destroyed and 4 remained untouched by the flames. Hundreds were dead and many more thousands were left homeless and destitute. Once the fire was gone, the cleaning and rebuilding project immediately began. Rubble was cleared, masonry companies were hired to rebuild homes using brick, rather than wood. Homes were ordered to be rebuilt spaced out from each other. Serious efforts were made to make sure that such a fire could never happen again. But we cannot ignore the facts and circumstances that point toward Nero being the evil monster and inept leader remembered by history. The cleanup and rebuilding efforts brought with them serious costs to the Roman people: The public treasury was empty, the provinces of the empire had huge tax levies placed on them, causing unrest and dissatisfaction with those living in the provinces. Nero devalued the Roman currency, reducing the weight and the silver content of the coins. The biggest offense the Emperor had made though, was not against the economy of the empire, but against her people. Nero had begun making grandiose plans for a new palace, since his old one had just happened to burn down during the great fire. This palace was called The Domus Aurea, or Golden Palace. It was a grand structure apparently designed and overseen personally by Nero just shortly after the fire. Construction began later in 64 CE and continued up until his death just four years later. The palace was to be decorated in the Greek style, with paintings of satyrs, statues of Muses and depictions of the greek gods. Nero had also commissioned a 100 foot bronze statue of himself to be placed at the entrance of the Golden Palace for all to see. We don't know exactly how much area the Palace grounds were intended to take up, but it is estimated that roughly 1/3 of the city was to become part of the palace grounds which would include a man-made lake, grazing pastures, groves of trees, bath houses, a stage, and several other comforts. The Golden Palace, based on what has been excavated today, was never intended as a living quarters for the Emperor, but rather as a place of entertainment, excess, and debauchery. It is no wonder that so many people began to favor the rumors that Nero himself had started the fire; He was practically giddy with excitement for his new palace of toys, monuments, and entertainments. Eventually, the rumors of Nero starting the fire reached the ears of the Emperor. At first, they enraged him. How could he, the most powerful man in the known world: who opened his doors, and gave of his coffers to the Plebs in their most desperate hour, be accused of such an atrocious crime!? Pressure was mounting for him to respond and the pressure was distracting him from his great monument to his own hubris.
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