Did Nero Really Fiddle While Rome Burned?

[kentuck]

https://www.history.com/news/did-nero-really-fiddle-while-rome-burned

(snip)
The Roman historian Tacitus wrote that Nero was rumored to have sung about the destruction of Rome while watching the city burn; however, he stated clearly that this was unconfirmed by eyewitness accounts.

When the Great Fire broke out, Nero was at his villa at Antium, some 35 miles from Rome. Though he immediately returned and began relief measures, people still didn’t trust him. Some even believed he had ordered the fire started, especially after he used land cleared by the fire to build his Golden Palace and its surrounding pleasure gardens.

Nero himself blamed the Christians (then an obscure religious sect) for the fire, and had many arrested and executed. But while Nero may have been guilty of many things, the story of him fiddling while Rome burned belongs firmly in the category of popular legend rather than established truth.

....more at link

[marble falls]

1. "Justice for Nero"? Got a FB page or petition?

[Sneederbunk]

2. A strange report since it was rumored Nero was partial to Bluegrass.

[Glorfindel]

3. Aw...I've always loved the passage in Henryk Sienkiewicz' "Quo Vadis"

that portrays Nero striking theatrical poses while singing of the destruction of Troy as Rome burns beneath him. Peter Ustinov played him to perfection in the movie.

[Solly Mack]

4. He faddled.

[rickyhall]

5. May have been difficult since the fiddle (AKA violin) wasn't around till the 14th Century.

He could have been plucking (a lyre) though.

[madinmaryland]

6. Or was he just diddling himself.

[Tomconroy]

7. I think Robert Graves, in his novel I Claudius, had something

To say about Nero. It wasn't too good.