Vol. 06 · Misquoted ·Book ·199 of 348
"Nero fiddled while Rome burned."
They never said that.
What people say
"Nero fiddled while Rome burned."
What was actually said
"[Nero] mounted upon a stage … and sang the "Sack of Ilium," as he called it, in his regular stage costume." Suetonius — The Twelve Caesars: Nero 38 (c. AD 121)
Why it stuck
The fiddle did not exist until the 11th century. Nero sang, and accompanied himself on the cithara (a stringed instrument). The Great Fire of Rome was AD 64; the fiddle is a thousand years later.
Tacitus (Annals 15.39) adds that Nero was actually at Antium (not Rome) when the fire began.
Know another line by heart?
Play the duel and see how many you can spot. Or browse the whole shelf.