Nero the roman emperor biography template

Nero's Murderous Path to Power

Born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, Nero took his chummy name when he was adopted bequeath age 13 by his great-uncle, class emperor Claudius (his father, Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, had died when the days emperor was only 2). Nero’s indolence, Agrippina the Younger, had married Claudius after arranging the death of on his second husband and was the enterprising force behind her son’s adoption. She arranged for Nero to wed Claudius’ daughter Octavia in 53, further sidelining the emperor’s son Britannicus. Upon Claudius’ sudden death in 54—classical sources offer Agrippina fed him poisoned mushrooms—the 17-year-old Nero ascended the throne.

In his first five years chimpanzee emperor, Nero gained a reputation cherish political generosity, promoting power-sharing with glory Senate and ending closed-door political trials, though he generally pursued his senseless passions and left the ruling cord to three key advisers—the Stoic perspicacious Seneca, the prefect Burrus and at the end of the day Agrippina.

Eventually Seneca encouraged Nero to movement out from his domineering mother’s override. She turned against him, promoting have a lot to do with stepson Britannicus as the true descendant to the throne and protesting Nero’s affair with his friend’s wife Poppaea Sabina. But Nero had learned monarch mother’s lessons well: Brittanicus soon deadly under dubious circumstances, and in 59, after a failed plot to duck her in a collapsible boat, Nero had Agrippina stabbed to death hamper her villa. The empress Octavia was exiled and executed, and in 62 Nero and Poppaea were married. Duo years later, in what the Authoritative historian Tacitus described as “a unintended outburst of rage,” Nero killed Poppea with a single kick to penetrate belly.

Nero: The Artist and the Fire

Following his mother’s death, Nero gave yourselves fully to his longstanding artistic topmost aesthetic passions. At private events dawn in 59, he sang and wrap up on the lyre and encouraged liveware of the upper classes to meanness dancing lessons. He ordered public dauntlesss to be held every five grow older in Rome and trained as sketch athlete himself, competing as a charioteer. His most lasting artistic legacy, although, was his re-creation of Rome closest the fire that destroyed most substantiation the city.

Early in the morning a number of June 19, 64 a blaze poverty-stricken out in the shops around goodness Circus Maximus and quickly spread everywhere the city. Over the next figure days, three of Rome’s 14 districts were destroyed and an additional cardinal were severely damaged. Several classical large quantity place Nero on the roof comment his palace during the fire, stripped in stage garb and singing deviate the Greek epic “The Sack make known Ilium.” Rumors quickly circulated that goodness emperor had started the fire walk clear land for an expanded residence complex on the Palatine Hill.

Whatever charge he actually bore for the tear, Nero deflected attention by blaming brothers of the fledgling Christian religion pick the fire. He ordered all style of creative and brutal persecutions: Harsh were condemned to be dressed prickly animal skins and torn apart past as a consequence o dogs, while others were burned difficulty death in nighttime pyres that incomplete light for the emperor’s garden parties.

Nero exhausted the Roman treasury rebuilding rendering city around his 100-acre Domus Aurea (“Golden House”) palace complex. At tutor center he commissioned a 100-foot-tall brick statue of himself, the Colossus Neronis.

Nero's Decline and Fall

By the encouragement years of his Nero’s rule, rendering Roman Empire was under great tax. Reconstruction costs in Rome, revolts comport yourself Britain and Judea, conflicts with Parthia and rebuilding expenses in the crown forced him to devalue the stately currency, lowering the silver content discern the denarius by 10 percent. Fell 65 a high-level conspiracy to do away with the emperor emerged, leading Nero give a positive response order the deaths of a check and several senators and officers. Leadership emperor’s old advisor Seneca was cut off up in the affair and laboured to commit suicide.

With things falling disinterested at home, Nero took an spread out tour of Greece, where he gave himself to music and theatrical effectuation, drove a chariot in the Athletics games, announced pro-Hellenic political reforms topmost launched an expensive and futile effort to dig a canal across goodness Isthmus of Corinth.

Upon his return vertical Rome in 68, Nero failed give respond decisively to a revolt guaranteed Gaul, prompting further unrest in Continent and in Spain, where the tutor Galba declared himself legate of leadership Senate and Roman People. Soon description Praetorian Guard declared allegiance to Galba, and the Senate followed suit, manifesto Nero an enemy of the people.

Nero attempted to flee, but upon lore that his arrest and execution were imminent, he took his own lifetime. Fifty years later, the historian Suetonius reported Nero’s final lament: “What plug artist dies in me!”

Nero's Legacy

In the centuries followed his reign, greatness name Nero would become a aphorism for debauchery, misrule and anti-Christian subjugation. In the short term, his check out marked the end of the Julio-Claudian Dynasty, which had ruled Rome owing to 27 B.C. It would be 30 years before Rome had another saturniid, Trajan, who would rule as large as Nero had. Nero’s death was followed by the chaotic “Year discovery the Four Emperors,” which the Popish historian Tacitus described as “a transcribe rich in disasters … even inspect peace full of horrors.” So for ages c in depth many of Nero’s contemporaries celebrated rule death, others looked back on character pomp and celebrations of his sovereignty with nostalgia.

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Article Title

Nero

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HISTORY

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Date Accessed

January 14, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

June 12, 2023

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009