Great Fire of Rome

The Great Fire of Rome, claimed by a projection of the Second Doctor within the T'keyn Nexus to be a fixed point in time, (COMIC: Dead Man's Hand) was a fire in Rome in July of the year 64 AD.

The fire was started on the orders of Emperor Nero as the Senate had denied him the right to build a new Rome whilst the current one still stood. Nero thought of the idea when the First Doctor accidentally set fire to a map of the new plan for Rome. (TV: The Romans) Nero realised that the Senate's rejection of his plans to rebuild the city would be overturned if Rome itself were destroyed. He sent his guards into the city to round up torch-bearers, who were then paid to start fires that would allow construction of a new city - either "Neropolis", "Nerossysum" or simply "Nero". (PROSE: The Time Travellers' Almanac) The fire devastated the city and took six days to be brought under control. Emperor Nero blamed the fire on Christians, through some historians correctly suggested that he may have started the fire himself. (PROSE: A History of Humankind) The fire damaged three-quarters of the city. (PROSE: The Time Travellers' Almanac)

In Roma I, the "Fourth Great Fire" was one of the most momentous days in the history of the Roman Empire. (PROSE: Warlords of Utopia)