[Sidenote:—­16—­] After this Nero had the wish (or rather it had always been a fixed purpose of his) to make an end of the whole city and sovereignty during his lifetime.  Priam he deemed wonderfully happy in that he had seen his country perish at the same moment as his authority.  Accordingly he sent in different directions men feigning to be drunk or engaged in some indifferent species of rascality and at first had one or two or more blazes quietly kindled in different quarters:  people, of course, fell into the utmost confusion, not being able to find any beginning of the trouble nor to put any end to it, and meanwhile they became aware of many strange sights and sounds.  For soon there was nothing to be observed but many fires as in a camp, and no other phrases fell from men’s lips but “This or that is burning “; “Where?”; “How?”; “Who set it?”; “To the rescue!” An extraordinary perturbation laid hold on all wherever they might be, and they ran about as if distracted, some in one direction and some in another.  Some men in the midst of assisting their neighbors would learn that their own premises were on fire.  Others received the first intimation of their own possessions being aflame when informed that they were destroyed.  Persons would run from their houses into the lanes with some idea of being of assistance from the outside, or again they would dash into the dwellings from the streets, appearing to think they could accomplish something inside.  The shouting and screaming of children, women, men, and graybeards all together were incessant, so that one could have no consciousness nor comprehension of anything by reason of the smoke and shouting combined.  On this account some might be seen standing speechless, as if dumb.  All this time many who were carrying out their goods and many more who were stealing what belonged to others kept encountering one another and falling over the merchandise.  It was not possible to get anywhere, nor yet to stand still; but people pushed and were pushed back, they upset others and were themselves upset, many were suffocated, many were crushed:  in fine, no evil that can possibly happen to men at such a crisis failed to befall them.  They could not with ease find even any avenue of escape, and, if any one did save himself from some immediate danger, he usually fell into another one and was lost.

[Sidenote:—­17—­] This did not all take place on one day, but lasted for several days and nights together.  Many houses were destroyed through lack of some one to defend them and many were set on fire in still more places by persons who presumably came to the rescue.  For the soldiers (including the night watch), having an eye upon plunder, instead of extinguishing any blaze kindled greater conflagrations.  While similar scenes were being enacted at various points a sudden wind caught the fire and swept it over whatever remained.  Consequently no one concerned himself any longer about goods or houses, but all