Drawing on new archaeological evidence, an authoritative history of
Rome's Great Fire--and how it inflicted lasting harm on the Roman
Empire
According to legend, the Roman emperor Nero set fire to his majestic
imperial capital on the night of July 19, AD 64 and fiddled while the
city burned. It's a story that has been told for more than two
millennia--and it's likely that almost none of it is true. In Rome Is
Burning, distinguished Roman historian Anthony Barrett sets the record
straight, providing a comprehensive and authoritative account of the
Great Fire of Rome, its immediate aftermath, and its damaging longterm
consequences for the Roman world. Drawing on remarkable new
archaeological discoveries and sifting through all the literary
evidence, he tells what is known about what actually happened--and
argues that the disaster was a turning point in Roman history, one that
ultimately led to the fall of Nero and the end of the dynasty that began
with Julius Caesar.
Rome Is Burning tells how the fire destroyed much of the city and
threw the population into panic. It describes how it also destroyed
Nero's golden image and provoked a financial crisis and currency
devaluation that made a permanent impact on the Roman economy. Most
importantly, the book surveys, and includes many photographs of, recent
archaeological evidence that shows visible traces of the fire's
destruction. Finally, the book describes the fire's continuing afterlife
in literature, opera, ballet, and film.
A richly detailed and scrupulously factual narrative of an event that
has always been shrouded in myth, Rome Is Burning promises to become
the standard account of the Great Fire of Rome for our time.
