Nero Clavdius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (lat.Nero Clavdius Caesar Avgustus Germanicus). Born December 15, 37 - died June 9, 68. Birth name - Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus (Latin Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus). Roman emperor since October 13, 54, the last of the Julian-Claudian dynasty.
Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, who had the name Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus at birth, was born on December 15, 37. He went down in history simply as Nero.
Belonged by birth to the ancient plebeian family of Domitius. According to him, his ancestors were distinguished by a tough disposition and showed virtues and vices to an extreme extent characteristic of Roman upbringing.
The Domitian clan was divided into two families - Calvin and Ahenobarbus. The nickname of the second (Latin "Redbeard") goes back to the legend about the meeting of Lucius Domitius with two twin youths of divine appearance (a hint of the Dioscuri), who ordered to report to Rome about some important victory. As proof of their divinity, they touched Domitius' hair, and the black hair immediately turned red - this sign forever remained with his descendants.
Nero's ancestors were awarded seven consulates, a triumph, two censorship and, finally, ranked among the patricians. The great-great-great-grandfather of Nero Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus tried to bring to trial, accusing him of abuses against customs and "divine ordinances."
Nero's grandfather, Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, an outstanding military leader of the time of Augustus, awarded with triumph, consul 16 BC. e., in the same year received patrician status according to the law of Sennius. His son, Gnaeus Domitius, consul of 32, in 28, by order of Tiberius, married the great-granddaughter of Octavian Augustus, Julia Agrippina.
Nine years later, the couple had their first child, Lucius Domitius. His father, according to Suetonius' testimony, "in response to the congratulations of his friends, exclaimed that nothing could be born from him and Agrippina, except horror and grief for humanity."
Lucius Domitius was born a little more than six months after the death of Tiberius. The Roman emperor was declared the brother of Lucius's mother, Julia Agrippina, better known as Agrippina the Younger.
Agrippina spent most of her time at the court of Caligula, as the emperor was very close to his sisters, especially the eldest, Julia Drusilla. The reason for this attitude of Caligula to the sisters lay in the relationship that existed between them. Almost all ancient historians almost unanimously declare that Caligula indulged in debauchery with his sisters, and also did not resist their promiscuous relationships with other men. Feasts on the Palatine Hill, which were necessarily attended by the sisters, often ended in depraved orgies.
Agrippina's marriage was not an obstacle to the life she led. At this time, young Nero with his father, who was most likely almost 30 years older than Agrippina, lived in a villa between Anzio (modern Anzio, Italy) and Rome. In 38, Caligula's beloved sister Julia Drusilla died.
In AD 39, both sisters and their lover Lepidus were accused of conspiracy to overthrow the emperor and seize power in favor of Lepidus. Also Caligula accused them all of debauchery and adultery.
Agrippina's involvement in this conspiracy made it clear that she viewed Lucius Domitius as a completely legitimate future emperor. She was one of the key figures in the conspiracy, and, if successful, claimed the place of the wife of the new princeps. In this case, Lucius Domitius became the sole heir, since Lepidus did not have his own children.
After a short trial, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus was sentenced to death and executed. The sisters were sent to the Pontine Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea. Caligula appropriated and sold all of their property. It was forbidden to give them any help. To feed themselves, Agrippina and Julia Livilla were forced to dive for sponges on the seabed in the vicinity of the islands, and then sell what they collected.
Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, along with his son, despite the exposed conspiracy in which his wife participated, continued to be in Rome or in their country villas. However, in 40 he died of dropsy in Pyrgi (present-day commune of Santa Marinella, village of Santa Severa, Italy). All his property went to Caligula.
Little Nero was given to the education of his aunt, Domitia Lepidus the Younger.
Agrippina paves the way for Nero to power
A year later, on January 24, 41, Caligula was killed by the rebellious Praetorians. His uncle, who had long been considered mentally disabled, Claudius, came to power. The new emperor returned from exile his nieces - Agrippina and Julia Livilla. However, all Agrippina's property was confiscated, her husband died and she had nowhere to return. Then Claudius arranges for Agrippina's marriage to Guy Sallust Passienus Crispus. For this marriage, Gaius Sallust had to divorce another aunt of Nero - Domitia Lepida the Elder, to whom he was previously married.
Gaius Sallust is a domineering and respected man in Rome, twice became consul. Together with Agrippina and Nero, they lived in Rome. And although at first Agrippina completely aloof herself from politics, Messalina - the wife of Claudius - even then saw in her a serious rival, and in Nero - a rival to her own son, Britannica. Messalina sends hired assassins to the house of Passien Crisp, who were supposed to strangle the boy while sleeping. However, according to legend, the murderers fled in horror when they saw that Nero's dream was guarded by a snake at his pillow. Messalina even after continued attempts to destroy Agrippina and Nero, but Claudius for some reason in this case did not support the aspirations of his wife.
In 47, Gaius Sallust died. A rumor spread throughout Rome that Agrippina had poisoned her husband in order to take possession of his wealth. After the death of Crispus, Nero and Agrippina are the only heirs to his enormous fortune. Agrippina was very popular with the people. After the death of Sallust, a circle of people dissatisfied with Messalina formed around her. One of the most influential among them was the freedman Mark Antony Pallas, treasurer of the empire who became Agrippina's lover.
In 48, Messalina prepared a conspiracy and tried to remove Claudius from power in favor of her lover, Guy Celia. This coup plan was prepared by her out of fear that Claudius would transfer power not to her son, Britannicus, but to Nero. However, the coup attempt was suppressed, and Messalina and Celius were executed.
After the death of Messalina, Pallas proposed Agrippina to Claudius as a new wife. Also, her candidacy was supported by another influential freedman who exposed Messalina and ordered her arrest - Tiberius Claudius Narcissus. After the execution of Messalina, he feared the revenge of Britannicus, if he became emperor. If Agrippina became Claudius's wife, it was clear that the next emperor would most likely be Nero.
At first Claudius hesitated. However, the persuasion of Pallas, mainly about strengthening the dynasty, as well as the passion, pressure and beauty of Agrippina did their job. By that time, Agrippina had just turned 33 years old. Pliny the Elder writes that she was "a beautiful and respected woman, yet ruthless, ambitious, despotic and domineering." He also says that she had wolf fangs, which are a sign of good luck.
The emperor agreed with the words: "I agree, because this is my daughter, raised by me, born and raised on my knees." On January 1, 49, Claudius and Agrippina were married.
Not yet the wife of the emperor, Agrippina upset the engagement of Claudius' daughter, Claudia Octavia, to Lucius Junius Silanus Torquatus, her distant relative. Together with the censor Lucius Vitellius, they accused Silanus of adultery with his sister, Junia Calvina, to whom one of Vitellius's sons, Lucius, was married.
Silanus was forced to commit suicide, Calvin received a divorce and was sent into exile. Thus, Claudia Octavia became free for Nero. Later, in 54 AD, Agrippina ordered the murder of Silan's older brother, Mark, in order to protect Nero from the revenge of the Silans.
In 50, Agrippina persuaded Claudius to adopt Nero, which was done. Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus became known as Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus. Claudius officially recognized him as his heir, and also engaged him to his daughter, Claudia Octavia. At the same time, Agrippina returned the Stoic Seneca from exile to become the teacher of the young heir. Among the philosophers-mentors, less often mentioned is Alexander of Eg.
At that time, Agrippina's main activities were aimed at strengthening the position of her son as an heir. She achieved this mainly by placing people loyal to her in government posts. With her full influence on the emperor, it was not difficult. Thus, Sextus Aphranius Burr - Gaul, who was not so long ago an ordinary educator of Nero, was appointed to the key post of Prefect of the Praetorian Guard.
Agrippina deprives Britannica of all rights to power, removes him from the court. At 51, she ordered the execution of Britannicus' mentor, Sossebius, who was outraged by her behavior, the adoption of Nero and the isolation of Britannicus. On June 9, 53, Nero married Claudia. However, the emperor begins to become disillusioned with his marriage to Agrippina. He again draws Britannica closer to him and begins to prepare him for power, increasingly cool towards Nero and Agrippina.
Seeing this, Agrippina realized that Nero's only chance to gain power was to do it as quickly as possible. On October 13, 54, Claudius died after eating a plate of mushrooms brought by Agrippina. However, some ancient historians believed that Claudius died a natural death.
Nero's rise to power
On the day of the death of Claudius, the Praetorians recognized Nero as emperor. Under the name Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, the 16-year-old newly-born emperor received practically unlimited power over the empire from his mother.
In the early years of his reign, being very young, the emperor was completely under the influence of Agrippina and Burra. It got to the point that Agrippina expressed a desire to sit next to the emperor at official ceremonies (for example, receiving ambassadors), and only Seneca's intervention saved the situation.
In 55, young Nero first spoke against the will of Agrippina. Seneca and Burr were dissatisfied with the complete influence of Agrippina on the emperor, and a split occurred between the former allies. At the same time, Nero became close to the freedwoman Claudia Acta. Most likely, brought by Claudius from his campaigns in Asia Minor, she knew the palace order quite well. Seeing that Nero was interested in her, Burr and Seneca supported this connection in every possible way, hoping to influence Nero through the Act.
Agrippina was against her son's beloved and publicly reprimanded Nero for having contacted a former slave. However, Nero had already come out of her obedience. Then Agrippina began to weave intrigues, intending to declare Britannicus the rightful emperor. But her plan failed. In February 55, Britannicus was poisoned by order of Nero.
After that, Nero, listening to his mentors, accused Agrippina of slandering him and Octavia and expelled her from the palace, depriving all honors, as well as bodyguards. When Agrippina tried to stop him, he threatened that in case of her disobedience, he would renounce power and leave for Rhodes himself. Following Agrippina, Pallas lost his place at court.
The fall of Pallas was, it would seem, the complete victory of the party of Seneca and Burr, and the defeat of Agrippina. However, both Burr and Seneca were indicted along with Pallas.
Burr and Pallas were charged with treason and conspiracy to transfer power to Favst Cornelius Sulla Felix, while Seneca was accused of embezzlement. Seneca's eloquence helped him to divert all accusations from himself and Burra, and they were not only fully justified, but also retained their position. However, both of them were given a clear signal that from now on, Nero would not tolerate pressure on himself. So he became a full-fledged ruler of the state.
In 58, Nero became close to Poppea Sabina, a noble, intelligent and beautiful representative of the Roman nobility. At that time she was married to Otho, a friend of Nero and the future emperor. Agrippina saw her as a dangerous and calculating rival in the struggle for power. She tried with all her might to return Nero to Claudia Octavia, or at least Acte. But Nero achieved the divorce of Poppea and Otho and sent the latter out of Rome as governor of Lusitania. When Poppaea became pregnant in 62, Nero divorced Octavia, accusing her of infertility, and twelve days later married Poppaea.
At the end of 58, rumors spread that Agrippina was trying to remove her son from power and hand her over to Guy Rubellius Plautus, the son of Julia Livia, daughter of Livilla. On the female side, Rubellius Plautus was the direct heir to Tiberius. Upon learning of this, Nero decides to kill Agrippina.
He tried to poison her three times, but abandoned these attempts, learning that she was taking Teriak, sent a freedman to stab her and even tried to bring down the ceiling and walls of her room while she slept. However, she happily escaped death.
In March 59, in Bayah, Nero invited her to take a trip on a ship that was supposed to collapse on the way. However, Agrippina was almost the only one who managed to escape and swim to the shore - her past as a diving for sponges affected. In anger, Nero ordered to openly kill her.
Agrippina, seeing the soldiers, understood her fate and asked to stab her in the stomach, where the womb is, thereby making it clear that she repented that she had given birth to such a son. Nero burned her body that same night. To the Senate, he sent a message composed by Seneca, which said that Agrippina had unsuccessfully tried to kill Nero and committed suicide. The Senate congratulated Nero on his deliverance and ordered prayers to be performed. Later, the emperor allowed slaves to bury her ashes in a modest tomb in Misena (now part of Naples).
