1948 years ago... someone could smell something burning.

1948 years ago today, a fire started. That fire was in Rome.

http://www.coverbrowser.com/covers/sheet-music/46#i2283

According to the history of a fella named Tacticus, the waged its war on the city for 6 days and 7 nights. The fire managed to completely obliterate 3 and severely damage 7 of the 14 districts of the city.

So how did the fire start? well, actual details are not known but here are a few tasty opins from the menu of history.

1: Nero did it.
Emperor Nero was not a nice man. According to one of the whole two historical reports which mention the fire in any detail, Nero wanted to build another palace, so he burned rome to the ground to make room. Now this is actually highly unlikely. Tacticus says that Nero wasn't in town at the time, which is pretty likely.

http://www.preteristarchive.com/Rome/images/nero/nero1.jpg

There is a legend that says that Nero played the Fiddle as Rome burned. Now, there were no fiddles in the 1st Century, so if he did it was probably a lyre and more than likely the story was made up by a liar (excuse the pun) in order to make Nero look even worse than he actually was.

2. The Christians did it.
Nero didn't like Christians. He did horrible things to them (such as burning them alive for light at his parties) and one of these horrible things was framing them for starting the fire. After the fire, Nero did go on to build himself a nice big house and that caused the people of Rome to start thinking that the rumors about him being the one who started the fire were true. So, to diffuse the blame he pointed the finger at the Christians. Nice.

Apparently, some Christians admitted it. Although, it was never clear if they admitted to the fire because they did it or because they were being tortured, if they admitted to starting the fire at all. There is some speculation that they only admitted to being Christians (which got the same punishment- horrible, horrible death).

3. It was all a terrible accident.
The most likely of the three options I'm giving you. This was neither the first nor the last time that Rome burned. Due to the geography of the city, the fact that most of it was made of excellent fuel and the fact that it was summer, it is far more likely that the fire was accidental and got out of hand really, really fast. Winds fanned the lames, spreading the fire throughout the city. The combination of the heat, wind and fuel kept the fire burning for a week, somewhat like some of the big bush-fires we see today.

So Happy Great Fire of Rome Day! and remember your fire safety.