On December 15, 37, Nero was born – the future emperor of the Roman Empire. At the beginning of the reign, he reduced the fines and taxes, trying to fight corruption, was fond of poetry. But most of all, Nero became famous for his cruelty and unusual habits.
After a fire in 64 in Rome, Emperor Nero put all the blame for what happened on Christians. He made a terrible persecution of the believers, torturing and murdering them. The methods of punishment included the crucifixion and stitching in the skins of animals. Besides all this, Nero loved “natural lighting”. He ordered the man to be crucified, then poured over with oil, and then the oil was ignited, and a man was burned alive, illuminating the gardens in the front of the palace with bright light. Most atrocities are not confirmed, but historians still agree that Nero was the first who started the total persecution of Christianity.
Nero ordered to lure his mother Agrippina on a gorgeous ship that was built in such a way that the part of it had to fall off and drown a woman. But the plan failed: Agrippina got the only slight wound and was saved. Nero was in despair from the failure, but he did not leave attempts to get rid of the mother. An occasion helped: one of Agrippina’s servants was arrested with a dagger under the clothes. This was an evidence of intent to kill the emperor. The detachment of Nero’s reliable people went to the villa, where was Agrippina, burst into the bedroom and killed her.
Nero decided to kill his brother – he was afraid that their mother would give him a rank of emperor. Britannicus, who was filled with the poison at the imperial dinner, fell down on the floor at the same moment and, making a few convulsive movements, had died. Diner’s society, including Agrippina and Octavia (the first wife of Nero), had been watching in a daze at this terrible accident for a few minutes. However, Nero said that the death of Britannicus – the natural result of falling sickness, and the feast went on.
Nero’s teacher – Seneca died when he was about 70 years old, preserving fortitude. He could live longer, but Nero condemned him to death by suicide. Seneca coolly cut his veins in the arms and legs.
Nero served publicly as a horse master at the circus races, traveled through the streets in a fantastic costume, showing his singing skills to the people. He built a theater for games at the palace named juvenals (youth games), and asked the impoverished nobles to participate in these performances, sharing with him the craft of an actor, according to Roman traditions –shameful.
Drunken orgies were very common: Nero dressed in animal skins then jumped out of the cage and was raping in turn naked men and women tied to a pole. It was rumored that his sexual partners were not only women but also youths.
Having decided once again to change his wife, Nero executed his first wife Octavia. He accused her of adultery. The second official wife of the emperor became the wife of his best friend. However, she also did not hold out for long. He killed his second wife Sabina Poppy when she was sick and pregnant.
Emperor Nero took baths in the tub with fishes. This is due to the fact that those fishes were unusual - they emitted electrical discharges, and the emperor was treated in such a way from rheumatism.
Doctors have advised Emperor Nero to look more at green to strengthen the vision. In order to do so, he decorated his bedroom with chrysolite, an arena for gladiator fights was sprinkled with malachite, and he was watching the battles through the polished emerald.
His jubilee dates of reign Nero celebrated with the holiday “Quinquennial Neronia”. At the festival, one could hear the poetic recitation of the emperor himself.
Talking about the Roman emperor Nero, the historian Suetonius mention the wonderful the specifics of his life. Including an amazing banquet room in which he arranged orgies and lush feasts. According to Suetonius:
“There were dining-rooms with fretted ceils of ivory, whose panels could turn and shower down flowers and were fitted with pipes for sprinkling the guests with perfumes. The main banquet hall was circular and constantly revolved day and night, like the heavens.” (Tranquillus C. Suetonius).
During the excavation of Nero's Golden House near the Coliseum and the Palatine Hill the team of archeologists led by Maria Antonietta Tomei, seemed, had found that very room. A few pillars and the stone balls were found.
Citizens condemned his extravagance in building, especially in the construction of a huge Golden palace from the Palatine to the Esquiline. In the Golden House, he ordered to build a statue of his own, surpassing the height of the famous Colossus of Rhodes (the height of about 37 meters). In the chambers of the house, everything was decorated with gold, precious stones, and pearl shells. In the baths salt and sulfur water flowed. Also, the emperor began to build the pool with the great canal of 160 miles in length, to be able to drive up there right on ships. For work production, he ordered to send the exiles from all over Italy, by requiring courts to sentence criminals to the construction of the century.
Works Cited
Dio Cassius. Roman History. Published in Vol. VIII of the Loeb Classical Library edition,
1925. Web. 23 June 2015. Retrieved from:
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/62*.html
Tacitus Publius Cornelius. The Annals. Translated by Alfred John Church and William
Jackson Brodribb. 1942. Web. 23 June 2015. Retrieved from:
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/txt/ah/Tacitus/TacitusAnnals15.html
Tranquillus C. Suetonius. The Lives of the Twelve Caesars. Translated by J. C. Rolfe.
Published in the Loeb Classical Library, 1914. Web. 23 June 2015. Retrieved from:
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Nero*.html
