…and other places too.
Photo Credit: Anne Wolf, July 2012, Mountain Shadows neighborhood
On this Day in History, AD 64.
Although popular legend holds that Emperor Nero fiddled while the city burned, this account is wrong on several accounts. First, the fiddle did not even exist at the time. Instead, Nero was well known for his talent on the lyre; he often composed his own music. More importantly, Nero was actually 35 miles away in Antium when the fire broke out. In fact, he let his palace be used as a shelter.
Legend has long blamed Nero for a couple of reasons. Nero did not like the aesthetics of the city and used the devastation of the fire in order to change much of it and institute new building codes throughout the city. Nero also used the fire to clamp down on the growing influence of Christians in Rome. He arrested, tortured and executed hundreds of Christians on the pretext that they had something to do with the fire.
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Photo Credit: Anne Wolf, July 2012, Stoneridge Drive, Colorado Springs
For more on the Waldo Canyon fire, see this DP piece by an old buddy.
“Tornado” of fire had Colorado firefighters fleeing Waldo Canyon
Doesn’t appear that there is a strong analogy to the Reichstag fire, but I wonder whether it might be a good time “…to clamp down on the growing influence of Christians in [Washington.]”