As the corpse is placed in a casket or container (preferably prepared from a combustible material), the container burns down. Next, the heat dries the body, burns the skin and hair, contracts and chars the muscles, vaporizes the soft tissues, and calcifies the bones so that they eventually crumble.
One such story is that of Nero merrily playing the fiddle while Rome burned in the Great Fire of the first century. It was during the night of the 18 th July 64 AD, when a fire broke out in the merchant area of the city.
fiddle while Rome burns. âº to enjoy yourself or continue working as normal and not give any attention to something important and unpleasant that is happening that you should be taking action to prevent: Environmentalists claimed governments were fiddling while Rome burned. (Definition of âfiddle while Rome burnsâ from the Cambridge Advanced Learnerâs Dictionary & Thesaurus Â© Cambridge University Press)