[Lee Stewart]

Nero didn't fiddle while Rome burned

Ah, Nero, the original unconcerned bystander. While this first-century Roman emperor certainly isn't blameless in the story of Rome's fiery fall, he definitely wasn't playing the fiddle during it. For one thing, Nero wasn't even in the city when the fire began; he was in Antium, about thirty miles outside of the city. For another...there was no such thing as a fiddle in ancient Rome.