Nero distinguished himself as even crazier than any of his predecessors which is saying something considering Caligula came before this guy. The Roman emperor who rounded out the dynasty begun by Augustus punctuated his career with a series of terrible, crazy, bizarre episodes that have fascinated historians ever since.
The most famous myth about Emperor Nero says that the crazed emperor actually played a fiddle while Rome burned during the Great Fire of 64 AD. When the fire broke out, Nero was actually 35 miles away at his villa at Antium. When he got the news, he rushed back to the city to begin administering aid immediately. He was considered to be so callous and carefree that he could play music while his people suffered.
After the Great Fire, the public came to the incorrect conclusion that Nero had actually started the nine-day blaze that engulfed two-thirds of Rome. In order to throw the scent off his trail, Nero put the blame squarely on Christians. Nero took to persecuting believers with glee. He had them thrown to dogs, nailed to crosses, and on occasion, he dipped Christians in oil, set them on fire, and used the light to illuminate his gardens at night.
He divorced his first wife to marry her, then quickly impregnated her once they were married. Then Poppaea mysteriously perished before having their second child.
Historians of the time claim that Nero actually kicked Poppaea to death. Modern historians are a bit more forgiving, and claim it's equally as likely that Poppaea perished of a miscarriage. Nero was a crucial figure in the history of Rome. He was the last of his dynasty, and his death ushered in a period of instability.
His death led to a period of civil war that was the first in almost one hundred years. Nero was the first to persecute Christians, and he set a precedent for that religion's persecution that was to continue off and on for almost three centuries. Augustus had brought peace to the Roman Empire, and during his reign, he amassed a range of powers.
He made himself in effect the first Emperor. Tiberius, who is often portrayed as a depraved and bloody old man, was a competent leader. He reformed the system of governance and tax-collection, and his rule was mild. By the time of his death, the hereditary principle was established, and his nephew Gaius Caligula became Emperor.
After his assassination, he was succeeded by Claudius. While often portrayed as something of a fool, he showed at times that he was a capable leader. He ordered the conquest of Britain and also annexed much of modern-day Morocco for his empire.
In the first century AD, the Empire was at its zenith. There had been peace for several decades, and the borders were relatively secure. The majority of provincials were loyal to the Empire, and they were increasingly Romanized.
The economy of the Empire was generally good. There was also a great cultural flourishing, and poets such as Ovid and writers such as Petronius produced masterpieces of Latin literature that are still read. This was the Empire that Nero inherited. It is important to note that there are no surviving contemporary records of Nero, and many of the remaining accounts are quite possibly biased.
Nero was born in 37 AD. His parents were Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, a member of one of the most powerful Roman families, and Agrippina the Younger, sister of Emperor Caligula. He was a grant-nephew of Augustus and, therefore, a member of the Julian-Claudian family. Nero was not viewed as a future emperor at the time of his birth. During his uncle Caligula's reign, his mother fell from favor, and his family was persecuted.
His father died of natural causes , and his mother was exiled. Claudius became Emperor, and after a disastrous marriage, he married Agrippina the Younger, his niece. She persuaded Claudius to make her son Nero his heir and married the daughter of Claudius from his first marriage. It is widely believed that Agrippina, probably with the help of Nero, poisoned Claudius.
Nero became Emperor in 54 AD at the age of seventeen. The government was in the hands of two experienced ministers, one of whom was the writer Seneca the Younger and the Burrus.
In 55 B. C, Nero wanted to control the Empire, and he had Seneca and Burrus dismissed. Later, he killed his mother as he grew tired of her constant efforts to dominate him and control the Empire. He morphed into a grotesque tyrant. Nero murdered any senator who opposed him.
His personal life was bizarre, and he married one of his male slaves. Nero mourning the mother he had killed. Commodus: — AD.
Caracalla: — AD. Maximinus Thrax: to AD. As a Roman, you had education, culture and the protection of the largest military empire on your side. Living in this Empire also had some notable drawbacks. The empire had extreme poverty rates , threats of being in a constant state of war, and the government could impose huge tax burdens on the people. Fearing for his life, Galba recruited troops and marched on Rome. By this time, Nero was already dead. With no heir to succeed him, the Senate named Galba as the new emperor.
Marcus Aurelius died on March 17, His son Commodus became emperor and soon ended the northern military efforts. In C. Romulus, the last of the Roman emperors in the west, was overthrown by the Germanic leader Odoacer , who became the first Barbarian to rule in Rome.
The order that the Roman Empire had brought to western Europe for years was no more. Nero's mother, Agrippina the Younger , had married Claudius after arranging the death of her second husband and was the driving force behind her son's adoption.
She arranged for Nero to wed Claudius' daughter Octavia in 53, further sidelining the emperor's son Britannicus. In 31 B. Returning to Rome, Augustus was acclaimed a hero. With skill, efficiency, and cleverness, he secured his position as the first Emperor of Rome. As a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, he was a close relative of all five Julio-Claudian emperors: his great-grandfather Augustus was the first emperor of the dynasty, his great-uncle Tiberius was the second emperor, his brother Gaius Caligula was the third emperor, his uncle Claudius was the fourth emperor, and The barbarian invasions are regarded as external factors that led to the fall of the Roman Empire.
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