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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Nero Biography NERO (37-68 A.D.). A Roman emperor (54-68 A.D.). He was born at Antium, on the coast of Latium, Dec. 15, 37 A.D., and was the son of Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus and of Agrippina the younger, the daughter of Germanicus Caesar, and sister of Caligula; his name was thus originally L. Domitius Ahenobarbus. His mother afterward became the wife of the Emperor Claudius, who adopted him (50 A.D.), and his name was changed to Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus. After the death of Claudius (54 A.D.), the Praetorian Guards, at the instigation of Afranius Burrus, their prefect, declared him Emperor, instead of Claudius' son Britannicus, and their choice was acknowledged both by the Senate and the provinces. His reign began under the guidance of Burrus and his tutor, Seneca, the philosopher. For a time all went well, but the influence of his mother, together with his own moral weakness and sensuality, frustrated their efforts, and he soon plunged into debauchery, extravagance, and tyranny. He caused Britannicus, the son of Claudius, to be poisoned at the age of 14, because he dreaded him as a rival, and afterward (59 A.D.) procured the death of his own mother, Agrippina, to please his mistress, Poppaea Sabina. She was the wife of his principal boon companion, Otho, afterward Emperor, and in order to marry her he divorced and afterward put to death his wife Octavia, the sister of Britannicus (62 A.D.). The affairs of the Empire were at this time far from tranquil. In 61 A.D. an insurrection broke out in Britain among the Iceni under their Queen, Boadicea (q.v.), which was, however, suppressed by Suetonius Paulinus. The following year saw an unsuccessful war against the Parthians in Armenia.. At home matters were not much better. The Emperor was lampooned in verse; the Senate and priesthood, alike venal, were also satirized by audacious malcontents; Burrus died, and even Seneca removed from court. In July, 64, occurred a great conflagration in Rome, by which two-thirds of the city were reduced to ashes. Nero himself was charged in ancient times with having been the incendiary (Tacitus, Annales, xv, 44); the charge has been often believed in modern days. It is said that he admired the spectacle from a distance, reciting verses about the burning of Troy, but many scholars are doubtful whether he really had any hand in it. At all events, to offset the charge in his own day, and to minimize the popular disfavor caused by this grievous calamity, he laid the blame on the Christians, and persecuted them with great fury. He rebuilt the city with great magnificence, and reared for himself a splendid palace extending from the Palatine Hill over the intervening valley to the slopes of the Esquiline, called, from the immense profusion of its golden ornaments, the Domus Aurea (Golden House). To provide for this expenditure, and for the gratification of the Roman populace by spectacles and distributions of grain, Italy and the provinces were unsparingly plundered. A conspiracy against him failed in the year 65, and Seneca and the poet Lucan fell victims to his vengeance. In a fit of passion he killed his wife Poppaea. He then proposed marriage to Antonia, the daughter of Claudius, but was refused, whereupon he caused her to be put to death, and married Statilia Messalina, after killing her husband. His vanity led him to seek distinction as a poet, a philosopher, an actor, and a musician, and he received applause, not only in Italy, but also in Greece, which, upon invitation of the Greek cities, he visited in 67. In 68 the Gallic and Spanish legions, and after them the Praetorian Guards, rose against him, proclaimed Galba Emperor, and Nero fled from Rome to Phaon. The Senate, hitherto subservient, declared him an enemy of his country, and the tyrant committed suicide. The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XVI (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 726. |