South End Church of Christ :: Article: Emperor Nero

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Emperor Nero
Aaron Erhardt

Nero was the emperor of the Roman Empire from A.D. 54-68. He was a crude leader known for his extravagance and tyranny. Christians most remember Nero as a vicious persecutor of our early brethren. He brutally tortured them to death for crimes they did not commit.

"The barbarities exercised on the Christians were such as even excited the commiseration of the Romans themselves. Nero even refined upon cruelty, and contrived all manner of punishments for the Christians that the most infernal imagination could design" (John Foxe, Foxe's Book of Martyrs, p. 12).

Nero was born in A.D. 37. His birthplace was Antium, a town near Rome. His original name was Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus. He was the son of Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Agrippina the Younger. Nero's father died when he was three years old.

Agrippina married Emperor Claudius in A.D. 49. He was her third husband and she was his fourth wife. He was also her uncle. Claudius later adopted Nero as his own son, which meant that Nero took precedence over Claudius' own younger son Britannicus. Nero was tutored by the noted philosopher Seneca.

Nero married Octavia in A.D. 53. She was Claudius' daughter and his stepsister. It was an unhappy marriage that would eventually end in divorce and her execution.

"For Octavia, from the first, her marriage-day was a kind of funeral, brought, as she was, into a house where she had nothing but scenes of mourning" (Tacitus, Annals, 14:63).

Claudius died in A.D. 54. It is believed that Agrippina hired a woman named Locusta to poison a dish of mushrooms. This cleared the way for Nero, a teenager, to become the fifth emperor of Rome.

Though Agrippina exerted a great deal of influence over Nero early in his reign, her power soon waned. This led to an intense power-struggle that would ultimately bring their relationship to a tragic end.

Britannicus died in A.D. 55. It is believed that Nero hired Locusta to poison Britannicus at a dinner party in the palace. Nero attributed his stepbrother's violent reaction and subsequent death to epilepsy. This took care of a political rival, who Agrippina had threatened to present as the true heir to the throne.

Nero's relationship with his mother continued to deteriorate. She was forced out of the palace and deprived of all royal honors, including bodyguards. Then he made several attempts on her life, one of which involved rigging a boat to sink with her on it. Exasperated, he had her killed by an assassin in A.D. 59.

A turning point in the reign of Nero came in A.D. 62. His trusted advisor Burrus died of illness and his mentor Seneca retired in frustration. They were replaced by Rufus and Tigellinus, who made little effort to restrain Nero's excesses and debauchery. In that same year, Nero divorced, banished, and then killed Octavia; and married his mistress Poppaea. Poppaea had been married to Otho, who would later become emperor. She bore Nero a child named Claudia in A.D. 63, but the girl died in infancy.

A large section of Rome burned in A.D. 64 ("The Great Fire"). The fire lasted six days and left thousands homeless. A combination of summer winds, wooden buildings, and narrow streets contributed to the fire's massive devastation. Though Nero was at a country estate outside of Rome when the fire erupted, he returned to the city and offered assistance. Nevertheless, many suspected that he ordered the fire for his own building projects, and several sources report that Nero sang as he watched the city burn.

"Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called 'Christians' by the populace… Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired" (Tacitus, Annals, 15:44).

This was the first state-sponsored attack on members of the church. The brutality was so severe that the people began to feel sorry for the Christians. Peter and Paul may have suffered martyrdom in the wake of this persecution.

Nero used the area destroyed by the fire to build an expansive palace complex (“The Golden Palace”), which included a huge statue of the emperor, elaborate decorations, pleasure gardens, and an artificial lake. It was impressive but not popular among the people.

As for his physical appearance, Nero was not exceptional. Suetonius described him as blemished and potbellied.

"He was about the average height, his body marked with spots and malodorous, his hair light blond, his features regular rather than attractive, his eyes blue and somewhat weak, his neck over thick, his belly prominent, and his legs very slender" (Suetonius, The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Life of Nero, 51).

Nero loved to sing, and began performing on stage in public. This was much to the chagrin of the people, who felt that he was an embarrassment to the throne. This led to scandal. A famous conspiracy against Nero was devised and exposed in A.D. 65 ("The Pisoian Conspiracy"). Several distinguished men, led by a statesman named Piso, sought to "rescue the state" by killing the emperor. However, they were betrayed by a man named Milichus. This resulted in mass executions and forced suicides. Seneca and his nephew Lucan were among those who died. In that same year, Nero kicked his pregnant wife Poppaea to death in a fit of rage. Nero married a third woman named Messalina in A.D. 66. She kept a much lower profile in public than her predecessor and outlived her husband. Otho later planned to marry her, but died before doing so. The perverseness of Nero was extreme. He married a man named Pythagoras, whom he called his husband, and a man named Sporus, whom he called his wife. Sporus bore an uncanny resemblance to Poppaea and answered to her name.

"He castrated the boy Sporus and actually tried to make a woman out of him; and he married him with all the usual ceremonies, including a dowry and a bridal veil, took him to his house attended by a great throng, and treated him as his wife" (Suetonius, The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Life of Nero, 28).

Furthermore, Nero seduced married women, had romantic encounters with his own mother, and even devised a kind of game, in which he dressed in animal skins, sprang out of a cage, and attacked the private parts of men and women bound to stakes. The deranged Nero finally lost control of his empire in A.D. 68. The senate voted to condemn him to death by flogging, but he committed suicide first. His private secretary Epaphroditus assisted him. (Epaphroditus was later executed by Domitian for failing to prevent Nero's suicide). Nero's last words were, "What an artist the world is losing in me." Nero was barely in his thirties. The death of Nero led to civil war in Rome. It also marked the end of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. His reign was during a crucial time for the church, and he was responsible for a vicious persecution of faithful Christians. Nero may not be mentioned by name in Scripture, but he is referenced (Acts 25:11; 27:24; Philippians 4:22).