Light from the burning city filled the sky as far as human eye could rcack The
moon rose large and full from behind the mountains, and inflamed at once by the
glare took on the color of heated brass. It seemed to look with amazement on the
world-ruling city which was perishing. In the rose-colored abysses of heaven
rose-colored stars were glittering; but in distinction from usual nights the earth
was brighter than the heavens. Rome, like a giant pile, illuminated the whole
Campania. In the bloody light were seen distant mountains, towns, villas,
temples, mountains, and the aqueducts stretching toward the city from all the
adjacent hills; on the aqueducts were swarms of people, who had gathered there
br safety or to gaze at the burning.
Meanwhile the dreadful element was embracing new divisions of the city. It was
impossible to doubt that criminal hands were spreading the fire, since new
conflagrations were breaking out all the time in places remote from the principal
fire. From the heights on which Rome was founded the flames flowed like waves
of the sea into the valleys densely occupied by houses, -- houses of five and six
stories, full of shops, booths, movable wooden amphitheatres, built to
accommodate various spectacles; and finally storehouses of wood, olives, grain,
nuts, pine cones, the kernels of which nourishcd the more needy population, and
clothing, which through Caesar's favor was distributed from time to time among
the rabble huddled into narrow alleys. In those places the fire, finding abundance
of inflammable materials, became almost a series of explosions, and took
possession of whole streets with unheard-of rapidity. People encamping outside
the city, or standing on the aqueducts knew from the color of the flame what was
burning. The furious power of the wind carried forth from the fiery gulf thousands
and millions of burning shells of walnuts and almonds, which, shooting suddenly
into the sky, like countless flocks of bright butterflies, burst with a crackling, or,
driven by the wind, fell in other parts of the city, on aqueducts, and fields beyond
Rome. All thought of rescue seemed out of place; confusion increased every
moment, for on one side the population of the city was fleeing through every gate
to places outside; on the other the fire had lured in thousands of people from the
neighborhood, such as dwellers in small towns, peasants, and half-wild
shepherds of the Campania, brought in by hope of plunder. The shout, "Rome is
perishing!" did not leave the lips of the crowd; the ruin of the city seemed at that
time to end every rule, and loosen all bonds which hitherto had joined people in a
single integrity. The mob, in which slaves were more numerous, cared nothing for
the lordship of Rome. Destruction of the city could only free them; hence here
and there they assumed a threatening attitude. Violence and robbery were
extending. It seemed that only the spectacle of the perishing city arrested
attention, and restrained for the moment an outburst of slaughter, which would
begin as soon as the city was turned into ruins. Hundreds of thousands of slaves,
forgetting that Rome, besides temples and walls, possessed some tens of
legions in all parts of the world, appeared merely waiting for a watchword and a
leader. People began to mention the name of Spartacus, but Spartacus was not
