Nero Claudius Caesar, who ruled Rome from AD 54 to 68, was one of its most infamous emperors. Born on Dec. 15, AD 37, he was the son of Domitius Ahenobarbus and Caligula's sister Agrippina II. After Agrippina married Emperor Claudius I, she induced him to adopt Nero.
When Claudius died, the Praetorian Guard and the Roman Senate hailed Nero as the new emperor. Nero pledged cooperation with the Senate, announcing the beginning of a new golden age. Agrippina vied for influence and power, however, with the prefect of the Praetorian Guard, Burrus, and with Nero's former tutor, the philosopher Seneca. The first victim of the ensuing plots and counterplots was Claudius's son, Britannicus, who was poisoned in 55. Nero resented Agrippina's interference and had her murdered in 59. Burrus died in 62, and Seneca retired the same year.
From 62, Nero ruled unrestrained. Having divorced and murdered his first wife, Claudius's daughter, Octavia, Nero married (62) Poppaea Sabina, an ambitious intriguer. In 62 he revived the wide-ranging law of treason, and people were executed on suspicion of offense. In 64 a great fire ruined Rome. Nero lavishly rebuilt the city, but rumor held that he had started the fire himself to make room for his new palace and that he had recited poetry while watching the blaze. To avert this suspicion Nero blamed the Christians for the fire, thus initiating the first major Roman persecution of that sect. Executions increased in 65, when an assassination plot was uncovered. The poet Lucan, Seneca, the famous general Corbulo, and numerous other senators lost their lives.
Nero's great passion was art. He scandalized Roman society by displaying in public his talents as a chariot driver, singer, and musician. In 67 he toured Greece; the Greeks held numerous games and awarded Nero all of the first prizes for his racing and musical performances in honor of his visit. As Nero devoted himself to artistic pursuits, the reins of power slipped from his hands. In 68 the governors of three provinces rose in an open revolt. When the Praetorians also deserted him, Nero committed suicide on June 9, 68. The historian Tacitus and the biographer Suetonius present a lurid picture of his reign.
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