General Notes

Name Prefix:<NPFX> Emperor
Nero was Emperor at that tender age of seventeen! He never quite figured out whether he wanted to be an artist or a murderer, so his reign was full of both bloodshed and art. Like so many of the Emperors before and after him he was paranoid and killed virtually all his relatives,including his step-brother, his wife and his own mother who had procured him the purple. In another wave of terror, Nero executed many noble or ordered them to commit suicide. This led to a conspiracy against him that failed and cost many more lives, among them Nero's tutor Seneca and the poet Lucan.

The common people loved Nero because he lavishly provided them with bread and circus entertainment and even personally performed on stage. But most Senators, obligated to sit through his concerts, never reconciled themselves to his 'artistic tyranny.' It is believed that Nero sang a poem he composed about the fall of Troy while playing the lyre and watching Rome burn. When he failed to quell the revolts in Gaul and Spain, the Senators, the people, and even the Praetorians deserted him.Nero was forced to flee from the city and commit suicide. His dying words were, 'What an artist dies in me.'

He was emperor from 54 to 68 AD.

Nero (AD37-68), fifth emperor of Rome and the last of the Julio-Claudianline.
Born Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus on December 15, 37, at Antiumand originally named Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, Nero was the son of the consul Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus (died about 40) and Agrippina theYounger, great-granddaughter of Emperor Augustus. In 49  Agrippina married her uncle, Emperor Claudius I, and the following year shepersuaded him to adopt her son, whose name was then changed. Later,Claudius married Nero to his daughter Octavia and marked him out forsuccession, bypassing his own son, Britannicus. On Claudius's death (54),the Praetorian Guards, under their prefect Sextus Afranius Burrus,Agrippina's agent, declared Nero emperor at the age of 17.
The initial five years of Nero's reign, guided by Burrus and thephilosopher Seneca, Nero's tutor, were marked by moderation and clemency,although Nero had his rival Britannicus poisoned. In 59 he had his motherput to death for her criticism of his mistress, Poppaea Sabina. In 62 hedivorced (and later executed) Octavia and married Poppaea. Burrus died,possibly poisoned, and Seneca retired.
In July 64, two-thirds of Rome burned while Nero was at Antium. Inancient times he was charged with being the incendiary, but most modernscholars doubt the truth of that accusation. According to some accounts(now considered spurious), he laid the blame on the Christians-few atthat time-and persecuted them. He sheltered the homeless, however, andrebuilt the city with fire precautions. The building programs, like thespectacles and free grain he provided for the populace, were financed byplundering Italy and the provinces. Viewing himself as an artist and areligious visionary, he scandalized the army and aristocracy when heappeared publicly as an actor in religious dramas.
Meanwhile, the empire was in turmoil. Nero established Armenia as abuffer state against Parthia, but only after a costly, unsuccessful war.Revolts broke out in Britain (60-61) and in Judea (66-70). In 65 GaiusCalpurnius Piso led a conspiracy against the emperor; 18 of the 41prominent Romans implicated in the plot perished, among them Seneca andhis nephew, the epic poet Lucan. Poppaea was kicked to death by Nero, andhe married Statilia Messalina after executing her husband. In 68 theGallic and Spanish legions, along with the Praetorian Guards, roseagainst him, and he fled Rome. Declared a public enemy by the Senate, hecommitted suicide on June 9, 68, near Rome.