Great Fire of Rome
A fire that broke out by the Circus Maximus burned for nine days and devastated most of Rome; Nero blamed the Christians, beginning the first persecution of the Church by the Roman state.
- Date
- 19 July 64 – c. 27 July 64start: exact date; end: exact date, approximate · duration: 8 daysDate in the Julian calendar
- Place
- Rometoday: Rome, Italy · Western and Central Europe
- Participants
- Nero, Roman Empire
- Threads
- Europe in the Roman age (1st–5th c.)
- Also known as
- Fire of Rome; Пожар Рима 64 года
The fire started on the night of 18–19 July 64 among the shops around the Circus Maximus, raged for six days and then flared up again for three more. According to Tacitus, of Rome’s fourteen districts three were destroyed completely and seven were reduced to scorched ruins. Nero, who was at Antium when it began, organized relief, but rumours spread that he had started the fire himself, or sung of the fall of Troy while Rome burned.
Seeking scapegoats, Nero accused the Christians and had many of them put to death; Christian tradition places the martyrdom of the apostles Peter and Paul in Rome in these years. On the burnt land Nero built his vast Golden House (Domus Aurea), and the city was rebuilt under new building regulations.
Connections
Related events
- Inauguration of the Colosseum80 · Western and Central Europethe Colosseum rose on the site of the lake of Nero’s Golden House
- Great Persecution24 February 303 – 313 · Balkans and Anatoliathe first and the last great persecutions of Christians by the Roman state
Same participants
- Boudica’s revoltbetween 60 and 61 · Western and Central Europevia Nero
- Roman conquest of Britain43 – between 83 and 84 · Western and Central Europevia Roman Empire
- Siege of JerusalemApril 70 – 8 September 70 · Middle East and Egyptvia Roman Empire
Same place
- Antonine Plague165–180 · Western and Central Europe
- Constitutio Antoniniana212 · Western and Central Europe
- Crisis of the Third CenturyMarch 235 – 20 November 284 · Western and Central Europe
- Aurelian Walls271–275 · Western and Central Europe
- Battle of the Milvian Bridge28 October 312 · Western and Central Europe
- Sack of Rome by the Visigoths24–27 August 410 · Western and Central Europe
- Vandal sack of Rome2–16 June 455 · Western and Central Europe
- Gothic War (535–554)535–554 · Western and Central Europe
- Coronation of Charlemagne25 December 800 · Western and Central Europe
- Imperial coronation of Otto I2 February 962 · Western and Central Europe
- Fourth Council of the Lateran11–30 November 1215 · Western and Central Europe
- “Summa Theologica” by Thomas Aquinas1265–1274 · Western and Central Europe
- Sack of Rome (1527)6 May 1527 · Western and Central Europe
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within 25 years of this event
Eastern Europe
- Roman–Bosporan War45–49
- Zarubintsy culturec. 200 BC – c. 200
Middle East and Egypt
- Siege of JerusalemApril 70 – 8 September 70
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Great Fire of Rome
- Wikipedia (Russian): Великий пожар Рима
- Champlin E. Nero. — Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003.
- Wikidata: Q215231