Then Nero admitted more than once that the image of his mother haunts him at night. To get rid of her ghost, he even hired Persian magicians. There were legends that long before Nero became emperor, Agrippina told the Chaldeans that her son would become emperor, but at the same time would become the cause of her death. Her answer was: "Let him kill, if only he ruled."
Before rapprochement with the Act, Nero did not show himself in the public arena, completely shifting the functions of government to the Senate. He himself, in the period from late 54 to early 55, was engaged in visiting brothels and taverns. However, after the death of Britannica and the actual release from the care of his mother, his attitude towards administrative duties changed.
From 55 to 60, Nero became consul four times. According to most Roman historians, during these years the emperor showed himself to be an excellent administrator and calculating ruler, in contrast to the second half of his reign. Almost all of his actions during this period were aimed at making the life of ordinary citizens easier and strengthening his power due to his popularity among the people.
The reign and reforms of Nero
At this time, the Senate, at the insistence of Nero, adopted a number of laws limiting the amount of bail and fines, and the fees of lawyers. Nero also sided with the freedmen when the Senate was hearing a law to allow patrons to again take away freedom from their freedman clients. Moreover, Nero went further and vetoed the law extending the guilt of one slave to all slaves belonging to the same master.
During the same period, he tried to limit corruption, the scope of which had a very negative effect on ordinary residents of the state. After numerous complaints about the poor attitude of tax collectors towards the lower classes, the functions of tax collectors were shifted to those from these classes. Nero forbade public receptions to any magistrates and procurators, justifying this by the fact that such manifestations of well-being embittered the people. There have been a large number of arrests of officials on corruption and extortion charges.
To further improve the standard of living of the inhabitants, Nero intended to abolish all indirect taxes. However, the Senate managed to convince the emperor that such actions would lead to the bankruptcy of the state. As a compromise, taxes were cut from 4.5% to 2.5%, and all indirect and hidden taxes were announced to citizens. Also, customs duties were canceled for merchants who imported food by sea.
These actions brought Nero great popularity among the people. To further popularize his figure, Nero built folk gymnasiums and several theaters in which Greek troupes played. In Rome, gladiatorial battles of unprecedented scale began to be often held.
In 60, a grand festival was held for the first time "Quinquinalia Neronia"(lat.Quinquennialia Neronia), dedicated to the fifth anniversary of the reign of Nero. The festival lasted for several days and consisted of three parts - musical and poetic, when readers, reciters, poets and singers competed; sports, which was analogous to the Greek Olympics; and equestrian - riders' competitions. The second "Quinquinalia Nero" took place 5 years later - in 65, and was dedicated to the tenth anniversary of the reign of the emperor. The festival was planned to be held every five years - translated from Latin Quinquennial- "Every fifth."
In foreign policy, Nero limited himself to strengthening the borders previously conquered during the time of Caligula and Claudius. The only war that took place during the reign of Nero was the war between Rome and Parthia in 58-63. It flared up because of Armenia - a buffer state between the two empires.
The status of Armenia as a country under the Roman protectorate was confirmed even under Tiberius, in the 20s of the 1st century. However, in 37 AD, after the death of Tiberius, the Parthians brought their protege, Orodes, to power. He remained on the throne until the age of 51. After his death, the Romans elevated to the throne Radamist, who turned out to be a tyrant and was considered a usurper in Armenia.
In 53, as a result of a revolt fueled by the Parthians, Radamist was overthrown and forced to flee. The Armenian throne was taken by the younger brother of the Parthian king Vologes I - Tiridates. With the help of Roman money and the unusually cold winter of 53-54 years, Radomist managed to force the Parthians to leave, and to silence the discontented and regain the throne. While the Parthians were deciding what to do next, Claudius died in Rome. Not seeing a serious enemy in 16-year-old Nero, Vologuez decided on open hostilities and at the beginning of 55, again, openly, returned the Armenian throne to Tiridat.
Rome's reaction was adequate. Proconsul of Asia, Galatia and Cappadocia was appointed the military leader Gnei Domitius Corbulo, who had distinguished himself during the reign of Claudius in Germany. Under his command were two legions - III Gallic and VI Iron. Two more legions, X Guarding the Strait and XII Lightning Fast, were at the disposal of Gai Durmiya Ummidius Square, the proconsul of Syria.
For almost three years, Corbulo negotiated with representatives of Vologuez, preparing his troops. But at the beginning of 58, the Romans were suddenly attacked by the Parthians. With the help of local pro-Roman tribes, the Romans managed to repel the attack and go to war.
During 58-60 years, Corbulo and Kvadrat captured the capital of Armenia, Artaxata, and the following year crossed the desert in northern Mesopotamia and crossed the Tigris. After the seizure of Tigranakert, a pro-Roman ruler, the great-great-grandson of Herod the Great, Tigran VI, was finally seated on the Armenian throne.
In 60, after the death of the Square, Corbulo became the procurator of Cappadocia. In the spring of 62, the Parthians began to try to recapture Tigranakert, and Corbulo, due to the lack of reinforcements, had to conclude an armistice with Vologuez. In the summer of 62, finally, a new commander arrived to replace the Square - Lucius Cesennius Pet.
Having crossed the Euphrates, Corbulo was able to invade Mesopotamia when he received news that Pet was trapped and surrounded in Randey near Arsamosate. Arriving in Melitena, however, Corbulo was late. In the winter, negotiations began, which ended in vain. In the spring of 63, Corbulo again entered Armenia at the head of four legions. However, due to the stalemate (Vologuez and Tiridates realized that the war could no longer be won, and Corbulo did not want to fight in the desert), an agreement was again concluded (in Randey) on the condition that Tiridates becomes the Armenian king, but as a vassal of Rome, he must head to Rome to receive the royal tiara from the hands of Nero.
This war made Nero very popular in the eastern provinces. And the conditions of peace with the Parthians were observed for more than 50 years - until Trajan invaded Armenia in 114.
The second rather serious military conflict that occurred during the time of Nero was the uprising of the Icenean queen Boudicca in the lands of Britain recently annexed to the Roman Empire. The uprising was suppressed by Guy Suetonius Paulin, who was the governor of Britain in the years 58-62 with the rank of propraetor.
The uprising began in 61. The rebels took Camulodun (now Colchester, England). The city was besieged by Quintus Petillius Cerialus, but the IX Legion was defeated and Cerialus had to flee. The rebels went to London (modern. London, England). Suetonius Paulinus also went there, interrupting the campaign against the druids in Mona (modern Anglesey), but judged that he would not have enough forces to defend the city. The city was abandoned and plundered by the rebels. The next victim, who fell under the wrath of the Britons, was Verulamy (modern. St. Albans). The total number of victims has exceeded 80,000.
Suetonius Paulinus grouped the forces of the XIV Legion with the units of the XX Legion, as well as volunteers dissatisfied with the actions of the rebels. In total, Paulin managed to collect 10,000 people, while Boudicca's troops numbered about 230,000.
Paulin fought on present-day Watling Street in the West Midlands. Roman tactics (the battle took place on a narrow road, there was a forest on both sides - and, thus, the Romans could hold back the many times superior enemy forces with a narrow front, while archers from the forest inflicted irreparable losses) and discipline took over the numerical superiority of the Britons. The Britons cut off the escape route to themselves, placing a wagon train with members of their families behind their army. writes that the Romans killed more than 80,000 Britons, in turn losing no more than 400 people. Boudicca, seeing the outcome of the battle, was poisoned.
In general, it is worth noting that Nero and his advisers competently selected people for key positions in the state, in pursuit of the goal of strengthening the country. The governors in the various border provinces were extraordinary personalities who later had a very significant impact on Roman history. So, in addition to Corbulo, Square and Paulin, during the time of Nero, Servius Sulpicius Galba, Guy Julius Vindex, Lucius Verginius Rufus, Mark Salvius Otho, Titus Flavius Vespasian took the lead roles.
It was Vespasian who was sent in 67 by Nero to suppress the Jewish uprising that broke out a year earlier in Judea. The uprising was suppressed after the death of Nero, in 70. This appointment can be considered a key one in the fate of the empire - after Nero's suicide, the Jewish legions declared Vespasian emperor and from there he set off on a campaign against Rome, which was crowned with success.
Nero's behavior changed dramatically in the early 60s. In 62, Nero's longtime mentor, Burr, died. The emperor actually retired from governing the state, a period of despotism and arbitrariness began.
Seneca was again charged with embezzlement, and this time he voluntarily retired from public affairs. Nero's ex-wife, Octavia, was executed. Proceedings began to insult the imperial greatness, as a result, many Romans died. Including were executed and the old political opponents of Nero - Pallant, Rubellius Plautus, Felix Sulla. In general, according to Suetonius Tranquill, "he already executed without measure and analysis anyone and for anything."
At the same time, persecution of the followers of a new religion, Christianity, began in Rome. Basically, adherents of Christianity at that time were slaves and freedmen, as well as representatives of the lower strata of society, which Nero stood up to protect in the first years of his reign. Although religion was not officially banned, the worship of a new god practically deprived the state of any protection.
The reign of Nero was marked by the strengthening of Hellenism in Rome. The emperor was interested in everything oriental, including religion. So, Nero arranged two magnificent "weddings": with the boy Spore (as "husband") and with the priest Pythagoras as "wife". These and other ceremonies, according to historians, were rites of initiation into Mithraism.
The Jews believe that Nero was the first and only Roman emperor to convert to Judaism.
In 66, the Jewish war broke out. According to the Talmud, Nero arrived in Jerusalem. He asked a passing boy to repeat a verse he had learned that day. The boy replied: “And I will fulfill My vengeance on Edom by the hand of My people Israel; and they will act in Edom according to My anger and My indignation, and they will know My vengeance, says the Lord God ”(Ezek. 25:14). The emperor was horrified, believing that God wants to destroy the Jerusalem temple, and blame for this on Nero himself. After that, Nero left the city and, in order to avoid punishment, converted to Judaism.
The Talmud adds that Reb Meir Baal Hanes, a prominent supporter of the Bar Kokhba revolt against Roman rule, was a descendant of Nero. However, Roman and Greek sources nowhere report Nero's trip to Jerusalem or his conversion to Judaism, a religion that the Romans considered barbaric and immoral. There is also no documentary evidence that Nero had descendants who survived infancy: his only child, Claudia Augusta, died at the age of 4 months.
In Christian tradition, Nero is considered the first state organizer of the persecution of Christians and the execution of the apostles Peter and Paul.
Secular historical sources report the persecution of Christians during the reign of Nero. Tacitus wrote that after the fire in 64, the emperor staged mass executions in Rome.
Suetonius also mentions the punishment of Christians, although he raises this in praise of Nero and does not associate it with the fire.
According to early Christian sources, Nero was the first persecutor of Christians. The tradition of the execution of the apostles Peter and Paul is also connected with the persecution. The apocryphal "Acts of Peter" (c. 200) says that Peter was crucified upside down in Rome during the reign of Nero, but without his knowledge. Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 275-339) wrote that Paul was beheaded in Rome under Nero. In the IV century, a number of writers already state that Nero killed Peter and Paul.
Also, some early Christians believed that Nero did not die or that he would rise again and be the Antichrist ...
Gradually, Nero began to move away from governing the country. More and more, his interests focused on art.
Creativity of Nero
Nero loved to sing, composed plays and poems, enjoyed participation in competitions of poets, as well as sports in chariots. However, Tacitus notes that the words of praise uttered by Nero at the funeral of Claudius were composed by Seneca. Suetonius says that in the manuscripts of his poems there were many corrections, blots and insertions.
For a long time, the emperor worked on an epic poem about the death of Troy.
