A hot summer night in the Circus of Rome
A crackling was heard, the smell of smoke
Ominous flames lit up the gloam
And as they spread, the silence broke
Screaming leapt up and rent the night
The Eternal city was kindling the blaze
As the fire ravaged all in sight
For nine infernal nights and days

Nero was in Antium, he rushed to the fire
Did he fiddle while watching the flames eat his world?
Or was it the Christians burning Rome like a pyre?
No, that was a rumor vicious Nero hurled
Fourteen great districts between the seven slopes
Three were razed, seven mangled, four were spared
Scorched too, it seemed, were the Romans’ hopes
But there was to be a new Rome, Nero declared

Like a phoenix reborn from its still-smoking ashes
The Urbs Sacra is rebuilt from marble and stone
Nero’s cruelty grows as the lion’s tooth flashes
Climbing over his victims to sit on his throne
But after he died and his memory faded
And a parade of men ruled under the dome
The everlasting city has outlived them all
The imperial, eternal queen of cities, Rome.