I’ve read some opinion pieces from historians and they’re all very conflicting but they mostly disagree that Nero ordered it. On the other hand there’s some sources that claim this really was the case, like the Roman historians Cassius Dio and Suetonius. What do you think? In general do you think Quo Vadis is mostly accurate historically? I really love Sienkiewicz’s style, the book has you on edge most of the time.
by metayetidev
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Quo Vadis fits the Christian narrative of what ancient Rome was like, according to Polish Catholics of the 19th century. Our understanding of what ancient Rome was like has developed since then – but even in 1895, people knew there was no evidence that Jews convinced Nero to blame the fire on Christians.
The problem with those Roman historians is that they were writing decades, even centuries later and they really didn’t like Nero, so they went out or their way to slander him. The closest historian to Nero’s time, Tacitus, crucially does not blame Nero for the fire (according to Tacitus he wasn’t even in Rome) — though I believe he mentions there were rumours about his involvement — and describes how he attempted to provide relief after the fire. Tacitus also doesn’t like and slanders Nero, so the fact he doesn’t immediately blame him for the fire seems to indicate he probably didn’t do it, though he probably took advantage of events to build his palace. The mention of rumours however indicate where later historians got the idea from. Over time, rumours of bad Emperors or ‘bad’ Romans get worse and worse. For example earlier historians make no mention of incest, but later ones acuse Nero of having sex with his mother and Caligula with his sisters. Do modern historians believe they committed incest? No, most don’t. So take what you read with a grain of salt. Sure many Emperors were bad people, including Nero. But they probably didn’t commit all the atrocities attributed to them, especially the more outlandish ones.
By the way this book finally made me realize where the name “Nero Burning ROM” (the CD/DVD burning software) came from. Took me a while to figure that one out. 🔥🔥