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Annals 15.44 AD 64

Yardley

44. But neither human resourcefulness nor the emperor’s largesse nor appeasement of the gods

could stop belief in the nasty rumour that an order had been given for the fire. To dispel the

gossip Nero therefore found culprits on whom he inflicted the most exotic punishments. These

were people hated for their shameful offences whom the common people called Christians. The

man who gave them their name, Christus, had been executed during the rule of Tiberius by the

procurator Pontius Pilatus. The pernicious superstition had been temporarily suppressed, but it

was starting to break out again, not just in Judaea, the starting point of that curse, but in Rome,

as well, where all that is abominable and shameful in the world flows together and gains

popularity.

And so, at first, those who confessed were apprehended, and sub- sequently, on the

disclosures they made, a huge number were found guilty—more because of their hatred of

mankind than because they were arsonists. As they died they were further subjected to insult.

Covered with hides of wild beasts, they perished by being torn to pieces by dogs; or they would

be fastened to crosses and, when daylight had gone, burned to provide lighting at night. Nero had

offered his gardens as a venue for the show, and he would also put on circus entertainments,

mixing with the plebs in his charioteer’s outfit or standing up in his chariot. As a result, guilty

though these people were and deserving exemplary punishment, pity for them began to well up

because it was felt that they were being exterminated not for the public good, but to gratify one

man’s cruelty.
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Woodman

44. Such were the provisions made by human plans; next, expiations for the gods were sought

and the books of the Sibyl were appealed to, as a result of which supplication was made to

Vulcan, Ceres, and Proserpina, and Juno was propitiated by matrons,51 first on the Capitol and

then at the nearest stretch of sea, from which water was drawn to besprinkle the temple and the

representation of the goddess; and sittings52 and vigils were celebrated by ladies who had

husbands. [2] But despite the human help, despite the princeps’s lavishments and the

appeasements of the gods, there was no getting away from the infamous belief that the

conflagration had been ordered.Therefore, to dispel the rumor, Nero supplied defendants and

inflicted the choicest punishments on those, resented for their outrages, whom the public called

Chrestiani.53 [3] (The source of the name was Christus, on whom, during the command of

Tiberius, reprisal had been inflicted by the procurator Pontius Pilatus; and, though the baleful

superstition had been stifled for the moment, there was now another outbreak, not only across

Judaea, the origin of the malignancy, but also across the City, where everything frightful or

shameful, of whatever provenance, converges and is celebrated.)

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51. I.e., married women.

52. These were ritual banquets offered to goddesses, who were provided with chairs upon which to sit (see

OCD 1382 s.v. sellisternium).

53. “Chrestiani”is the form of the name which appears first in manuscript M but which the scribe has then

changed to “Christiani,” no doubt influenced by what T. says in the next sentence. Yet the coexistence of

“Chrestiani” and “Christus” is not impossible: T. would be drawing a muted contrast between the common (i.e.,

pagan) name for the sect, evidently attributed to the Christians through a confusion with the Greek word chrēstos

(“good,” “honorable”), and the true origin of the name. For a succinct discussion of the nomenclature see The Oxford

Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford 1997) 333.

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The first to be seized were those who confessed,54 then, on their information, a mighty number

was convicted, not so much on the charge of the conflagration as for their hatred of the human

race.And, as they perished, mockeries were added, so that, covered in the hides of wild beasts,

they expired from mutilation by dogs or, fixed to crosses and made flammable,+ on the dwindling

of daylight they were burned for use as nocturnal illumination. Nero had offered his gardens for

the spectacle and he produced circus games, mingling with the plebs in the dress of a charioteer

or standing in his racer.55 Hence there arose—albeit for culprits who deserved the ultimate

exemplary treatment—a feeling of pity, as though it were not in the public interest, but for one

man’s savagery, that they were being eliminated.

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54. The statement is rather odd: we might have expected T. rather to say that seizure preceded confession. R.

J. Getty proposed to read qui<dam> (“the first few who were seized confessed”).

55. For which see 14.14.1.

Suetonius, Nero 38.

Edwards

Yet he spared neither the people nor the fabric of his ancestral city. When someone in general

conversation quoted the Greek phrase When I am dead, let earth go up in flames, he responded,

‘Rather, “while I live”’, and acted accordingly. For, as if he were upset by the ugliness of the old

buildings and the narrow and twisting streets, he set fire to the city, so openly indeed that some

ex-consuls, when they came upon his servants equipped with kindling and torches on their

property, did not stop them. He greatly desired some land near the Golden House, then occupied

by granaries, and had them torn down and burnt using military machinery because their walls
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were made of stone. For six days and seven nights destruction raged and the people were forced

to take shelter in monuments and tombs. During that time, besides the enormous number of

apartment blocks, the houses of great generals of old, together with the spoils of battle which still

adorned them, the temples of the gods, too, which had been vowed and dedicated by Rome’s

kings and later in the Punic and Gallic wars, and every other interesting or memorable survival

from the olden days went up in flames. Nero watched the fire from the tower of Maecenas,

delighted with what he termed ‘the beauty of the flames’ and, dressed in his stage attire, he sang

of ‘the Fall of Troy’. And lest he should lose any opportunity of securing spoils and booty even

from this, he undertook to have the corpses and ruins cleared at his own expense, allowing no one

to come near the remains of their own property. Not merely receiving contributions but extorting

them, he bled dry both the provinces and the fortunes of private individuals.

Dio Cassius, 62.18.1. Dio Cassius (2nd-3rd century AD)

Nero ascended to the roof of the palace from which there was the best general view . . . and

assuming the kithara-player’s garb, sang the Capture of Troy. . . .” Even here the stress lies upon

Nero’s singing, though the presence of a kithara might be assumed along with the garb.

62.18.1:

While the whole population was in this state of mind and many, crazed by the disaster, were

leaping into the very flames, Nero ascended to the roof of the palace, from which there was the

best general view of the greater part of the conflagration, and assuming the lyre-player’s garb, he
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sang the “Capture of Troy,” as he styled the song himself, though to the enemies of the spectators

it was the Capture of Rome.