dons_life's Journal

Grenfell Tower and the Fire of Rome

http://timesonline.typepad.com/dons_life/2017/07/grenfell-tower-and-the-fire-of-rome.html

There was a good episode of The Long View on Radio 4 last week, looking at a terrible fire in Glasgow in 1905 as a ghastly parallel of the Grenfell Tower. But I couldnt help thinking also of a much more distant fire, and the blame game around it that has lasted for centuries: the great fire of Rome in 64 CE.

We now know it best through the phrase Nero fiddled while Rome burned or to give the fuller version, he (apocryphally, Tacitus says that he was in Antium <Anzio> at the time) went to a great vantage point and as he watched the city go up in flames, he sang a song about the Fall of Troy, accompanying himself on the lyre (it was fiddling in the musical sense, not footling, as I have blogged before). But more interesting is the controversy about what had really caused this, and what the clean-up operations were or should have been.

Nero blamed the Christians and a few people have since followed him. Many early Christians thought that the end of the world was nigh, and that it would come in a vast conflagration: what was more tempting than to give it a helping hand? Other people blamed Nero, believing that it was a quick way of clearing the centre of the city to make space for the new palace he wanted to build (that is, The Golden House).

Nero certainly turned on the Christians instantly, crucifying some, turning others into human torches. It was the first documented persecution, but gave him a worse reputation later than at the time (Christians were as popular then as terrorists now). The interesting thing is that he does seem to have instituted rather more effective relief measures than the London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. He opened his own grounds to house the homeless (not something we have recently seen). And he made all kinds of Health and Safety regulations (about building height etc: ancient Rome was almost as high rise as modern London) to prevent the same thing happening again.

What he didnt do was set up a public inquiry. On which subject, I must confess that I have started to feel very slightly sorry for Martin Moore-Bick. There is no doubt that he doesnt look particularly well qualified for some of the jobs that need doing right now. Nor is there any doubt for me that someone needs to look at all the wider social and political issues that are off Moore-Bickss agenda (the not my remit line). They are rightly not going to go away. But I really do want someone to go through the mountains of paperwork, the trail of contracts and subcontracts which involve dozens of firms and consultants etc and to work out, as nerdily as possible, who made what decision about that cladding, when, and on whose authority. As well as everything else, I want to know where the buck stops; and Moore-Bick might be just the man for that job.

AND THAT"S IT FOR THE TYPEPAD VERSION OF THE BLOG. I HOPE YOU WILL JOIN ME ON THE NEW SITE:

https://www.the-tls.co.uk/grenfell-tower-fire-rome/