Several fragments of Nero's works have survived, as well as brief mentions, the line “the neck of the Kythera dove shines with every movement” was praised by Seneca.
In his I satire (92-95, 99-102), Persius quoted his own verses, which his scholastics attributed to Nero, but this is a controversial statement.
At first, the emperor played music at feasts. However, with the help of court sycophants, believing in his talent, in 64 Nero made his first public appearance in Naples. Since then, he has participated in almost all poetry and music competitions, where he invariably “won victories”.
In 65, the emperor performed in front of all of Rome in the second festival "Quinquinalia Neronius".
Fire in Rome and Nero
On the night of July 19, 64, one of the largest fires in the history of Rome took place. The fire spread from the shops located on the southeastern side of the Circus Maximus. By morning, most of the city was engulfed in flames. Nero left Rome for Antius a few days before the start of the fire.
Suetonius says that Nero himself was the initiator of the fire, and that arsonists with torches were seen in the courtyards. According to legends, when the emperor was informed about the fire, he drove towards Rome and watched the fire from a safe distance. At the same time, Nero was dressed in a theatrical costume, played the lyre and recited a poem about the death of Troy.
However, modern historians are more inclined to rely on the description of events given by Tacitus, who survived the fire as a child. According to him, Nero, having received the news of the fire, immediately went to Rome and at his own expense organized special teams to save the city and its inhabitants. He later developed a new urban development plan. It established the minimum distance between houses, the minimum width of new streets, the requirement to build only stone buildings in the city. In addition, all new houses were to be built in such a way that the main exit was facing the street, and not into courtyards and gardens.
The fire raged for five days. After its completion, it turned out that of the fourteen districts of the city, only four survived. Three were destroyed to the ground, in the other seven only insignificant remnants of collapsed and half-burnt buildings survived (according to the descriptions in the Annals of Tacitus, Book XV, chapters 38 - 44). Nero opened his palaces for the homeless people, and also took everything necessary to ensure the supply of food to the city and avoid starvation among the survivors.
In order to restore Rome, huge funds were required. The provinces of the empire were levied with a one-time tribute, which made it possible to rebuild the capital in a relatively short time.
In memory of the fire, Nero laid a new palace - "Nero's Golden Palace"... The palace was not completed, but even what was built was impressive in its size: the complex of buildings, according to various sources, was located on an area of 40 to 120 hectares, and the center of the entire structure was a 35-meter statue of Nero, called "Colossus of Nero"... This palace complex is still the largest of all the royal residences built in Europe, and in the world it is second only to the “Forbidden City” - the residence of the Chinese emperors.
Most likely, Nero had nothing to do with the fire, but it was necessary to find the guilty ones - they were Christians. A few days after the fire, Christians were accused of setting fire to the city and their mass executions took place, organized spectacularly and in a variety of ways.
Piso's conspiracy against Nero
At the same time, the confrontation between Nero and the Senate began. The senators remembered that in 54, having received power, Nero promised them almost the same privileges that they had during the times of the republic. However, gradually the emperor concentrated more and more power in his hands. By 65, it turned out that the Senate had no real power at all.
This confrontation resulted in a conspiracy, the key figure of which was Gaius Calpurnius Piso - a famous statesman, orator, philanthropist. He was able to captivate with his ideas several high-ranking senators, advisers and friends of Nero - Seneca, Petronius, the poet Mark Anneus Lucan, horsemen, as well as one of the prefects of the Praetorian guard, Fennius Rufus, who ruled the praetorians together with Ophonius Tigellinus, who was loyal to Nero. Also, two more high-ranking praetorians were involved in the conspiracy - the tribune of the praetorian cohort Subrius Flavus and the centurion Sulpicius Asper.
The motives of all the conspirators were different - from a simple change of the monarch to the restoration of the republic. The main inspirations were Asper and Pizon. Flav and Rufus were to provide support for the Praetorians. Senators who are part of the conspirators - support of the Senate. The question of what to do after the overthrow of Nero remained open.
Everything was almost ready when Nero became aware of what was happening. The first, because of whom the authorities became aware of the impending assassination attempt, was the freedwoman Epicharida. She was the mistress of Junius Anneus Gallio, Seneca's older brother. Determined to benefit the conspirators, as well as dissatisfied with the indecision with which they acted, she decided to win over to her side the navar Volusy Proculus, the chiliarch (from the Greek χιλίαρχος - "thousand-man") of the fleet stationed in Misena. She got along with Proculus and found out that he was unhappy with Nero's cold attitude. Epicharida revealed the plot of the conspirators to Proculus, without naming, however, names.
Instead of joining the conspiracy, Proculus reported Epicharis to Nero. However, Epicharida, even in the face of the emperor, did not betray the conspirators, and accused Proculus of slander. Then the conspirators, alarmed by what was happening, determined the date of the assassination attempt on Nero - it was to take place in Rome, on the day of the games dedicated to Ceres. At the same time, it was decided that Piso would become the new princeps if the Praetorians recognized him, in which case he would have to marry Claudius's daughter, Claudia Antonia, in order to ensure the continuity of power.
On the eve of the established day, the freedman of one of the conspirators, Flavius Stsevin, Milch, became aware of the conspiracy. Early in the morning Milch reported to Nero about his patron. Within a few days, all the participants in the conspiracy were captured. Piso committed suicide. As a result of the investigation, more than 40 people were arrested, 19 of them belonged to the senatorial class. At least 20 people were executed or forced to commit suicide, including Seneca, Petronius, Fennius Rufus.
Edward Radzinsky. Nero. Beast from the abyss
After the disclosure of the Piso conspiracy, Nero became suspicious, even more distanced himself from the government, entrusting these duties to his temporary workers. Nero himself focused on poetry and sports, taking part in various relevant contests and competitions. So, he participated in the Olympic Games in '67, driving ten horses harnessed to a chariot.
Back in the early 60s, orgies, forgotten since the time of Caligula, resumed on the Palatine, which by 67-68 reached an unprecedented scale and lasted for several days.
In 64, before the fire of Rome, a plague broke out in Italy, claiming a huge number of lives. In 65, Nero performed Quinquinalia.
In 67, he ordered to dig a canal through the Isthmus of Corinth, the construction of which was planned even under Tiberius, and Nero personally participated in the beginning of construction, the first to throw away a clod of earth with a shovel.
Suicide of Nero
The restoration of Rome after the fire, Quinquinalia, overcoming the consequences of the plague, the construction of the "Golden House" and the canal undermined the economy of the state. The provinces were depleted and this led to an uprising.
In March 68, the governor of Lugdun Gaul, Gaius Julius Vindex, dissatisfied with the economic policies of Nero and the taxes imposed on the provinces, raised his legions against the emperor. To suppress the uprising was entrusted to the governor of Upper Germany, Lucius Verginius Rufus. Vindex understood that he would not be able to cope with the troops of Rufus on his own, so he called for the help of Servius Sulpicius Galba, the governor of Tarracon Spain, who was popular in the troops, and invited him to declare himself emperor. On such conditions, Galba supported the uprising. The legions in Spain and Gaul proclaimed him emperor and he moved on to join Vindex, but did not have time.
Verginius Rufus was in no hurry to oppose Vindex, taking a wait and see attitude. But in May 68, his troops, camped at Vesonzio (modern Besançon, France), unauthorizedly attacked Vindex's legions on the march and easily defeated them.
The remnants of the rebel legions fled and joined Galba. The troops of Virginius Rufus proclaimed their commander emperor, but Rufus continued to wait. In the end, he let Galba's army through on its way to Rome, announcing that he was placing himself and his legions in the hands of the Senate.
The Senate declared Galba an enemy of the people, but despite this, his popularity continued to grow. In the end, the second prefect of the Praetorians, Gaius Nymphidius Sabinus, and most of the guards took his side. Nero left Rome and headed towards Ostia in the hope of gathering a fleet and army in the eastern provinces loyal to him. Galba's legions continued their movement towards Rome.
When news of the situation reached Nero and his entourage, the latter openly ceased to obey the orders of the emperor. When the rumor reached them that Tigellinus and the Praetorians agreed to swear allegiance to Galba, it became clear that the days of Nero were numbered. At this time, Nero was in Servilian Gardens, where the news of the threat overtook him and he was forced to return to the palace in the Palatine.
Nero returned to Rome, to the palace on the Palatine. There was no security. He spent the evening in the palace, then went to bed. Waking up around midnight, the emperor sent an invitation to the palace to everyone who usually participated in orgies with him, but no one responded. Walking through the rooms, he saw that the palace was empty - only slaves remained, and Nero was looking for a soldier or gladiator so that an experienced assassin would stab him with a sword. Shouting: "I have neither friends nor enemies!", Nero rushed to the Tiber, but he did not have the willpower to commit suicide.
According to Suetonius, returning to the palace, he found his freedman there, who advised the emperor to go to a country villa 4 miles from the city. Accompanied by four loyal servants, Nero reached the villa and ordered the servants to dig a grave for him, repeating over and over again the phrase: "What a great artist is dying!" (lat.Qualis artifex pereo).
Soon a courier arrived, announcing that the Senate had declared Nero an enemy of the people and intended to put him to death. Nero prepared for suicide, but the will was not enough for this again, and he began to beg one of the servants to stab him with a dagger.
Soon the emperor heard the sound of hooves. Realizing that they were going to arrest him, Nero rallied his strength, uttered a stanza from the Iliad, “Horses galloping rapidly, the stomp amazes my ears,” and with the help of his secretary Epaphroditus, he cut his throat (according to Dio Cassius, the phrase “What a great artist dies ! ”Was uttered at that very moment).
The riders drove into the villa and saw the emperor lying in blood, he was still alive. One of the arrivals tried to stop the bleeding (according to Suetonius - pretended to be trying), but Nero died. His last words were: "Here it is - fidelity."
Permission to bury the body of the emperor was given by Ikel, a freedman and client of Galba. No one wanted to attend to the funeral of the former emperor. Upon learning of this, his former beloved Akta, as well as the nurses of Eclogue and Alexandria, wrapped his remains in white clothes and set them on fire. His ashes were placed in the ancestral tomb of the Domitians on the Garden Hill (present-day Pincius in Rome).
According to Suetonius and Dio Cassius, the Romans welcomed the death of Nero. Tacitus argues that the Senate and the upper classes of society were pleased with the death of the emperor, while the lower classes, on the contrary, were saddened by this turn of events. In the eastern provinces, the death of the emperor was mourned for a long time, about which Apollonius of Tyana wrote to Vespasian in letters.
The name of Nero was erased from several monuments, and other names were put under many of his images. Nevertheless, there is no information that the memory of Nero was sentenced to damnation by the Senate (lat. Damnatio memoriae).
With Nero, the Julian-Claudian dynasty ended. Four contenders for the title of emperor unleashed a civil war that continued throughout the next year. All four of them donned the purple togas of the Roman emperors. Moreover, two, Otho and Vitellius, in their speeches promised the Romans the continuation of the political and economic course that Nero led. At the very end of June 69, the troops of the commander of the eastern legions of Vespasian defeated the forces of Vitellius at Cremona, after which Vespasian entered Rome, where on July 1 he was proclaimed emperor, thereby founding a new dynasty - Flavius.
The death of Nero was reflected in the entire subsequent history of the Roman state. A precedent was created - the next emperor may not be the heir to the previous one and may not be related to him by kinship at all.
During the 69 Civil War, several False Neroes arose. Moreover, during the reign of Galba, seeing that the power of the emperor was fragile, Nymphidius Sabinus decided to try his luck and declared himself the son of Caligula. The last of the False Nero was executed 20 years after the death of the emperor - during the reign of Domitian.
In general, the figure of the emperor remained popular and discussed in Rome for many years. Aurelius Augustine wrote that the legends of Nero's return were told almost three centuries after his death, in 422.
