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Judgments of Nero

-Nero is born on December 15, 37 B.C.E.

-His mother Agrippina the Younger is exiled in 39 and Nero is raised by his aunt

-In 49, Emperor Claudius is forced to choose an heir, his own son, Britannicus, is only five while Nero is ten years old and of the right lineage.  Thus Claudius betroths his daughter Octavia to him.  Nero also begins to be tutored by Senca during this year.

-In 50, Claudius officially adopts Nero

-Claudius dies in 50 (stories suspect that he might of been murdered by Agrippina) and Nero becomes the Emperor

-Nero marries Octavia in 53.  Octavia is extremely popular in Rome.

-The first five years of Nero's reign was marked by peace and prosperity.  The military is successful in the borders.  These five years are attributed to the wise tutorial of Senca and Burrus (the captain of the Praetorian Guards)
 
-In 55, Nero murders his adopted brother Britannicus in front of Nero's mother Agrippina's eyes.  It is believed that Agrippina had threatened to back Britannicus as the rightful Emperor. . .

-Both Senca and Burrus resents the control Agrippina had on Nero.  They constantly feed Nero's ego, telling him to break free from his mother's control.  Nero begins to model himself with the absolute monarchs of the East . . .  Thus their encouragement creat a megalomaniac that they couldn't control.

-In 62, Nero murders one of his former tutors and divorces the popular Octaiva and marries his long time mistress Poppaea Sabina

-In 64, a great fire burns most of Rome.  Although there are rumors that Nero started the fire, Nero is actually at his finest during the fire.  He organizes a fire brigade to fight the fire, and converts the field of Mars and his own gardens into shelters for the homeless.  He also hurries supplies of grain into Rome to feed them.

-The reason that Nero is blamed for the fire is that he begins the construction of a magnificent house for himself called the Golden house after the fire.

-Nero was the first Emperor to persecute the Christians.  He blamed them for starting the fire.  Some believe that the reason for this persecution was because his wife Poppaea Sabina sympathized with the Jewish religion.  The Jewish, who were the usual suspects were thus off the hook.  Another reason is that the Jewish population was greater than the Christian at this time, and the Christian religion was much misunderstood as a strange new cult.  Thus there were little sympathy for the Christians.

-In 65, Poppaea Sabina dies from complications of pregnancy.  Rumors are that Nero kicked her while she was pregnant.  However, Nero mourns for her deeply.

-In 66, Nero marries Statilla Messalina and leaves on a grand tour of Greece.  In his grand tour, he participates in the Olympic games and the other Greek games.  Of course, he wins everything he competed at.  He is so pleased with the Greeks that he exempt them from taxes.

-In 68, Julius Vindex, governor of Gaul rebels against Nero.  Although Verginius Rufus defeats him, his army proclaims him the Emperor.  Rufus declines but the Senate declares Nero a public enemy, he panics, flees, and eventually had one of his slaves kill him. His last works were "What an artist dies in me" . . .

Judgments . . .

The reign of Nero, like the reigns of most of the early Emperors are marked by good as well as bad . . . although it would seem, (at least according to our sources) that the bad outweighs the good.  However, the sources that wrote about Nero were extremely hostile to him.  A modern analogy is like what the right wing conservative Republicans would write about Hillary Clinton today.  There were rumors that he lusted after his mother and even committed incest with her.  Other rumors include that he raped a Vestal Virgin and alllowed himself to be penetrated by a man (considered passive and effeminate by the Romans)
Nero's true personality is lost in the mist of history.  We do know however that he was extremely popular with the people even if all the elites and senators hated him.  When he died, numerous people placed flowers on his tomb. 
He made himself seen and known in public games, gladiator games, and acted on stage.  The Romans thought actors as highly as they thought of prostitutes, so this was not seen as good by the elites.  Nero's admiration for the Greeks and their art was another blemish to the Romans.  The Greeks were considered effeminate and luxurious by the Romans, thus Nero's sponsorship of the art was not necessarily a good thing.
Some argue that Nero should have visited his armies instead of Greece.  The reason that he failed was because that his army did not know him and was not loyal to him.
Others think that he did have the army's support and he panicked too early . . .
Because Nero was the first Roman Emperor to persecute the Christians, he became the figure of Anti-Christ and received his extremely negative portrayal in history.  And the Anti-Christ cannot die, so there were sightings Nero all over the Empire for years.
 

Judgments of Nero