Seneca - College of Stoic Philosophers

152 SENECAseemed to regard, in Tacitus' phrase, the wholecity as his house, and prostituted the noblestRomans to the pleasures of the mob.There followed the great fire, in the courseof which the greater part of Rome was burntto the ground. Nero, who was reported to havewatched the flames from the tower of Maecenaswith aesthetic delight, while he chanted in costumea poem of his own composition on the destructionof Troy, was accused of having himself contrivedthe fire. Incendiaries were seen in the confusionrushing about with torches in their hands,stopping attempts to extinguish the fire, andcrying out that they had authority for whatthey were doing. These were probably robbers,but they were widely believed to be emissariesof the emperor. Nero, alarmed at the loss ofhis darling popularity, was roused to unwontedefforts. He threw open his gardens and theCampus Martins to the homeless multitude, andran up hastily built shelters for their reception ;he imported necessaries from Ostia and theneighbouring towns ;he supplied the peoplewith food at the lowest prices. Finally, hesought to divert suspicion from himself by accusingthe new and unpopular sect of Christiansof the crime, and after having by torture extractedconfessions from some among them, largenumbers were arrested on their information andput to horrible deaths. He illuminated hisgardens at night with the burning bodies ofthese victims, and in the habit of a charioteermingled with the throng at the circus games,