Personal life of Nero
In 63, Nero had a daughter, Claudia Augusta. The emperor idolized her. But 4 months after birth, the girl died. After her death, she was deified, temples were built in her honor, in which the priests worshiped the divine Claudia Augusta.
In 65, Poppaea became pregnant again, but during a family quarrel, a drunken Nero kicked his wife in the stomach, which led to a miscarriage and her death. Poppea's body was embalmed and buried in the mausoleum, she was deified.
In 66, Nero married Statilia Messalina. She became Nero's lover after the death of Poppea, being married to Mark Julius Westin Atticus. The emperor forced Westin Atticus to commit suicide and married Statilia.
Sources mention other adventures of Nero. Although all emperors of the dynasty (except Claudius) are known for homosexual relationships, Nero was the first to celebrate weddings with his beloved, creating a theatrical imitation of Roman ritual. With the eunuch Spore, he celebrated the wedding, after which he dressed him like an empress.
Suetonius notes that "he gave his own body so many times to debauchery that hardly at least one of his members remained undefiled." In the wedding with the freedman Pythagoras (Suetonius calls the name of Dorifor), Nero played the "role" of his wife.
Full title at the time of death: Emperor Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, Great Pontiff, endowed with the power of the tribune 14 times, the power of the emperor 13 times, five-time consul, Father of the Fatherland IMPERATOR XIII CONSVL V PATER PATRIAE).
Nero in culture and art
Many films have been shot about Nero. The most famous are Nero and Poppaea (1982) directed by Bruno Mattei and Roman Empire: Nero (2004) directed by Paul Marcus.
still from the film "Nero and Poppaea"
stills from the film "Roman Empire: Nero"
Also, the image of Nero is widely reflected in fiction:
Ernst Eckstein. "Nero";
Heinrich Senkevich. "Camo vines". The work describes the fierce character and personality of the emperor, as well as his entourage;
Alexander Kravchuk. "Nero";
Arthur Conan Doyle. The Contest (1911). The story of a singing tournament in Olympia, in which the emperor is confronted by a simple Greek shepherd;
Lyon Feuchtwanger. "False Nero", "Jewish War";
Alexandr Duma. "Akteya";
Frederick Farrar. "Darkness and Dawn";
Costain, Thomas Bertram. "The Silver Bowl" ("The plot organically combines fictional characters and historical figures - Nero, the magician Simon from Gitta, the apostles John, Peter and Luke").
Of all the Roman emperors, it is Nero who most often turns out to be the subject of scholarly debate and the object of portrayal among literary men. However, historians still do not come to a consensus regarding his personality. It may seem that today they pay more attention than their predecessors to the positive and constructive traits of his character - this approach is followed, for example, by Shtar, whose translation of Tacitus we have already mentioned above. We ourselves will not repeat other people's opinions, but will try to carefully study all the evidence in the light of modern sexology and thereby reveal a healthy grain of truth among the conflicting traditional ideas about this emperor. If, when considering the character of Nero, we use the terms and ideas of psychoanalysis, it is precisely because his character, as we believe, is best revealed by the methods of psychoanalysis. Needless to say, our sketch of the personality of this emperor will be, so to speak, purely subjective.
Of course, Nero inherited many vices from his ancestors. In addition, he was capable (like every man and woman) of deviating from sexual norms in any direction. Psychoanalysts call all people "polymorphically perverted" (that is, potentially abnormal in many ways), and this definition fits Nero better than anyone else. We will see that the young Nero, who grew up in the specific conditions of the imperial family, developed so many conflicting sexual tendencies that it is simply incredible to find them all in one person. The preliminary conclusion will be as follows: Nero was a good husband, but with strong homosexual inclinations; in addition, he had many extramarital affairs with women; there are also sadistic elements in his character, although they are less essential than modern researchers usually assume.
Cruelty, as we have already demonstrated, was a trait deeply rooted in the Roman national character, but Nero, due to his origin, was distinguished by a particular attraction to sadism. His grandfather was a cruel and heartless man. He arranged animal fights, which at that time were a popular entertainment, not only in circuses, but in all possible parts of the city; he loved bloody gladiatorial games and performed them with such cruelty that Emperor Augustus banned them by special decree. Nero's father was even worse. According to Suetonius (Nero, 5), this man, accompanying Caligula on a journey to the East, once ordered to kill one of his freedmen because he did not want to drink as much as he was ordered. On the Appian Way, he deliberately crushed a child, whipping up his horses. He was able to knock out the eye of the person arguing with him. He was also guilty of greed, adultery and incest. Such were the ancestors of Nero from his father's side. On the mother's side, things were not much better. His mother was Agrippina the Younger, who is called as insanely ambitious as she is insanely depraved, who made countless love affairs. She was the daughter of Julia the Younger, exiled by Augustus for debauchery, and from birth was marked by vices. One can understand why Nero's father, when he was congratulated on the birth of his son, replied that any of his children from Agrippina would be a monster and a curse for the state.
So, Nero inherited from his ancestors rudeness, ambition, lust and natural cruelty. These qualities only developed in him due to the lack of control at the decisive time of his growing up. At the age of three, he lost his father; shortly thereafter, his mother went into exile, and therefore he was brought up by his aunt Lepidus and two "uncles" - a dancer and a barber (Suetonius, 6). When his mother returned from exile, Nero fell under her vicious influence until the age of eleven. Suetonius says that "thanks to the influence and power of his mother ... he reached such a position that there was even a rumor that Messalina, Claudius's wife, seeing him as a rival to Britannicus, sent assassins to strangle him during his midday sleep."
Messalina was quite capable of such an act. So, it is clear that the family ties and environment in which Nero grew up were exceptional. He was deprived of control and guidance from a prudent father, but on the contrary, he found himself under the influence of two women - an aunt and a mother, a woman who was as powerful as any man - and in early childhood, also two men, a dancer and a barber, who themselves, obviously did not have a high level of development. Of course, it is possible that a close relationship with a dancer at a young age awakened in Nero an innate passion for stage and sports, while his connection with his mother ultimately led to a tragic ending - Agrippina, still surrendered to sensual pleasures, died from son's hands.
We should not ignore the remark of Suetonius (7) that “even in childhood, before reaching adolescence, he performed in the circus at the Trojan Games, many times and with great success,” that is, he publicly appeared on stage, as later when he shocked the aristocratic senators.
In the eleventh year of his life, when he was adopted by the emperor Claudius, Nero was given to the education of the philosopher Seneca. Seneca saw his duties in a very interesting light: the very next night he dreamed that Caligula turned out to be his students. If Nero were a well-behaved and meek boy, we would not understand why Seneca, the great connoisseur of the human soul, thus imagined his task. “Soon Nero, - continues Suetonius, - at the very first actions, revealing his cruel disposition, showed that the dream was prophetic.” It is hard to imagine that he was brought up very strictly. For example, corporal punishment was strictly forbidden (as we know from other sources) to the heir to the imperial house, although it was common in the upbringing of other young Romans. We know little about how several years of his life passed before his ascent to supreme power. Suetonius says that “together with other sciences he also studied music”, that (22) he had an immense passion for horse racing and that “he never tired of talking about them, although he was forbidden to do so. Once, when he and his comrades mourned the death of the "green" driver, whom the horses threw and dragged across the arena, the teacher reprimanded him, but he pretended that it was about Hector. "
We know almost nothing more about his childhood. We find in Suetonius an important, in our opinion, remark (7) - the biographer says that Nero tried to convince Claudius of the illegitimacy of Britannica (Britannica was Nero's half-brother, three years younger than him). It is quite possible to imagine that his mother Agrippina, at every opportunity, inspired him that one day he would become the ruler of the world. As for the good or bad influence of Seneca, we can say the following: historians of past centuries called Seneca almost a saint. Yes, he was a refined and well-read man, but at the same time a weak-willed hedonist; his true motto was "Live and let others live." Therefore, we can understand how it turned out that, according to Tacitus, Seneca not only tolerated Nero's love affairs, but sometimes even helped them.
What do we know about Nero's sex life in his youth? First, it should be noted that, barely reaching the age of sixteen, he was married to his disliked half-sister Octavia, and this marriage from the very beginning could not fail to be unsuccessful in the most important respect: in the inadequacy of the sexual demands of the spouses. It is easy to understand that Nero, with his highly developed sexuality, could not get satisfaction in such a marriage. Perhaps an ambitious mother forced him into this marriage for her own purposes, knowing that Octavia would not be able to reduce her influence on her son. There is a distinct impression that Nero and his mother, perhaps unconsciously, were in an erotic relationship. Between them there was no man who could be called the true father of Nero, and the unprincipled Agrippina, perhaps, hoped to once and for all satisfy her insatiable ambitions, having received such power over her son. This may explain the persistent rumors of an incestuous relationship between Agrippina and Nero. And, accepting this hypothesis, we will understand why the first connection, which really brought Nero satisfaction after his painful marriage, awakened the wildest rage in his mother's heart. She instinctively felt that she was losing power over her son. Tacitus speaks with the insight of a great psychologist (Annals, xiii, 13): “But Agrippina attacks her son with a feminine fury, saying that he is being challenged by some freedwoman, that yesterday's slave is her daughter-in-law and much more in the same kind; and the more furiously she showered him with reproaches, not wanting to wait until he changed his mind or was fed up, the more she inflamed passion in him, until he left his mother's obedience and trusted the leadership of Seneca.
But already in his youth, Nero must have met another kind of love - homosexual. There was nothing particularly shocking about it in those days. From Catullus, we know that among the young Romans it was a widespread custom, before marriage, to have sexual relations with a handsome young slave (he was called concubinus). Why should a sensual person like Nero be an exception? What is striking is the message of Cassius Dion (61, 10) that the taste for favorite boys was instilled in Nero by his mentor Seneca, who himself had similar inclinations. You can count these words as one of the ill-intentioned fabrications of later authors who slandered the emperors that were unsympathetic to them. But on the other hand, it is likely that Cassius Dion is telling the truth. As we know, shortly after coming to power, Nero poisoned his half-brother Britannica. Naturally, Nero did not trust this unfortunate boy, who had barely reached the age of fourteen, as a possible contender for imperial power. But other sources say that he was a handsome and well-mannered boy, and Tacitus (Annals, xiii, 17) retells the rumor that Nero, before poisoning him, entered into a sexual relationship with him, which denigrated a free man, but was quite acceptable in relation to slaves and at the same time did not violate the then moral norms. Moreover, all sources are unanimous that Nero entered into an immoral relationship with free-born boys, and the emphasis is on the word "free." Tacitus also mentions that Nero had homosexual feelings for the actor Paris. Finally, all the authors cite a story - so absurd from a modern point of view - about the "marriage" of Nero with his favorite (different sources call him either Pythagoras or the Spore). It is not known how true these statements are, but one thing is clear: Nero was naturally bisexual, like Horace, Catullus and many other famous Romans.
Here it is appropriate to quote from Suetonius (29): "From some I heard that he was firmly convinced that there is no chaste person in the world and at least something pure and that people only conceal and deftly hide their vices." This statement shows such a deep knowledge of the human heart that there is a great temptation to attribute its authorship to Suetonius himself rather than to Nero, who died at the age of 31. Does it not remind us of Schopenhauer's sayings?
Regarding Nero's homosexual tendencies, one can remind readers of Freud's assumption that the homosexual element in a child's personality is enhanced if his mother discovers masculine traits in herself. (This is what Freud states in his essay From the Childhood of Leonardo da Vinci.)
We believe that this side of Nero's character is associated with another, extremely strange tendency, which is noted by all sources. Tacitus says (Annals, xiii, 25): “In the consulate of Quintus Volusius and Publius Scipio [that is, in 56] on the borders of the Roman state, peace and tranquility reigned, and in Rome itself there was disgusting licentiousness, for dressed so as not to be recognized, in slavish rags, Nero wandered the streets of the city, lupanars and all kinds of brothels, and his companions plundered goods put up for sale and inflicted wounds on random passers-by, so ignorant of who was in front of them, that even Nero himself sometimes fell in fights and his face could be seen the traces left by them. " This curious kind of double life is characteristic of many modern homosexuals. It is not entirely clear whether we can be content with Nero's diagnosis of schizophrenia, but it is clear that something like this was rooted in the depths of his personality.
