György Spiró - Captivity

In Far Side excitement was aroused by the visit paid on the elders by Tiberius Julius Alexander and an equine-featured character, the new alabarch of Alexandria, who was being introduced by Tiberius Julius Alexander to the city prefects.

It was Demetrius, it dawned on Uri, son of Tryphon, the Alexandrian elder.

He had postured against the alabarch and his family until, in the end, he had made his peace with the hated figure of Tija. He had wanted it badly; how astute Apollos had been to spot it.

What has become of Apollos?

Nero put on many games. Seawater was piped into a wooden amphitheater erected on the Campus Martius, along with genuine sea monsters, with gladiators struggling in an underwater battle with them. The emperor also established the Neronia, a contest in three parts, which was planned to be quinquennial, with music and literature, gymnastics and wrestling, horse and chariot racing on the program. Nero thus ran through his inherited fortune even quicker than Caligula had, so that the Seneca-Burrus duo introduced new taxes, and even forbade the sale of any kind of cooked viands in the taverns, with the exception of beans. That was not at all to the liking of the populace, who of course marveled at the games, and had no end of enjoyment at seeing a lady in her eighties shaking a leg among the high-born women who were led onto the stage: she was Aelia, who had also continually danced and crooned in Claudius’s house although she was already old then. A concession brought in by Cladius under which a full menu had been provided for plebeians was rescinded, and they went back to distributing only food parcels; that was also not to people’s liking either, but money was also scattered into the crowds, along with wooden balls, inscribed as if they were coins, which could be redeemed for foodstuffs, drinks, clothes, or knick-knacks — people liked those, scrimmaging and getting into fights over them.

In the center of Agrippina’s lake Tigellinus, a favorite of Nero’s, had built a great raft, which was towed around by boats. The raft was decorated with gold and ivory, like Phidias’s statues, and he had wild animals, birds, and sea creatures brought from distant lands; onto the shore of the lake were led high-born women who offered themselves like courtesans, all naked, many thousands of them, and numerous men of rank and plebeian riffraff were also invited to the debauchery. In the course of this Nero had himself given in marriage to a character by the name of Pythagoras playing the role of husband, with himself wearing the bridal vein, people handing over real money as a dowry to the couple, with witnesses to the marriage and even priests being found, and ending in chain copulations, in which a special corps of Augustans, as they called themselves, an impudent bunch selected by Nero from the young men of the order of knights and sturdy young commoners, led the field. It was the talk of the town for weeks.

It was then that the conflagration broke out.

It started in the Circus among the booths; it is possible that the sausage grillers had been careless, or at least it was said, but with the wind it spread quickly, sweeping over to the Palatine; the buildings along the narrow streets clinging to the side of the hill went up in flames, the area around the Forum, the emperor’s palace, a great many temples, shrines, storehouses, hutments, and tenement buildings caught fire, with the shrine to Luna, the statue to Hercules, the Temple of Jupiter Stator, the shrine to Romulus, the residence of King Numa Pompilius, the temple of Vesta, and the Subura district burned down, as did the libraries with their irreplaceable scrolls. The fire did not spread as far as the outer part of the Via Nomentana, but did reach the inner part, with the tall tenement buildings catching fire. Either the wind carried sparks, or the landlords kept their wits about them and set their own houses alight, knowing the insurers would pay out. It became a conflagration and the vigiles were rushed off their feet. Fire had also broken out on Aventine Hill, said people who rushed over there to find a good spot from which to watch the magnificent spectacle. The fire fanned out to the whole city; Esquiline Hill was ablaze, possibly kindled by sharp-witted plebeians of the lowest class because while the vigiles were busy fighting the fire they had license to rob. Uri trudged toward the inner city on the second day but did not see much, just glowing patches. People were racing around with water or stolen livestock, soldiers trotting by as well as groups of vigiles with their wagons; there was a shortage of water, maybe because the aqueducts had been cut off. A mad panic had overcome the city, so Uri went back home.

