Trump and Congress Fiddle While Americans Get Burned (updated) By Hank Silverberg "Nero fiddled while Rome burned." You've probably heard this legend before. Seventy percent of the city of Rome was destroyed by fire in 64 C.E. The Emperor Nero, who was actually out of town at the time of the fire, was already known as an incompetent, narcissistic leader who cared little about anything outside of his own small circle. When the fire was eventually put out, he used the land leveled by the flames and money collected for taxes to build his own "Golden Palace" and "Pleasure Gardens" while thousands of the city's residents went homeless and hungry. Nero In truth, the violin wasn't actually invented until the 11th Century, so Nero, who was known to play an instrument with strings, was likely playing something other than a fiddle, but the expression has gone down in history to illustrate a leader who doesn't really ...