We are told about Nero that “his impudence, lust, licentiousness, stinginess, cruelty at first manifested itself gradually and imperceptibly, like youthful hobbies” (Suetonius, 26), but, the authors add, it was clear to everyone that these vices were from nature, and not from upbringing. This is no doubt true. In some historical works and in our time, there is an image of Nero as a "good" emperor at the beginning of his reign, who turned into an incredible monster in the end, but this picture is not based on any historical facts. Nero throughout his life was one and the same, and this is proved to us by the information about his youth. However, his mother, and then Seneca, obviously knew how to bridle him, so that for some time the bulk of the Romans could be deceived about him. Throwing off the shackles imposed on him by his mother and Seneca, who acted in the role of educator and adviser, Nero more and more clearly revealed his character, which we are sometimes told with wild exaggerations, and sometimes with terrifying reliability.
Nowadays, Nero is assessed as a skillful and cautious politician (especially in the foreign policy sphere), but we are not interested in this now. Let's move on to examining his adult sex life.
We have already said that Nero had a wife and a mistress, and in addition to this, he also showed homosexual inclinations. It was also noted that the first years of his reign were free from tyranny and cruelty. It was during this period that his famous words: "How sorry I am that I learned to write", uttered when he had to sign the death warrant, are accounted for. According to Tacitus, the previously unspoiled Nero quickly degraded, showing licentiousness, cruelty and lust when he was seized by a passion for the famous Sabina Poppae. She was several years older than Nero and was already married. This extremely beautiful and sophisticated woman, at the same time, was distinguished by complete immorality. Here is how Tacitus describes her (Annals, xiii, 45): “This woman had everything except an honest soul. Her mother, who was revered as the first beauty of her time, gave her along with nobility and beauty; she had at her disposal the means commensurate with the dignity of her family; her speech was kind and courteous, and in general she was not ignored by her natural talent. Under the guise of modesty, she indulged in debauchery. In public places she rarely appeared and always with a half-veiled face, either in order not to saturate the eyes, or, perhaps, because it was going to her. She never spared her good name, equally disregarding either her husbands or her lovers; she never obeyed either her own or someone else's feelings, but where the profit was foreseen, there she carried her lust. " One of her sayings is known: "I would rather die than see how my beauty faded." And legends tell about her beauty. She was married to a Roman horseman, but she was obviously surrounded by young admirers, among whom was the cheerful hedonist Otho, who later became emperor.
This man spared no effort to infiltrate the number of Nero's entourage. Nero, still very young and unfamiliar with this way of life, seems to have found in Othon the one whom Dorian Gray found in the person of Henry in Oscar Wilde's novel. According to Suetonius, in the society of Otho, Nero indulged in debauchery and drunkenness. It was Otho who opened his eyes to the beauty of Poppea, who had already managed to marry him. And he also became a rival whom Nero eventually eclipsed in the eyes of Poppea; Otonu's reward was the loss of his beloved woman, selected by a more powerful challenger.
His behavior towards Nero is remarkable. Although passionately in love with Poppea, he extremely recklessly began to praise his wife in front of his friend and, naturally, awakened vanity and desire in Nero. Poppaea, from the very beginning, had one goal, towards which she was led by a cold calculation - to become a Roman empress. For such a price, she was ready to surrender to the mercy of Nero. And her tactics were no less skillful. Sometimes she portrayed a devoted and obedient mistress, sometimes - an arrogant and unapproachable lady; when Nero tried to keep her with him, Poppaea indignantly exclaimed that she was a married woman and would not allow her to be played with her honor, and besides the fact that her heart belonged to Otho, since no one could compare with his ability to live (Tacitus. Annals, xiii, 46). On another occasion, she pretended not to approve of Nero's visits, and stated that she would only receive him in the presence of her husband. Such treatment, naturally, fanned the fire in the heart of the young emperor.
Otho was not going to voluntarily cede his wife to Nero, and therefore was removed from the court and eventually sent to rule a distant province. Now Nero had one goal: to break the chains that prevented him from marrying Poppaea. These chains were, first of all, his unhappy marriage with Octavia, and secondly, his own mother, who understood that no woman, except for Poppea, could no longer influence the emperor. Shtar, in his wonderful book Agrippina, Mother of Nero, says: “And again a life-and-death struggle broke out between the two daughters of imperial Rome - and one threatened to lose everything, while the other tried to achieve everything. One defended, the other attacked. " It is easy to guess which of these women should have won - the one whose allies were youth, beauty, the ability to seduce, intelligence, sophistication and clear calculation. When Poppaea contemptuously called Nero "a destitute orphan, obedient to other people's dictates" (Tacitus. Annals, xiv, 1), she used the best tactics, since Nero had long rebelled against the guardianship of his mother, to whom he had previously obeyed in everything. And if, as we have said, Nero's affection for Agrippina rested on an unconscious erotic basis, it is easy to understand that when he finally met true love, his disgust for the incestuous mother manifested itself in full. But what is curious, Poppaea, in every sense a woman to the core, was older than Nero, and therefore was for Negone nothing more than a reflection of the mother he hated. This explains the enormous influence of Poppea on the personality of Nero, as well as the fact that his regal wife Octavia (a woman of a completely different type) did not arouse in him practically any sexual emotions. We see how significant the influence of his mother was in Suetonius' remark that Nero chose a prostitute as his concubine, who reminded him of his mother (Suetonius, 28).
Nero's murder of his mother should be viewed in the light of these facts. The veracity of historians' reports of this murder has never been disputed, although it is likely that the romantic details with which Tacitus equips his version are nothing more than pure fiction. All biographies of Nero agree that his true nature was revealed only after the death of his mother: until then, even if he did not feel love for her, she at least instilled fear in him. It is also quite probable that Nero still had so many filial feelings that therefore the bloody crime weighed heavily on his consciousness, which made him think “that among the surrounding hills one can hear the sounds of a trumpet, and over the grave of his mother - sorrowful lamentation” (Tacitus. Annals, xiv, 10).
He did not divorce Octavia as quickly as he killed his mother. Nevertheless, this is also a terrible story. An unhappy woman who was never really Nero's wife, neither persuasion nor threats could be forced to divorce. Therefore, she was falsely accused of committing adultery with the flutist. However, her servants did not confirm the charges even under torture. One of her faithful slaves, who was tortured for a long time by the prefect Tigellinus (Nero's main assistant, who replaced Seneca after his resignation), in the midst of the torture exclaimed that Octavia's body was cleaner than Tigellinus's mouth.
After this unsuccessful attempt, Octavia was expelled from Rome and held in Campania under armed guard. But then something unexpected happened: the common people began to openly express their displeasure with the emperor's behavior. When rumors spread that Octavia was returning from exile, people rushed to the Capitol, began to offer thanksgiving sacrifices to the gods, dropped the statues of Poppea, and decorated the sculptures of their beloved Octavia with flowers. This only increased Nero's hatred of his wife. His soldiers cleared the streets of the people and nipped the riot in the bud. And Poppaea, realizing all the dangers that threatened her and her ambitious plans, used all her influence on the weak and cowardly emperor to end this unbearable situation. Octavia was doomed to die. Her enemies fabricated a story that she committed adultery with Agrippina's murderer, and he, under threat of death, confirmed this fake. The so-called proof of Octavia's guilt was presented to the people. She was exiled to the deserted island of Pandateria, which played such a sinister role in the fate of her family, and there she was brutally killed.
Now Nero could, without any delay, make Poppea empress; he did so. However, this ambitious and heartless woman did not enjoy the fruits of success for long. She died three years later, it was rumored, because, in a flash of anger, Nero kicked her while pregnant. We cannot believe in this version unconditionally.
Earlier, we hardly talked about Nero's artistic predilections. This side of his nature is very significant in assessing his sexual nature, and therefore it should be discussed separately. As already mentioned, Nero received a good education, was well versed in all sciences and arts and, therefore, possessed renowned talents. Suetonius says (52): “He turned to poetry, writing poetry willingly and without difficulty. Those who think that he passed off other people's works as his own are wrong: I held in my hands tablets and notebooks with his most famous poems, written by his own hand, and it was clear that they were not copied from a book or voice, but were written immediately, how they were invented and composed - there are so many blots, corrections and insertions in them. He also engaged in painting and sculpture with considerable zeal. "
He is also known to have a passionate interest in everything related to horse racing and chariot racing in the Greek style. And no matter how exaggerated the stories of ancient historians may be, it is appropriate to mention his public appearances as an actor, singer, charioteer, fighter and gladiator. Psychologist Steckel boldly admits that "the emperor, distinguished by such artistic ambitions, could not be bloodthirsty, possessing the power of poetic creativity." According to his theory, Nero was a neurotic, "a talented person who failed to realize his talents." This idea seems to confirm the opinion expressed above that Nero did not get rid of his complexes associated with his mother until the end of his life. All Nero's amateurism, all his amateur attempts to become famous in one area or another can be explained very simply: he reluctantly became a great criminal because he could not achieve the sublimation of his impulses in the creation of great works of art. And this was the tragedy of his life.
The modern Italian poet Pietro Cossa tried, like many other poets before him, to embody the image of Nero on stage. It was he who expressed the nature of Nero in one line: "He had a Roman heart and a Greek mind." These words convey the entire tragic conflict in the soul of this person. It is easy to imagine how delighted Nero was with everything Greek, especially Greek competition, albeit saturated with the rough spirit of Roman pomp and boasting; how he was flattered by his immoderate vanity by thousands of spectators who applauded him as a singer, actor or winner of competitions, but at heart he remained a pitiful weakling who was devoured by guilt. History also knows other examples of rulers in the guise of majestic despots, but with a soul oppressed by despair. All information about Nero's homosexuality (true or exaggerated) goes very well with Hellenism in his character. People of his type are never thrifty and forward-looking financiers; they are not able to keep money, and spend it unnecessarily on lavish celebrations and all kinds of excesses. Nero indulged in excesses to the extreme. And none of his sexual sins hurt him as much in the eyes of the people as his extravagance, because he was forced to replenish his treasury, which at that time was practically not separated from the state treasury, by all sorts of dubious means, such as damage to coins. and even open plunder of the provinces.
I am tempted to explain what the famous fire of Rome has been attributed to him from a purely aesthetic point of view. It is likely that, looking out of his palace at the blazing city, Nero allowed himself shameless remarks about the terrible beauty of this sight, and these remarks were taken as evidence that he himself set the city on fire, either in order to admire the fire or to build himself a new one. palace in ruins. Personally, I would not blame Nero for setting fire to Rome.
And if he is not responsible for this, the veracity of the famous chapter from Tacitus (Annals, xv, 44) about the execution of Christians after the fire is in great doubt. No Christian author mentions this execution, which only confirms the assumption that this chapter is a later invention of Christian authors who wanted to prove the existence of Christ as a historical figure. But this is by the way. True, Suetonius also mentions the execution of Christians at about the same time, but speaks about it briefly and without any details. The details given by Tacitus are unknown to him. And the fact that he, the greatest gossip of all historians, does not say anything on this topic is very significant.