The conflagration burned for six days, with many priceless treasures lost. The fire eventually burned out, and sighs of relief were heaved, but then the flames sprang up again from beneath the ashes on the property of Tigellinus, of all people, and smoke again covered the sky.

The emperor was in Antium when the fire broke out and only returned when it had reached his own palace, which lay between Palatine Hill and the gardens of Maecenas, but there was nothing he could do either, and the imperial palace as well as all its surroundings burned down.

Four districts were untouched, three burned down to the ground, and the other seven suffered severe damage.

The great fire started on July 17—the same date as the Senones had torched an as yet tiny Rome. Uri lay low in his cottage and blessed the Eternal One that he had bought poultry and goats, which the peasant had not been keen to bother with; now he drove them into a pen, on which he placed a strong lock as there was going to be a food shortage. He had his own well, for which he also gave blessings to the Eternal One. On the following day, the third after the outbreak had started, Hagar came back from Far Side, where she has hurried when the fire broke out. Nothing at all had burned there as the fire had not jumped from one bank of the Tiber to the other, and nobody there would dream of igniting a blaze.

“The city, though, the city!” Hagar wailed, as if Rome had become her place of residence, and she scattered ashes over herself.

Not long after Hagar, Marcellus also showed up.

“He is coming for the second time, He is coming!” he proclaimed. “It’s all true! The prophets have been preaching the truth, His prophets! He sent Satan on ahead, as it is written, and Nero cleared the way for Him! This fire is His fire! He is nigh! He’ll be here at any moment! It has started, it has started! Get down on your knees and pray!”

“You nitwit!” Uri bellowed. “Don’t do these things! It’s dangerous!”

“This is the proof!” Marcellus yelled. “Even the infidels can see! Even the pagans can see! This is His doing!”

“You numskull, do you want people to think the Jews were the arsonists?”

“The unfaithful will end up in Hell!” yelled Marcellus. “You’ll be the first! That’s what you deserve!”

He called on his mother to join them, because they were praying over in Far Side; a lot of people had been joining in, and in a great fever of excitement they were awaiting the Anointed, who had sent a message with the fire and would be coming with a sword. Sustained by the faith of His believers, He was treading on clouds, the smoke was His smoke, the flames — His flames. Hagar, however, felt too tired to entertain any wish to traipse back over there.

“You too will be consigned to Hell!” said Marcellus, baring his lips in derision at his mother before he raced off.

Uri uttered a groan.

He could see this spelled big trouble.

The ruins were still smoking when from the Rostra, which had been kept intact, Nero announced with due imperial dignity that he would rebuild a Rome more splendid than it had ever been, saying that the fire had been a blessing in disguise, because now he could have an even bigger royal palace erected, replete with the loveliest imaginable gardens for the glory of Rome. He promised to have a navigable canal cut from Lake Avernus to the mouth of the Tiber which could supply enough water for fighting fires; Rome would be turned into an orderly city, not a dirty hole of narrow, dark, unfathomable alleyways — more orderly than Alexandria. He decreed that debris and rubbish should be transported down the Tiber by ships and tipped onto the marshes of Ostia. As for the buildings themselves, he ordered that up to the second story they were to be solidly constructed, without wooden beams, of hard rock from the cliffs of Alba. In addition, every building was to be enclosed by its own proper wall, not by one common to others. He asked the populace to propitiate the gods by offering prayers to Vulcanus, Ceres, and Proserpina, while Juno in the Capitol, which the fire had left intact, was to be entreated by matrons. Nero also pronounced that he had heard there were rumors he himself had set fire to Rome! He, the emperor! What an unrivaled, loathsome, fanciful insinuation! What base slander! He was therefore giving the order to arrest all those sinister, conspiratorial, lunatic, evil Jews who say that the Great Fire was the vengeance of their God, who damned Rome, cast an evil spell on Rome, to befuddle, stupefy and pollute the minds of the Roman populace. They are the ones who caused the fire and occasioned Rome’s misery, and they are guilty of causing the deaths of hundreds of innocent citizens as many saw and can give witness.