Jonathan Irons wrote:

>Oh yeah, and of course Nero fiddled while Rome burned.  Does that count?
>:-)

Citing Tacitus as his authority, Robert Ripley, in his *Believe it or
Not*, states that Nero did not fiddle while Rome burned.  More specifically:

   "In the first place the 'fiddle' was not yet invented.  Neither
   did Nero play any other instrument at the time because he was
   fifty miles away at his villa in Antium when the fire occurred,
   and did not return to the city until it was in ashes."

Why being fifty miles away from the scene would prevent his having played
any other instrument at the time is left unexplained.

Walter Meyer