It could also be said that Nero's aestheticism was a factor in the hatred of the still powerful Senate - such hatred that the senators conspired one after another and eventually abandoned him to their fate when the border armies rebelled. In Cassius Dion we read: “It was unbearable to hear, and even more so to see that a Roman, a senator, a patrician, a pontiff, a Caesar, an emperor entered his name on the list of competitors, exercised his voice, sang all kinds of songs, appeared with long hair, a shaved chin, in open clothes and almost without a retinue, he looked at his rivals with fury, insulted them with swear words, bribed the judges and spectators at the games for fear of being reproached and deleted from the lists - and all in order to win a prize by playing the lyre ... and lose the imperial honor! " It should be added that the same author says (62, 10): "The common people and the troops looked at this spectacle, not at all indignant, but, on the contrary, praising the emperor."
Nero's weak-willed aestheticism and love of pleasure manifested itself in shameful behavior when his power began to crumble. In this case, we can take on faith the story of Suetonius, since it fully corresponds to the true character of Nero. Suetonius writes (47): “Meanwhile, news came that the rest of the troops had also rebelled. Learning about this during the feast, he tore up the report, overturned the table, smashed to the ground two of his beloved cups, which he called "Homeric", since the carvings on them were from Homer's poems, and, taking poison from Lukusta in a golden casket, went to Servilievy gardens. He sent the most reliable freedmen to Ostia to prepare ships, and he himself began to beg the praetorian tribunes and centurions to accompany him in flight. " When they refused, he began to ponder the wildest plans - in fact, any, except for the only obvious: defense. So, it occurred to him to go to the Forum in a mourning dress and, with the help of all his eloquence, awaken pity among the people. But even he had to admit that such a plan would put him defenseless into the hands of his enemies. As a result, he fled to the country estate of one of his freedmen and hid there in a remote corner, incessantly mourning his miserable fate. Finally, he ordered everything necessary for his funeral to be prepared, and at every stage of the preparations he sobbed and exclaimed: "What a great artist is dying!"
However, being a coward, he was incapable of suicide. Then a messenger arrived with the terrible news that the Senate had declared Nero outlawed and that he was ordered to be brought to Rome and flogged to death. Nero was seized with horror. He could not bear the physical pain for which he coldly condemned thousands of others. But even hearing the soldiers sent to arrest him approaching, this esthete could not refrain from quoting Homer:
Horses galloping rapidly, the footfall amazes my ears.
Finally he managed to die. With the help of the secretary (who fled with him), he pierced his throat with a dagger.
His corpse was not desecrated, which he feared. His concubine Akta and two faithful nannies gave him an honorable burial and even took his body to the ancestral tomb. Obviously, the common people did not hate him, since flowers were laid on his grave for a very long time, and soon after his death the false Nero appeared, making many believe that he was the true emperor.
You can summarize as follows. Nero fell prey to terrible hereditary defects. The development of his personality was strongly influenced by the disorderly upbringing in childhood and the long guardianship of a domineering mother. To these factors must be added his versatile talents and artistic inclinations, which he never really managed to develop, despite his amateur attempts in many fields of art.
So, he appears neurotic, weak and cowardly at heart (which is quite typical for aesthetes). In a sexual sense, he received satisfaction in a variety of ways, since nothing prevented him from fulfilling any desires. By nature, he was, of course, bisexual, but not at all the sadist to the bone, as he is often portrayed. First of all, he was a man who did not completely get rid of his mother's will.
He always opened up to different people from different sides. This can be seen from the variety of works that illuminate his personality and his era - sometimes Nero appears as a cold cynic and heartless esthete (as in Cossa's play), sometimes as the devil-antichrist (as in Senkevich's famous novel "Kamo Gryadeshi?"), And sometimes (as in Wilbrand's book) a tyrant who was destroyed by the madness of despotic power. It seems to us that it is impossible to recreate the image of Nero by means of art, because we still do not know what he really was.
To plunge me into a hellish hell, The demon of an angel strives to seduce, To captivate him with his sinful beauty Yves the devil with the temptation to transform.
I don’t know, watching their struggle, Who will win, but I don’t expect anything good ...
(William Shakespeare, "Sonnets and Poems", translated by S.Ya. Marshak)
Real name - Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus
Character - quick-tempered, insidious
Temperament - choleric
Religion - pagan-pantheist
The attitude towards power is greedy
The attitude towards subjects is contemptuous
Attitude towards love is cynical
The attitude towards flattery is favorable
Attitude towards material goods - affectionate
The attitude to one's own reputation is mostly indifferent
Nero, Roman emperor (37-68)
Agrippina the Younger, the mother of Nero, despite her high birth, managed to take a dare from a young age, leaving early without her father, who fell victim to intrigue. When Agrippina the Younger was fourteen years old, her mother, Agrippina the Elder, was arrested by the order of the Emperor Tiberius and exiled to the island, where she starved herself to death.
One of Agrippina's young brothers, accused of homosexuality, committed suicide to avoid a shameful execution. Her other brother allowed himself to be executed.
Agrippina herself (like her two sisters) for some time was the mistress of her brother - the emperor Caligula, an extremely intemperate man with a truly wild disposition. For a long time, Caligula paid tribute to all three sisters, even placing their images on coins, but in 39 AD Agrippina, along with her sister Livia and their lovers (one Caligula, who generously squandered his strength, the lustful sisters clearly lacked) were accused of conspiracy against Caligula. The lovers were brutally executed, as it was then, and Agrippina and Livia were exiled to the Pontine Islands.
This happened a year before the death of Nero's father, who left his three-year-old son one third of his possessions, but another heir, Caligula, using his power, took the share from the child and added it to his two thirds. Nero, left without a father, mother and fortune, was taken to her house by his aunt, Domitia Lepida. In the house of Lepida, two uncles, a dancer and a barber, were engaged in the upbringing of the boy. A wonderful, I must say, company!
Nero's father, Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, grandson of Mark Antony and Octavia the Younger, did not enjoy the love and respect of his contemporaries. The historian Suetonius characterized him as "the most disgusting man at all times of his life." When Agrippina the Younger gave birth to the son of Nero to Gnaeus, he, accepting the congratulations of his friends, exclaimed that from him and Agrippina nothing could be born, except horror and grief for all mankind.
The words were prophetic.
Nero grew up as a pampered child. He was not at all interested in military affairs, did not like gladiatorial fights and never dreamed of military exploits. However, he was not taught military science. Nero was taught music, painting, poetry.
In fairness, it should be noted that Nero was a mediocre poet. Most of all he was fascinated by horse riding.
Agrippina the Younger, more than other passions, was obsessed with a thirst for power. According to legend, once she asked fortune-tellers about the fate of her son Nero. The prediction read: "Nero will reign, but he will kill his mother." Agrippina allegedly replied to this: "Well, let him, if only he reigned!"
Bypassing Roman laws forbidding closely related marriages, Agrippina the Younger in 49 became the wife of her uncle, Emperor Claudius. Her cherished dream has come true - to become an empress.
Agrippina intended to remain in power for as long as possible, for which she obtained consent from Claudius to adopt Nero and declare him her heir, bypassing Britannica, Claudius's own son. Most likely, Agrippina hoped that she could easily manage Nero.
Thanks to the strengthening of the influence and power of his mother, young Nero reached such a high and strong position at the court of Claudius that supposedly even Messalina, Claudius's wife, seeing in him a strong rival to her son Britannicus, who was common with Claudius, sent assassins to Nero. They were supposed to strangle the young man during his midday sleep, but suddenly a poisonous snake attacked them from his pillow, and the killers fled in panic.
Suetonius argued that all this is a fiction that arose after a snake skin was found on Nero's bed, at the very head of the bed. This skin, according to legends, foreshadowing great power for Nero, his mother Agrippina ordered to be trimmed in gold. Nero wore this jewelry on his right wrist for a long time.
There is no exact information about Agrippina's involvement in the poisoning of Claudius, but it is quite possible that she had a hand in this, because immediately after the death of Claudius, Nero was presented to the Romans as the legal heir, “... the impression that he is mature enough and capable of dealing with public affairs. Caesar willingly heeded the insistence of the servile senate, who proposed that Nero, at the age of less than twenty, be granted a consulate, and before he assumed these duties, he had proconsular power outside the city of Rome and was called the head of the youth. In addition, it was decided to distribute cash gifts to the soldiers and food gifts to the common people on his behalf. At the circus performance, given in order to attract the favor of the crowd, he appeared in the attire of a triumphant ... "- wrote the ancient historian Cornelius Tacitus.
The late Claudius was numbered among the gods, and Nero was proclaimed emperor under the name Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus. So in 54 his reign began.
Soon seventeen-year-old Nero took Octavia, the daughter of Claudius and Messalina, as his wife. Of course, he was not going to limit himself to Okgavia alone. Suetonius wrote about Nero: "His impudence, lust, licentiousness, cruelty at first manifested itself gradually and imperceptibly, like youthful hobbies, but even then it was clear that these vices were from nature, and not from age."
Nero indulged in vice with many of his subjects, ranging from boys to venerable married matrons. In a fit of passion, he could rape even a Vestal priestess.
Nero satisfied his passion very ingeniously, striking the licentiousness of his compatriots who were far from Puritanism.
The same Suetonius talked about one of the amorous amusements of the emperor Nero: “... in an animal's skin he jumped out of the cage, pounced on naked men and women tied to pillars and, satiating wild lust, surrendered himself to the freedman Dorefor (according to other sources, Dorpfora called Pythagoras and he was one of the ministers of Meron. - A. Sh.): for this Dorifor he married, as for him - Spore (after killing his wife Poppea, Nero ordered to emasculate a boy like her Spore, dressed him in women's clothes /, called Poppea n officially changed to it .-- A. 111.), and lived with him as with his wife, screaming and yelling like a girl being raped. From some I heard that he was firmly convinced that there is no chaste person in the world and at least in something pure, and that people only conceal and cleverly hide their vices: therefore, to the one who confessed to him of debauchery, he forgave the rest of the sins. " ...
Despite the riotous life, Octavia soon tired of Nero. He hastened to find a replacement for her - the blonde beauty Poppeya, who on the maternal side was the granddaughter of the famous consul and triumphant Sabine. Poppaea's mother was once considered the first beauty of Rome, and everyone argued that her daughter went into her with her truly indescribable beauty.
As was customary among the Roman aristocracy of the time, Poppaea was a whore. Tacitus wrote that she did not make any distinction between her husbands and numerous lovers, not knowing what faithfulness in love is.
Nero first saw Poppea as the wife of a horseman (aristocratic class, second after the senatorial) Rufio Crispin. He immediately inflamed with passion for her and hastened to do everything in order to divorce Poppaea from Rufio and marry her to his friend Sylvius Otgon, who allowed the emperor to visit Poppeya without hindrance whenever he wanted. At that time, Nero was still thinking about his reputation and did not risk settling his mistress next to his wife Octavia.
However, Poppaea, surrendering to Nero, counted on more than the dubious status of the emperor's mistress. She wanted to become an empress herself. In addition, Sylvius Otgon, captivated by the beauty of Poppea, began to insist on his rights as a legal spouse. Poppaea, on the other hand, did not like him at all, and besides, she feared that his claims could cause the anger of Nero.
The emperor's mother, Agrippina, hated Poppea and decided to distract Nero from the fatal beauty by offering him ... herself. She succeeded - the voluptuous Nero could not even abandon his own mother, despite the fact that the emperor's educator, the famous philosopher and noble patrician Annei Seneca, tried to prevent this.
Tacitus says: “... incited by a frantic thirst to retain power at all costs, Agrippina reached the point that at the height of the day and most often in those hours when Nero was hot with wine and a plentiful meal, she appeared before him discharged and ready for an incestuous relationship: her passionate kisses and caresses that foreshadowed criminal cohabitation began to be noticed by those close to her, and Seneca decided to overcome these female seductions with the help of another woman; for this, he took advantage of the freedwoman Acte, whom he sent to Nero, so that she, pretending to be worried about the danger that threatened her and the shame hanging over Nero, told him that rumors were spread among the people about the committed incest, that Agrippina was boasting of him and that the troops did not they will tolerate the authorities of the princeps stained by wickedness ... "
Their unnatural relationship, which stirred up the whole of Rome, lasted quite a long time. Agrippina, not at all embarrassed, flaunted the nature of her relationship with her son, spreading even about the intimate details of this relationship. Nero and Agrippina loved to ride through the streets of Rome on the same stretcher, showering each other with caresses on the way. The Romans were horrified at such a monstrous incestuous debauchery.
