did nero fiddle while rome burned?

Today’s prompt for the Ultimate Blogging Challenge is to write about something that happened on this day in history.

On July 18th, 64 A.D., the Great Fire of Rome started around some merchant shops near the Great Chariot Stadium, “Circus Maximus.” The fire was swiftly brought under control. Unfortunately, it reignited and burned for several days. When it was finally brought under control, this conflagration destroyed three-quarters of Rome.

What was Emperor Nero’s first response? Well, actually, it wasn’t to play a fiddle. That’s just a myth. Apparently, the fiddling never happened. For one thing, the violin as an instrument had not yet been invented. But impossibility has never stopped people from believing that rumors are real.

Unfortunately, Nero’s first response was to choose a scapegoat and to assign blame to an entire group of people, the Christians. They were arrested in large numbers and killed in gruesome ways. According to reports by eyewitness St. Jerome, 979 Christians were killed as a result of being blamed for this massive fire. Most likely, the fire was caused by an accident that occurred in the area around the merchant shops. Or it could have been the direct result of extreme overcrowding in the section of Rome. At any rate, it wasn’t caused by Christians or any other humans intentionally seeking destruction.

Nobody knows. It was a long time ago.

We like to think that the world has changed. The Roman Empire experienced a decline and fall. Despite giving its military leaders and its emperors the title “magnus,” which means “great,” the Roman Empire still fell. The Roman roads survive but the world has moved on, right? We have evolved. After all, we have cars and airplanes and we can dig deep in the ground for gas and oil. We have built superhighways and we have built parking lots and more parking lots.

As the saying goes, however, the more things change, the more they stay the same. The sun rises and the sun sets. The world spins on its axis. Empires come and empires fall. Even empires with leaders who are called “magnus” collapse and fall.

Destructive fires still happen. They are happening throughout North America now. In Canada, they are occurring in the vast boreal forests. Another name for the boreal forest is taiga. It is an ecosystem with a harsh climate. Very long and very cold winters and short but very warm summers.

For more detailed information about boreal forests, take a look at this article by the International Boreal Forest Research Association: https://www.ibfra.org/about-boreal-forests

Recently, wildfires, which occur in the boreal forest of Canada as a result of drought, lightning strikes, and human activity, have become intense. The smoke from these fires in northwestern Ontario has traveled far because of… well… wind. The fires have consumed entire communities. The community most affected has been the Namaygoosisagagun First Nation (also known as the Collins First Nation) in northwestern Ontario. The people who lived in that place have evacuated. They have lost their homes and the buildings that made up a community.

It is a tragic situation, a time when all of us need to gather together and support one another through the devastation.

Instead, the United States, which terms itself the “Greatest Nation on Earth (magnus),” is led by an administration that prefers blame to teamwork and cooperation. There has been little acknowledgement of assistance by Canadian firefighters in battling fires occurring throughout the United States. The death of firefighter Nicholas Dale, who was from British Columbia, in a helicopter crash in Colorado, was not even mentioned by this administration.

“We are holding Canada responsible for the fact that they are not properly maintaining their Forests, and Brush therein, and the United States is being unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air, the quality of which is dangerous, and totally unacceptable!” claims the president of the United States.

It’s almost as if Canada had the power to redirect the wind., but chose not to. It’s an impressive claim from a president who signed executive orders gutting the clean air act.

Controlling the wind is an incredible power to possess, but it’s no more real than Nero’s fiddle. The U.S. administration can’t tariff Canada into commanding the wind to stop abruptly at an international border. Winds and smoke don’t honor borders, which are manmade inventions. They go where they will and when they will.

The U.S. administration could have chosen to work with Canada, to send firefighting teams to help bring the fires under control. It could have said, “We share the air, and we will share the solution.”

Instead, it’s all about blame. The official reaction to disaster from those who call themselves great hasn’t changed in nearly 2,000 years.

What will it take for human beings to evolve? Or are we trapped in a “circus maximus” because we are too “magnus” to acknowledge that great empires rise and great empires fall, something that is as true in the 21st century as it was in Nero’s time?