On a warm summer day, July 19, 64 AD, fire broke out in the poor quarters of Rome near the coliseum. In those days the streets of the city were narrow and were used primarily for foot traffic. Many buildings in that area had been built of wood, and in the dry heat of summer they burned quickly. In only hours, there was a conflagration unlike anything Rome had ever seen. The Temple of Luna was consumed along with the Shrine of Vesta...hundreds, then thousands, of people were homeless.