Poppaea, having learned that her lover was cheating on her with her own mother, was indignant and, deciding to awaken jealousy in Nero, gave herself up to her husband Otto, making it so that Nero immediately became aware of this
When the jealous emperor demanded an explanation from Poppaea, she expressed her complaints to him, especially emphasizing the connection with Agrippina, and stated that Otgon, her lawful husband, was trying in bed no worse than Nero.
Poppea's last word was this: if the emperor still loves her, then he must prove his love by taking her as a wife according to Roman law. Neither Octavia nor Agrippina Poppaea did not want to see next to her - Nero had to get rid of them.
In case of refusal, Poppaea threatened to leave Rome forever and settle in the provinces.
Nero did not immediately believe in the seriousness of Poppea's intentions. That same evening, he decided to visit her, but Poppaea simply did not open the door of her house for the emperor. In vain, Nero knocked, threatened and poured the unfaithful Poppaea with common abuse - he was never opened.
Returning to his chambers, Nero thought about how he should get rid of Agrippina and Octavia. The weak-willed Octavia, who resignedly endured the adventures of her husband, did not bother him as much as the power-hungry, cruel and insidious Agrippina, who, in addition to everything, had strong support in the Senate and was a former priestess of Claudia.
The emperor began to act slowly. At first, he deprived his mother of military protection, and then survived her from his palace, where Agrippina had luxurious quarters.
They tried to accuse her of conspiracy to overthrow the emperor, but the unfounded accusation, not supported by any evidence, burst like a soap bubble. Desperate to get rid of her hated rival by bloodless methods, Poppaea demanded that Nero kill Agrippina. Nero agreed.
The disagreement over Poppea was not the first clash between son and mother. A great discord between them had taken place before, when Nero fell in love with the freedwoman of the late Claudius named Acte (the same one that Seneca had sent to him with a warning) and even wanted to marry her, which caused Agrippina's displeasure.
Agrippina even dared to remind Nero that his power was obtained through maternal efforts and that there is a fourteen-year-old Britannica, the rightful heir of Claudius. Soon, by order of Nero, Britannica was poisoned.
Tacitus wrote: “The writers of that time report that for several days before the killing of his brother, Meron repeatedly abused the adolescent body of Britannicus, doing this so that the death of the latter, in whom the blood of the Claudians flowed, defiled by lust earlier than poison, could not seem premature and excessively cruel, although she struck him in violation of the sacred rules of hospitality at the banquet table, in front of the enemy and with such impetuosity that he was not even given time to say goodbye to the sisters. In a special decree, Caesar explained the reasons for the haste with which Britannica was buried; he referred to the establishment of ancestors to hide from human eyes the funeral of the untimely dead and not to drag out the ceremony with praiseworthy speeches and magnificently performed rituals. "
True, Nero never married Act, either changed his mind, or decided not to tease his mother in vain. He limited himself to settling her near him.
It should be noted that from the very beginning of Nero's reign, his mother did a lot to help him stay in power. She orchestrated a series of assassinations of both former and potential opponents of her son, hoping that they will always share power with each other.
Getting rid of Agrippina without revealing his involvement in this black affair was not easy. Finally, it was decided during the next holiday to specially build a ship for Agrippina, which would fall apart at the right time. The heavy leaden ceiling in Agrippina's cabin was about to collapse. After killing the empress, he pierced the bottom of the ship, and the ship sank. Nero was given a convenient opportunity to drown the empress, writing off her death as an accident.
At the appointed hour, the ceiling did no harm to Agrippina. Realizing that the matter was unclean, Agrippina, accompanied by one of the maids, jumped into the water and fled, hiding in one of the country villas.
Nero, having learned that the attempt had failed, flew into a rage, but quickly regained control of himself. He stated that Agrippina allegedly sent an assassin to him, and openly sent soldiers led by the prefect of the Mizen fleet, Aliket (it was Aliket, who was once Nero's tutor, and came up with the failed plan with the ship) to kill the empress. Agrippina died that same night. It happened in 59, which became a turning point not only in the reign, but also in the life of Nero. From now on, there are no restrictions for him. The monstrous and unnatural crime committed by order of the emperor could not but affect both his reputation and the attitude of his subjects towards him.
After the attempt on the life and murder of his own mother, Nero was capable of any other atrocity. Of course, he could not help but experience a psychological shock of enormous strength, but from now on Nero strengthened his confidence in his permissiveness, which could not but affect his future actions.
After Agrippina's murder, everything went smoothly. Salvia Otto Nero sent legate to Lusitania, a Roman province in the Iberian Peninsula. Poppaea divorced her husband, and three years later, Nero, citing Octavia's infertility, divorced her and immediately married Poppaea. The senators were unhappy with both the emperor's divorce and his scandalous and hasty new marriage, but did not dare to object.
Having become an empress, Poppaea did not stop at replacing Octavia's sculptures with her own. She demanded that Nero expel Octavia from Rome. In order not to anger the people with outright lawlessness, Nero decided to accuse Octavia of adultery. Guards Prefect Tigellinus bribed one of the Egyptian musicians to confess his love affair with Okgavia. His testimony, despite the torture, was not confirmed by any of the woman's servants, but nevertheless the poor woman was sent to the southern region - Campania, where she was under arrest, not daring to stick her nose out of her chambers. Unhappy Octavia was then twenty-two years old.
History has brought to us the bold response of a young maid, Octavia, who abandoned Tigellina who was torturing her: "Octavia's genitals are cleaner than your mouth!"
Tigellinus, who was Nero's right hand and, like his master, who did evil generously, was hated by the Romans, perhaps even more than Nero himself. Cornelius Tacitus wrote about Tigellinus as follows: “Zephanius Tigellinus, a man of dark origin, spent his youth in mud, and old age in shamelessness. Having chosen a shorter path, he by meanness reached the positions that are usually given as a reward for valor - he became the prefect of the city guards, the prefect of the praetorium, he held other posts, distinguished at first by cruelty, and then by greed - vices that were difficult to expect in a man so pampered. Tigellinus not only involved Nero in crimes, but also allowed himself a lot behind his back, and in the end he left and betrayed him. No execution was therefore demanded in Rome with such persistence as the execution of Tigellinus; driven by opposite feelings, both those who hated Nero and those who loved him sought it.
No matter how hard Nero tried to give lawlessness a decent look, the fate of Octavia excited the hearts of the Romans. In the capital of the empire, unrest began. At first, Nero hastened to return Octavia to Rome and even publicly declared her his wife, but later, apparently coming to his senses and indignant at the rabble trying to dictate their will to him, he sent troops to suppress the unrest.
Octavia suddenly became dangerous, and Nero decided to finally get rid of her, going the usual way. He persuaded his faithful Aniket to testify falsely about adultery with Octavia. The unfortunate woman was sent to the island of Pandateria and was strangled there in a bathhouse, for loyalty to first open her veins. Poppaea, who celebrated her thirtieth birthday a year ago, strengthened herself in the position of not only the legitimate, but also the only wife of the emperor. She soon gave birth to a daughter. Overjoyed, Nero conferred the title of Augustus on his wife and daughter.
Nevertheless, in her hour, she became disgusted with Nero and Poppaea. Moreover, it is unlikely that Nero really loved her. Most likely, she was a beautiful toy for him, one of a kind, for the sake of which he had to work a little.
Having become pregnant again, Poppaea almost lost her former beauty, but she became grumpy and irritable. The short-sighted (or too self-confident) Poppaea began to pester Nero beyond measure with her jealousy.
Nero continued to amuse himself more than ever. Revels with the participation of the best prostitutes and dancers gave way to public bathing with mistresses, and bathing was replaced by unbridled orgies in the palace chambers.
Sometimes Nero, for fun, entertained his subjects with singing in the theater, and forbade them to leave the theater during his performances, sometimes quite lengthy. He sang disgustingly and played the cithara just as disgustingly, but the subjects were most embarrassed by the fact that their emperor condescended to the despicable art of acting (the entertainment of the public in ancient Rome was considered almost a shameful craft).
Once, returning drunk from the races, Nero, in response to Poppaea's accusations, kicked her in the stomach so hard that she died a few hours later. In the morning, Nero depicted remorse and during the funeral of Poppea tirelessly praised her faded beauty and her ghostly, never-before-seen virtue.
Poppae's replacement was quickly found in the castrated boy Spore, already mentioned. After the official marriage of the emperor to the eunuch, the Romans either jokingly or seriously argued that they would be happy if Nero's father had exactly the same wife.
His stepson - the son of Poppea and Rufius Crispin - Nero ordered to be drowned after the boy recklessly called himself emperor during the game.
There is an opinion that Nero did not deal with the affairs of government at all, pushing them onto the shoulders of his inner circle. This is not entirely true. Yes, in the first years of his reign, Nero did not actually rule Rome, but gradually he began to acquire a taste for state affairs. Most likely, this happened under the influence of Seneca (in 65 Nero ordered Seneca to commit suicide, since he did not inform him about the conspiracy) and an experienced politician, commander of the Praetorian Guard Afrannius Burra.
Having begun his reign, Nero intended to clearly separate the imperial and senate powers and declared that he, like his great ancestor Octavian Augustus, was not going to delve into all matters.
In the beginning, almost all management issues, including the most significant ones, were decided in the Senate, and of course the senators liked it. They extolled Nero as best they could, installed a statue of him made of gold and silver in the temple of Mars the Avenger, and were even going to announce the beginning of the year in December - the month of Nero's birth. Gradually, the situation changed - Nero became more and more actively interested in politics. So, for example, his merit is considered to be the achievement of a profitable truce with Parthia. True, in the last years of his fourteen-year reign, Nero again began to pay more and more attention to entertainment.
In 60, Nero instituted new games in his honor - Neronia, which were to be held every five years, like the Olympic Games. These games were of a sporting and poetic nature. Participants competed in music, public speaking, poetry, chariot racing and gymnastics. It is noteworthy that in the program of Nero there were no gladiator fights loved by the Romans and not loved by Nero. In the first games, Nero personally took part, and insisted on being an award seeker on an equal basis with other actors, without any indulgences. Tacitus wrote: “Even before the five-year competition began, the Senate, trying to prevent a nationwide disgrace, offered Nero a reward for singing and, in addition to it, a wreath of the winner in eloquence, which would save him from the dishonor associated with performing on the stage. But Nero, answering that he did not need any favors or support from the Senate and that, competing on an equal footing with his rivals, he would achieve well-deserved fame by the impartial verdict of the judges, first recites poetry; then, at the request of the crowd, which insisted that he show all his talents (it was in these words that she expressed her desire), he again enters the stage, strictly observing all the rules adopted between the kifaredi: do not sit down to rest, do not wipe sweat with anything except clothes , in which he is clothed, do not allow discharge from the mouth and nostrils to be noticed. In conclusion, kneeling down, he expressed his deepest respect for the audience with a wave of his hand, after which, feigning excitement, he froze in anticipation of the decision of the judges. "
Participation in the games did not add to Nero's popularity, rather the opposite.
In 60, a comet appeared in the sky, portending, according to the Romans, the imminent end of the reign of Nero.
In 61 AD, a major Icenean uprising, led by Queen Boudicca, began in Britain. The uprising was suppressed, but managed to greatly shake the imperial power, which Parthia was not slow to take advantage of.
On the night of July 18-19, 64, a strong fire began in Rome, which lasted six days, and then died down to resume again three days later. The destruction was enormous. Nero, hastily arrived in Rome from Ancius, began an energetic fight against the fire and soon began to rebuild the city.
