L " ] 



That the fire in the ^mih'ana was accidental will become 

 more than probable, when we find that it was a quarter where 

 dangerous and entenfive conflagrations had happened before. It 

 appears from Suetonius, in his account of the reign of Claudius, 

 chap. 1 8. that one had obftinately raged in this region during 

 the life of that Prince : Ubi JEmiliana pertinac'ms arderent. And 

 it appears that it was of confequence enough to call for the pre- 

 fence and incefi^ant labour of the Emperor himfelf and his whole 

 court : We may reafonably conjedlure, therefore, that it was a part 

 of the fuburbs, for fome reafon or other, perhaps by being the 

 fite of hazardous manufadures, particularly expofed and obnox- 

 ious to thefe calamities. 



It is true that Tacitus, in another place, fays, with a feeming 

 contradi6lion, Inithim in ea parte Circ'i ortum^ quce Palat'mo Ccelioque 

 Monttbus contigua eft ; and Fleury, in his Ecclefiaftical Hiftory, 

 founding the afl^ertion on this pafl'age, fays it broke out in fome 

 fhops about the Circus, without taking notice of the other 

 alleged fite of its commencement. 



The commentators on Tacitus have endeavoured to reconcile 

 the difference, and infifl; that it broke out in two places, the Circus 

 and the yEmiliana. Now, as to the Circus, Tacitus himfelf ac- 

 counts for its rife and progrefs there, Ub'i per tabernas, qiubus id 

 Mercimonium inerat quo jlamma alitiir captiis ignis. The fire began 

 in certain fliops filled with inflammable materials, and naturally 

 calculated to originate and diftufe the flames. Where they could 

 fo eafily be accounted for, who would have feen, refledted by their 



light, 



