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.
The last emperor (what an irony) was called Romolus Augustolus, like the founder of the city and the first emperor. The city after 476 was devastated for the next 400 years. At its height, Rome counted 1M people, and it fell down to less than 50k.