Arve, and welcome to Emperor of Rome, a podcast looking at the rulers of the ancient Roman

Empire.

I'm your host Matt Smith and with me as always is Dr.

Rianen Evans, a lecturer in ancient Mediterranean studies at Latrobe University.

Now hitting your ears is episode X X I the Great Fire of Rome in 64

C. E now that Emperor Nero is a little bit older and coming out of the shadows of

his mother Agrippina the younger

is starting to show a bit of his true colors. This was all put to test in 64C.

When a great fire burnt down most of Rome.

What caused the fire and how Nero reacted

is under a lot of academic debate,

and that has a big effect on how we remember Nero.

Here's Rianna Evans.

Rome was always a fire hazard.

The famous fire is the one that happens under Nero in 64.

But there was fire all the time in Rome. It was just endemic because all the buildings were so close together.

They were really badly designed in terms of fire prevention. We'd be horrified.

And they built upwards, because there's not a lot of land.

Rome's built on seven hills, and it's fairly enclosed.

If you've been there, you can walk around basically the whole city. It's not huge.

And there are places, especially the poorer regions, where there are just these kind of slum apartment blocks built very close together. Roads between them aren't very wide,

so if one building catches fire, there's really no firebreak, it can get to the next one.

...