Nero's Fiddle

I am listening to Stacy Schiff's biography of Cleopatra. Quite nice, however, I blame it for this bit of doggerel that popped into my head in the tiny hours of the morning:

Nero's Fiddle

The repugnance one feels

Over history’s assertion 

That Nero fiddled

While Rome burned,

Varies, in inverse proportion,

To the geographic,

Philosophic, political

And moral affinity 

One retains for that
Fabled metropolis.