Bible Wiki Explore. Heavenly Host Angels. God-designed structures. Gospels General Epistles Pauline Epistles. Old Testament New Testament Genesis. Explore Wikis Community Central. Register Don't have an account? Emperor Nero. View source. History Talk 1. Categories People Roman Emperors.
In the first years of the reign, Nero was highly influenced in his decisions and achievements by his mother, tutor Lucius Annaeus Seneca and his Praetorian prefect, Sextus Afranius Burrus.
However, later, he became more independent and started to play an active role in development of the government and foreign policy. Nero was famous for his diplomatic skills and he developed the cultural life of the empire because he commissioned building of theatres and promoted athletic games.
His hobby was to make public appearances as a poet, actor or musician. His empire-wide program of public and private workds led to the rise of taxes. Moreover, Nero executed many people among whom were numerous conspirators, who wanted to assassinate the emperor for his extravagant way of reign.
Agrippina the Younger was the daughter of Agrippina the Elder and the great-granddaughter of Emperor Augustus. One of the most notable for cruelty and insanity emperors Caligula , who reigned from 37 AD until 41 AD, died from multiple stab wounds made by his own Praetorian Guard on the Palatine Hill.
Agrippina persuaded Claudius to adopt Nero. Her plan was to make Nero the next emperor and rule the empire by having an influence on his decisions. At the age of 16, Nero married daughter of Claudius, Claudia Octavia. At the same period of time, he gave several speeches about various communities including the Ilians, the Apameans, asking for a five-year tax delay after an earthquake.
Also, about the northern colony of Bologna since their settlement suffered a destructive fire. Emperor Claudius died in 54 AD. According to the historical facts, he was poisoned by his wife Agrippina. Before the realization of her plan, she put all efforts to replace the guard officers with men loyal to her. The fire started on the slope of the Aventine overlooking the Circus Maximus and ravaged the city for over six days. It was noted that Nero was conveniently not present in Rome at the time, and most contemporary writers, including Pliny the Elder, Suetonius and Cassius Dio held Nero responsible for the fire.
Sensing this frustration and aggravation, Nero looked to use the Christian faith as a scapegoat. With the supposed intention of diverting attention away from the rumours that he had instigated the Great Fire, Nero ordered that Christians should be rounded up and killed.
He blamed them for starting the fire and in the subsequent purge, they were torn apart by dogs and others burnt alive as human torches. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as nightly illumination when daylight had expired. Over the next hundred years or so, Christians were sporadically persecuted.
It was not until the mid-third century that emperors initiated intensive persecutions. Nero certainly took advantage of the devastation of the city, building a lavish private palace on part of the site of the fire. Statue of a muse in the newly reopened Domus Aurea. Unfortunately little has survived of the incredible architectural feat because the expropriations involved in its building were deeply resented.
In 67 AD, Nero ordered the castration of Sporus, a former slave boy. Other suggest Nero used his marriage to Sporus to assuage the guilt he felt for kicking his former pregnant wife to death. Following the death of his mother, Nero became deeply involved in his artistic and aesthetic passions. In reality, the people had Seneca and Burrus to thank for these policies.
To Nero, his position afforded him nothing more than the freedom to indulge in his true passions — the arts he wanted to be a musician and actor, and bring poetry, theatre and singing to the people and the fulfilment of personal pleasures.
Disguising himself, he spent nights stalking the streets of Rome with friends, drinking, frequenting brothels and brawling. Ignoring Octavia and a marriage that bored him, he fell for a former slave, who he later left for Poppaea Sabina, the wife of a senator. That move proved both her undoing and the beginning of several formative, blood-soaked years for the emperor.
The first to die was Britannicus, on the day before he became an adult in AD Although Nero claimed his step-brother succumbed to an epileptic seizure, historical records suggest poison had been added to his glass of wine.
Next to go would be Agrippina herself in AD Nero wanted her death to look like an accident so, according to Suetonius, came up with the idea of a booby-trapped boat, which would fall apart in the water. In a final show of her domineering personality, she survived the sinking and swam to shore, so Nero had to send assassins to finish the job at her villa.
Then in AD 62, Nero lost those remaining figures who had managed to keep him in check. Burrus died — his replacement, a cruel man named Tigellinus, served with particular malice — while Seneca retired from public affairs. Nero found himself in absolute power for the first time, wholly untethered from any control or need to temper his behaviour. So when he wanted to marry his mistress Poppaea, he divorced and exiled Octavia on a trumped-up charge of adultery.
When this caused outrage in Rome, he had her executed and her head presented to his new wife. Rather than use this power to rule or even conquer new lands, Nero still dreamed of being an artist, cheered by an adoring public.
He played the lyre, wrote poetry and sang, but Romans considered the idea of an emperor performing on stage as the ultimate disgrace, demonstrating a disrespectful and scandalous lack of dignity. He forced people to watch his performances without letting them leave, which, Suetonius wrote, led some to pretend they had died so they would be carried out of the theatre.
On hearing the news, he rushed back to the city to coordinate relief efforts, which included opening his private gardens as shelter and providing food.
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