Nero (Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus), Roman Emperor

NERO (Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus), Roman Emperor. - N. at Anzio on 15 Dec. 37 A.D., son of Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Agrippina, d. at Rome on 9 June 68. At the age of 11 he was adopted by the emperor Claudius, who entrusted him to the philosopher Seneca.

Proclaimed emperor in October 54, in the first five years of his rule he showed himself rather mild, clement and munificent; but afterwards he let himself be dominated by his passions and, though professing himself a lover of poetry and of Hellenistic arts, he set no bridle on his mania for spectacles, on pomp, on cruelty. On mere suspicion, he had his mother, two wives, his tutors and friends put to death. Hated by all, he escaped a first conspiracy in 65 by smothering it in blood, but in 68 the soldiers stationed in Spain revolted and acclaimed Galba emperor, who was recognized by the senate and the praetorians. N., forced to flee, took refuge in the villa of one of his freedmen, where he killed himself.

The pretext for raging against the Christians was the fire of Rome in July 64. The fire, which broke out near the Circus Maximus and was fed by the wind, swept over the whole city; of the 14 regions into which it was divided, 3 were completely destroyed, 7 more or less devastated. At the beginning of the fire N. was at Anzio; he hastened back to Rome and, to appease the rioting people, had grain brought from the neighboring cities, built shelters, and proclaimed public supplications to the gods. Despite this, popular hatred accused him as the author of the fire: indeed there was no lack of evidence to that effect. To divert the accusation from himself, N. named the Christians as its authors (Tacitus, Annales, XV, 38-43), and they were punished.

N. ordered public spectacles in his gardens near the Vatican, in which the Christians were crucified, wrapped in animal skins and exposed to the bites of dogs, subjected to cruel and shameful torments, smeared with combustible materials and then burned alive as torches for the nighttime illumination of the games. The emperor on his chariot rode through the gardens enjoying the spectacle, mingling with the crowd, but the people murmured against him because they knew that so much slaughter and so much blood was spilled for no public utility, but for the cruelty of one man alone (Annales, XV, 44). Nero's persecution will be treated in the v. PERSECUZIONI.

1930; E. Holl, s. v. in Pauly-Wissowa, Suppl. III, coll. 349-94; A. Weigall, Nero, Kaiser von Rom, Leipzig 1936; M. A. Levi, N. e i suoi tempi, Milan 1949.

Agostino Amore