• FuglyDuck@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      7 months ago

      it was straight up allegory. Everybody contemporary to John of Patmos knew that the antichrist was Nero. it wasn’t exactly thinly veiled.

        • FuglyDuck@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          7 months ago

          Good news!

          I’m pretty sure Trump doesn’t know how to fiddle, so there’s that at least.

            • FuglyDuck@lemmy.worldEnglish
              0·
              7 months ago

              Yes, I’m quite aware it would have been a different stringed instrument… as one of the Roman elites, though, the basics would have been taught to him by the grammaticus (second stage of education, around the age of ten to eleven.)

              • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
                0·
                7 months ago

                Kinda missing the second half there, chief… The part about the whole anecdote is likely made up of whole cloth, regardless of instrument…

                • FuglyDuck@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  1·
                  7 months ago

                  No, I’m indulging a fantasy. In any case, did you miss the part where his Golden Palace and all the pleasure gardens were built on the parts of Rome that burned?

                  “Nero Fiddled” isn’t meant to be literal, but rather to convey that he celebrated while rome burned. If you’re really curious, Nero rushed back from his villa (35 miles outside rome, as it happens,) and immediately began paying up the fire brigade to combat the fire- out of his own pocket. Keep in mind, the fire brigade, for lack of a better term, were strong arm thugs and would demand payment upfront… while one’s home was burning. They may not have set the fire (but then, they may have also.).

                  There’s a lot of things that we just don’t know. Accusations at the time (largely from elites who hated him,) saying he set the fire specifically to get the land. It’s equally possible the fire was set by his politcal enemies.

                  all that aside, Nero could play an instrument, which is one skill more than trump has.