No, he didn't.
He fiddled while Rome burned.
Fiddled as in 'fiddled around' instead of doing something.
Which also isn't true as he did have men try to put the fires out.
There was no such thing as a 'fiddle' back when Nero was alive.
Actually Nero playing the fiddle was indeed a true and accurate story despite internet memes to the contrary.
Nero was certifiably mad, based upon the accounts written down by no less than Pliny the Elder, and the little known epistle from Seneca the Younger to St. Paul himself in which the burning of Rome was described, blamed upon the early Christians of the day. The fact is, that Nero wished to build a new glorious palace for himself upon the site of the Domus Aurea and arranged for the fires himself in order to burn out the existing homes of the Roman elite on Palatine Hill among other adjacent areas.
Seneca the Younger described Nero's giddy frenzy as he watched the fires doing their deadly work, and indeed took up the fiddle (known in historical times as the 'lira', originating in the Eastern portion of the Roman Empire, later referred to as the 'Byzantine Empire').
Historians discovered many writings and pieces of artwork attesting to this story, one of which is included here:
