User:Tschrank00/sandbox

Great Fire of Rome Review

This article has little work done on it and is in desperate need of improvement. All the article really explains is when the event occurred and that no one knows how it started. The article then explains a few of the possible causes of the fire. More images could be useful to help the readers understand the people being discussed, and the outbreak section needs references. I am also going to be cautious on using Tacitus as a source as he was a historian from that era, but easily could have been biased. On the night of July 19, 64 A.D., a fire broke out among the shops lining the Circus Maximus, Rome’s mammoth chariot stadium. In a city of two million, there was nothing unusual about such a fire — the sweltering summer heat kindled conflagrations around Rome on a regular basis, particularly in the slums that covered much of the city. Knowing this, Nero himself was miles away in the cooler coastal resort of Antium. Yet this was no ordinary fire. The flames raged for six days before coming under control; then the fire reignited and burned for another three. When the smoke cleared, 10 of Rome’s 14 districts were in ruin. , were gone. Two thirds of Rome had been destroyed.

The Great Fire of Rome was an urban fire that occurred in July of the year 64 AD. The fire began in the merchant shops around Rome's chariot stadium, Circus Maximus, on the night of July 19. After six days the fire was brought under control, and before the damage could be measured, the fire reignited and burned for another three days. In the aftermath of the fire, two thirds of Rome had been destroyed including the Temple of Jupiter Stator and the Atrium Vestae, House of the Vestals. The fire had passed through and destroyed 10 of the 14 Roman districts.

According to Tacitus, Nero was away from Rome, in Antium, when the fire broke out. Nero returned to the city and took measures to bring in food supplies and open gardens and public buildings to accommodate refugees. Of Rome's 14 districts, 3 were completely devastated, 7 more were reduced to a few scorched and mangled ruins and only 4 completely escaped damage. The fire destroyed mostly everything it came in contact with due to poorly built and maintained timber-framed homes. Also destroyed in the fire was the portion of the Forum where the Roman senators lived and worked. However, the open mall in the middle of the Forum remained and became a commercial center. Nero didn't help the accusations of him starting the fire by quickly reconstructing the part of the city that had burned in the Greek style and began work on his new palace. The new palace, known as Golden House, would have been massive, covering a third of Rome.