] The most
generous policy seemed to have dictated the edicts which regulated the
disposition of the streets and the construction of private houses; and
as it usually happens, in an age of prosperity, the conflagration of
Rome, in the course of a few years, produced a new city, more regular
and more beautiful than the former. But all the prudence and humanity
affected by Nero on this occasion were insufficient to preserve him from
the popular suspicion. Every crime might be imputed to the assassin of
his wife and mother; nor could the prince who prostituted his person
and dignity on the theatre be deemed incapable of the most extravagant
folly. The voice of rumor accused the emperor as the incendiary of his
own capital; and as the most incredible stories are the best adapted
to the genius of an enraged people, it was gravely reported, and firmly
believed, that Nero, enjoying the calamity which he had occasioned,
amused himself with singing to his lyre the destruction of ancient Troy.
[30] To divert a suspicion, which the power of despotism was unable
to suppress, the emperor resolved to substitute in his own place some
fictitious criminals. "With this view," continues Tacitus, "he inflicted
the most exquisite tortures on those men, who, under the vulgar
appellation of Christians, were already branded with deserved infamy.
They derived their name and origin from Christ, who in the reign of
Tiberius had suffered death by the sentence of the procurator Pontius
Pilate. [31] For a while this dire superstition was checked; but it
again burst forth; [31a] and not only spread itself over Judaea, the
first seat of this mischievous sect, but was even introduced into
Rome, the common asylum which receives and protects whatever is
impure, whatever is atrocious. The confessions of those who were seized
discovered a great multitude of their accomplices, and they were all
convicted, not so much for the crime of setting fire to the city, as
for their hatred of human kind. [32] They died in torments, and their
torments were imbittered by insult and derision. Some were nailed on
crosses; others sewn up in the skins of wild beasts, and exposed to the
fury of dogs; others again, smeared over with combustible materials,
were used as torches to illuminate the darkness of the night. The
gardens of Nero were destined for the melancholy spectacle, which was
accompanied with a horse-race and honored with the presence of the
emperor, who mingled w