Nero (15 December 37 AD-9 June 68 AD) was the Emperor of the Roman Empire from 54 AD to 68 AD, succeeding Claudius and preceding Galba. He was infamous for his tyranny and extravagance, and history would mark him as the man responsible for the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD and the start of the first empire-wide persecution of Christians (killing thousands, including Saints Peter and Paul). He was overthrown by Galba in 68 AD, and he committed suicide outside of Rome before he could be captured by Galba's cavalrymen.
Biography[]
Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus was born in Antium, Italia, Roman Empire on 15 December 37 AD, the son of Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Agrippina the Younger; he was thus the grandson of Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder and the nephew of Caligula. His father died when he was three years old, and his mother fell out of favor with Caligula, forcing Lucius to live with Claudius' mother-in-law. In 49 AD, eight years after taking the throne, Claudius remarried to Agrippina, and he adopted Lucius as his son and heir; he assumed the new name "Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus". In 54 AD, his mother had Claudius poisoned to ensure that Nero would succeed him as Roman emperor.
Reign[]
Nero in 64 AD
During the first five years of his reign, Nero was guided by his mother, by the Prefect of the Praetorian Guard Sextus Afranius Burrus, and by his tutor Seneca the Younger. His reign saw Corbulo conduct a successful war against Parthia from 58 to 63 AD, Suetonius Paulinus crushed the Icenian queen Boudicca's revolt in Britannia, the Bosporan Kingdom was briefly annexed to the Empire, and the First Jewish-Roman War broke out. While his statesmen ran the Empire's political and military affairs, Nero lived a life of luxury and entertainment and built a public gymnasium, an amphitheater, a meat market, a canal from Naples to Ostia, and extracted heavy property taxes and fines from the rich to pay for his projects. As he grew older, his mother began to lose influence over him, so she planned to install his stepbrother Britannicus as Emperor. However, Nero had his brother murdered to prevent his mother's plot from succeeding, and he also murdered his mother after sleeping with her.
Nero's cruel streak continued as he had his first wife Octavia murdered, he kicked his second wife Poppaea to death while she was pregnant, and he castrated and then married a teenage boy. Only his populist style with rule ensured that he won widespread support among Rome's lower classes, while he drew the ire of the wealthy and the Roman Senate for his tyranny and extravagance. In 65 AD, Gaius Calpurnius Piso organized a conspiracy to assassinate the Emperor, but Piso was executed, and Nero had his former mentor Seneca commit suicide after accusing him of being complicit with the plot. His Praetorian Prefect Tigellinus also jealously accused Nero's fashion advisor Petronius of being privy to the conspiracy, but Petronius committed suicide before he could be arrested at his home in Cumae.
Great Fire[]
Nero's most infamous act was the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD, which he instigated in order to built the Domus Aurea, a vast landscaped palace in the heart of ancient Rome. Through wholesale arson, much of the city was burned down, and, when the fires stopped spreading, Tigellinus started another fire at his estate to cause a second wave; the aristocratic villas of the Palatine Hill shared in the rest of Rome's misery. Nero then shifted the blame to a host of Christians, claiming that the Roman gods had started the fire due to their displeasure at the apostasy of Roman Christian converts. Nero had the Bishop of Rome Peter and the missionary Paul the Apostle executed, crucifying Peter upside-down and beheading Paul; several other Christians were rounded up, executed, and set aflame so as to illuminate over an imperial festival. Nero's killing of thousands of Christians and his fiddling while Rome burnt came to define his reign, and he became immensely unpopular.
Downfall[]
In 68 AD, Gaius Julius Vindex and Servius Suplicius Galba rose up with Hispanian and Gallic legionaries and, although Vindex died in the Battle of Vesontio in May at the hands of Lucius Verginius Rufus, Nero was tracked down by rebel cavalry outside of Rome. He had his comrade Tiberius Claudius Epaphroditus kill him, and his last words were "what an artist dies in me". Nero died shortly after the cavalrymen found him, the cavalry being too late to capture him.
Gallery[]
| Roman Emperor | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by: Claudius |
54 – 68 AD | Succeeded by: Galba |