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 CONFLAGRATION 235 left as a garrison. Carthage, the ancient rival of Rome, was several times hurned; first in 146 B. C., after the close of the third Punic war, when by order of the Roman senate it wa# totally destroyed ; everything that could be burned was given to the flames, the site of the city was ploughed over, and the furrows were sown with salt. In course of centuries a new town sprang up near the site of the former one, which grew to be a place of great im- portance, hardly inferior to Rome itself. In 439 it was taken almost by surprise by Gen- seric, partially burned, and made the capital of the Vandal kingdom in Africa. It was re- taken by Belisarius in 533, and in 698 taken and utterly destroyed by Hassan, the Saracenic governor of Egypt. So thorough was the de- struction, mainly by conflagration, that hardly a vestige remains to mark the site of either the Phoenician or the Roman Carthage. Athens was taken by Xerxes in 480 B. C., and the next year was totally burned by the Persians under Mardonius. It was soon rebuilt, and though several times afterward captured and dismantled, it appears never to have been again destroyed by fire. Corinth, having joined the Achasan league, was devoted to destruction by the Roman senate, and was burned to the ground by Mummius in 146 B. 0., the same year in which Carthage was destroyed. The first general conflagration of .Rome was about 390 B. C., when it was burned by the Gauls. An extensive fire is noted as having occurred during the reign of Tiberius, near the beginning of our era, in which nearly all the buildings on the Cselian hill were destroyed. But the great conflagration took place in A. D. 64, in the reign of Nero. It began at the lower part of the circus maximus, in some shops where combustible materials were stored up, spread northward over the whole Palatine hill, and was finally arrested at the foot of the Esquiline. The conflagration raged for six days and seven nights. Out of the fourteen regions or districts into which the city was divided, three were completely destroyed, and seven very nearly so. Dion Cassius and Suetonius affirm that the fire was the immediate work of Nero, who was disgusted with the narrow winding streets of the city ; and the more judicious Tacitus rather favors the imputation. But the probability is that this is unfounded. Nero was at Antium when the fire broke out, and did not return to Rome until his own palace was threatened, which he was unable to save. It is also af- firmed by Tacitus, but upon grounds hardly his- torical, that in order to avert from himself the suspicions which attached to him, he charged the crime upon the Christians, against whom about this time a severe persecution was in- stituted. Notwithstanding the great loss oc- casioned by this conflagration, it proved in the long run an advantage to the city ; for the narrow crooked lanes were rebuilt on a regular plan, with broad streets, open places, and less lofty houses ; and many excellent mea- sures were carried into effect for guarding against conflagrations in the future. Nero himself supplied the proprietors of the burnt district with money for rebuilding, and speci- fied a time within which the houses were to be completed ; and Rome rose from her ashes far more splendid than before. In the suc- ceeding three centuries several great fires are recorded. In 188 the capitol was destroyed by lightning ; in 248 Pompey's amphitheatre was burned. Early in the 5th century Rome be- gan to suffer from the approach of the northern barbarians, and much of it was burned by the hordes of Alaric in 410 and of Genseric in 455. Constantinople, under its present name and its old one of Byzantium, has often been visited by conflagrations. During the crusades it suf- fered severely. In 1203 it was taken by the Latins; fire was set to it, and, according to Gibbon, "during eight days and nights the conflagration spread above a league in front, and from the harbor to the Propontis, over the thickest and most populous region of the city. It is not easy to count the stately churches and palaces that were reduced to a smoking ruin." When finally captured by the Turks in 1453, it was not burned. Indeed, the general practice of the Turks, unlike that of most conquering hordes, has not been to destroy the towns which they captured. Under Turkish rule it has been frequently the scene of great acci- dental conflagrations. The most noted of these in recent times are those of 1852, when 3,500 houses were destroyed ; of 1865, in which 8,000 houses and numerous public buildings were burned; and of 1870, when 3,000 houses were burned in the suburb of Pera, and as is esti- mated from 500 to 1,000 persons Jost their lives. Few cities of either ancient or modern times have escaped notable conflagrations. Most of these are noticed under their respective names. Of those in London many have be- come historical. In 962, and again in 1087, a great part of the city was destroyed by fire. In 1212 a fire broke out on the Southwark side of London bridge, and crossed to the opposite side of the river, hemming in a numerous crowd, who flung themselves into boats and barges; 3,000 persons are said to have been drowned, and a great part of the city as it then existed was burned. The " great fire " in London took place Sept. 2-6, 1666. It began in a baker's house in Pudding lane, behind the Monument yard, and extended from the tower to the Temple church, and from the northeast gate to Holborn bridge, covering a space of 436 acres of the most densely peopled part of the city. During four days 89 churches, in- cluding St. Paul's, the city gates, the royal ex- change, the custom house, Guildhall, Sion col- lege, and many other public buildings were burned. This great fire destroyed 13,200 houses, and laid waste 400 streets; it is said that 200,000 persons whose homes had been destroyed encamped in Islington and Highgate fields. The London monument, erected in