The people started talking about the fact that the emperor ordered the burning of Rome in order to rebuild it to his liking. Officially, a small Christian community at that time was accused of burning Rome, but Nero's reputation was so bad that anything could be attributed to him.
If the Romans suffered during the fire, then the provinces were outraged by the large levies levied on the restoration and rebuilding of Rome.
Discontent grew, uprisings often broke out, conspiracies followed one after another.
In 68, a wave of uprisings swept through the empire and reached Rome. Nero, whom even those close to him, condemned to death by the Senate, turned away, wanted to flee, but the fear of being caught forced him to commit suicide - with the help of one of his advisers, the emperor thrust a sword into his throat.
“He died in the thirty-second year of his life, on the very day on which he once killed Octavia,” wrote Suetonius about the death of Nero. -
The jubilation among the people was such that the rabble ran all over the city in Phrygian caps. However, there were also those who for a long time decorated his tomb with spring and summer flowers and exhibited on grew up tralling tribunes, either his statues in a consular toga, or edicts stating that he was alive and would soon return to fear his enemies. Even the Parthian king Vologuez, sending ambassadors to the Senate to renew the alliance, with particular insistence asked that the memory of Nero remain in high esteem. And even twenty years later, when I was a teenager, a man of unknown rank appeared, pretending to be Nero, and his name was so successful with the Parthians that they actively supported him and only with difficulty agreed to betray ... "
Nero lived his stormy life, being sure that people of chaste and pure soul do not exist in the world, just the majority manage to cleverly hide their vices and skillfully disguise bad intentions.
NERO Claudius Drusus Germanicus Caesar (15.12.37 - 9.06.68), Roman emperor from 13.10.54, The son of Senator Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Agrippina the Younger, was given the name Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus at birth. In 50, he was adopted by Claudius, whose daughter, Octavia, married in 53. After the poisoning of Claudius, Agrippina, with the help of the Praetorians, ascended the imperial throne. Until 62, the young emperor remained under the influence of the chief of the praetorians Burr and his former mentor Seneca, who guided him towards rapprochement with the Senate. During this period, the financial system and the judiciary were transformed, and the number of Roman colonies increased. An intra-family power struggle led to the death of Britannica, Nero's half-brother (55), and the vanity-obsessed Agrippina, the emperor's mother (59). After the death of Burra, Nero actually retired from governing the state. With the appointment of a new head of the guard, Zephanius Tigellinus (62), a period of despotism and arbitrariness began. To marry Poppaea Sabina, Nero sent into exile, and then ordered to kill Octavia. At the same time, with the aim of confiscating the property of wealthy senators, prosecutions "for insult to majesty" were resumed. All sorts of buildings and games consumed huge amounts of money. Revealed in 65, the Piso conspiracy was an expression of protest, primarily of the senatorial class, against the "Hellenistic" government of the Empire. Seneca, Lucan, Petronius committed suicide on the orders of Nero. In the summer of 64, the strongest fire broke out in Rome, destroying 10 of the 14 districts of the city. In order to dismiss the suspicion of arson (however, not sufficiently substantiated), Nero accused Jews and Christians of it (the first persecution of Christians). With the new wide development of the city, huge funds were spent on the expansion of the imperial palace "Golden House". Since 64, Nero has been publicly performing as a singer, actor and driver in the circus arena. His artistic dilettantism flourished during a trip to Greece in 66-68, when he was forced to honor himself as the winner of several artistic competitions. Campaign against the Parthians of Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo in 58-63. established Roman domination in Armenia, whose king Nero crowned in Rome in 66. In 61, the Boudicca rebellion in Britain was suppressed, but the rebellion that broke out in 66 in Judea continued after the death of Nero. The growing dissatisfaction with the imperial power led to the revolt of Guy Julius Vindex in Gaul and Galba in Spain. The betrayal of the Praetorian Guard and the condemnation of the Senate forced Nero to commit suicide in a country villa near Rome. With the death of Nero, the reign of the Julian-Claudian dynasty ends. A tradition coming from senatorial circles paints him as a tyrant, endowing him with the features of exaggerated legendary cruelty (Tacitus, Suetonius, Cassius Dion). At the same time, this image could be loved among the people; the appearance of False Nero was recorded three times in history. Christians saw in him their first persecutor, sometimes the Antichrist (Lactantius). Biography of Suetonius, several tragedies in the 19th century, operas by Monteverdi (1642), Handel (1709), Rubinstein (1879) and others.
Dictionary of Antiquity. Per. with him. - M .: Progress, 1989
Tribune power received 14 times (the first time - December 4, 54, then - annually on October 13).
Emperor: I (13 October 54), II (56), III-IV (57), V-VI (58), VII (59), VIII-IX (61), X ( 64), XI (66), XII-XIII (67).
Consul: I (55), II (57), III (58), IV (60), V (68).
The biography of the Roman emperor Nero began in 54. For the first five years, the successor to Emperor Claudius ruled, one might say, quietly. He was a grateful observer of the war, now open, now openly undercover, which was waged by his mother with his own teachers and advisers.
Agrippina
The mother of the Roman emperor Nero, Agrippina the Younger, not for that by hard work, and often criminal, elevated her son to the throne, so that strangers would use his mind, which was small for the time being. For her, the very fact of government was not so important (which in itself is even more difficult work), she wanted her own significance, honors and glory of a real empress.
She behaved not so much ugly as brazenly: she accompanied her son everywhere, even where women, by definition, were not allowed to enter. Mother occupied the emperor's stretcher and received foreign ambassadors, ordered the rulers of the Roman provinces and even other countries that fell under the arm of the Roman Empire. What else can you expect from Sister Caligula?
She could not appear in the curia for the council of the patricians, the traditions were still too strong. This is a Roman authority that women were not allowed to visit. However, she so wanted to attend the Senate that the meetings were transferred to the palace, and Agrippina listened to the debate from behind the curtain. Even a coin was minted at her direction and with her image, and Nero is the Roman emperor! - was also present on the coins, of course. Modestly. Next to my mother.
Seneca and Burr
The advisers of the terrible emperor were wonderful people: the brave and honest warrior Burr and the scientist.They fought Agrippina's lust for power as best they could, thanks to the titanic efforts of the mentors in Rome it was still calm: the administration and justice worked smoothly and effectively, the Senate had not yet been removed from cases, taxes were levied, abusers were punished. The people liked Nero. So, thanks to the advisers, whom Nero obeyed for quite a long time, the Roman Empire stood.
However, if not Burr, then Seneca knew exactly who he had to deal with. The young man was unbridled, gifted with a thirst for creativity, and if the creative principle did not win, the destructive triumphed. The creative won rarely, although, despite his exceptional moral depravity and irrepressible attraction to voluptuousness, good impulses sometimes took possession of Nero: somehow, when signing a paper for execution, he complained that he could write at all.
Nero's childhood
Oddly enough to imagine, he was also a child - Nero, the Roman emperor. Biography for children turns out to be unreadable almost from birth. The child grew up somehow spoiled, with painful unbridled fantasies, extremely vain, capricious.
Nevertheless, he probably had a mind. Although the same Seneca wrote in full confidence that an intelligent person will not do evil. Rather, Nero had a special liveliness of character that replaced reason. Now diagnosed as hyperactivity.
The main trouble of the Romans happened due to the fact that Nero was not prepared to reign. They did not instill in the nature of the discipline that gives solidity to knowledge, seriousness and height to plans and zeal for deeds. Seneca met Nero too late.
Probably, in our time, Nero, the Roman emperor, would be a good director of mass celebrations after graduating from the institute of culture somewhere in the province. He only loved that: singing, dancing, painting, writing poetry, carving in stone, driving horses ... And he had to rule the Roman Empire, what an interest in this. Without creativity, any director will go berserk. So it turned out that Emperor Nero is the worst
Growing up
Seneca and Burr from the beginning of Nero's reign took advantage of the fact that the emperor was absolutely indifferent to state affairs. Agrippina tried to take on this burden, but she was not given. They managed well and looked at the promiscuity of the young monarch through their fingers, the main thing was that they did not interfere and that Nero's debauchery would not be reflected in state affairs.
Agrippina did not like the secondary position, she was power-hungry, ambitious. She needed absolute power over her son, undivided influence over advisers and equal government and court honors to the imperial. Agrippina's intrigues had no end and were successful for the time being. And then an unexpected hour came when the son tore the harness and reared up.
Octavia and Acta
From here begins the real Roman emperor Nero, whose brief biography never dreamed of - too many events, both strange and terrible. From the strange: the young emperor was married. On Octavia, which was a stark contrast to Nero's behavior, habits, and all of Nero's ill-mannered nature. That is why he was always hostile to his wife.
His passions were constantly changing - not only women were among them, by the way, and one day Akta appeared among them - a former slave, set free. She was beautiful, cunning and persistent, she managed to get quite a lot of power over her lover. The mother of the Roman emperor Nero Agrippina was furious. And not because Akta - yesterday's slave - behaves impudently with her like a daughter-in-law, Agrippina had many lovers from freedmen, but because she clearly saw how she was losing power over her son.
Imperial response
Nero, the Roman emperor, stopped tolerating reproachful talk from anyone. Agrippina didn't like the Act? Perfectly. Why exactly the same freedman Pallas manages Roman finances? Is it because he is the lover of the emperor's mother? Why not deprive him of this position? Not enough. Why not put him in jail? Wonderful. And let him die there. It is desirable - as soon as possible.
Agrippina famously took a bite at the bit and carried it over the bumps. Don't scare her. She threatened her son with revealing the truth that Nero was a usurper on the throne of the emperor, as well as about the whole path that she had to do for this throne for her own son (the sudden death of Emperor Claudius, a man not old and quite healthy, for example, for whom Agrippina in her last days she got married - also part of this story) that the emperor Nero is the worst emperor of the Roman Empire, and the legitimate heir - the fourteen-year-old son of Claudius Britannicus - will be much more popular with the people.
She forgot that Nero is the son of Agrippina and the nephew of Caligula, that Nero's own father after the birth of his son expressed himself unequivocally: except for grief and shame for people, Agrippina could not have anything. And soon he died. Now native blood began to speak in the emperor.
Nero expelled his mother from the palace and immediately poisoned Britannicus at the feast, fearing no one and not embarrassed by anything. After that, he continued violent and vile debauchery and all sorts of tomfoolery. The act was soon dismissed - not because the mother so wanted, but because Poppaea appeared in the field of view, whose husband, a Roman horseman (professional military man), participated in almost all the outrages that Nero was up to.
Poppaea vs. Agrippina
Poppaea was noble, rich, beautiful, voluptuous, and, moreover, very intelligent. She led the emperor into the distance along the merry road of villainy. Her husband was sent to Lusitania, but not offended, as he was made the ruler of this glorious province. By the way, he gave up revelry and debauchery there, plunged into state concerns and succeeded. Even after Nero was the emperor for 120 days. But that was later. And now Poppaea settled closer to the throne and instilled in Nero such a frightening disgust for his own mother that he decided to kill.
Several attempts were unsuccessful, including those that were cunningly conceived and difficult and expensive to execute: the case of a ship specially built to fall apart with Agrippina on board, for example. Agrippina, I must admit, understood everything and behaved just stoically.
How did it come about
But the Roman emperor Nero was not going to retreat in front of difficulties, and his policy towards his mother was uncompromising. Agrippina was killed after all, and quite subtly. This time, Nero secured himself before the Romans: the freedman of Agrippina with a dagger was previously detained and accused of criminal plans against the emperor.
The most interesting thing about this story is that Seneca was not only aware of the terrible design. He also helped the pupil compose a letter to the Senate, where he explained the need for Nero's murder of his own mother. Moreover, her emperor did not kill.
Just after the arrest of her former slave with a dagger at the ready, she got scared and committed suicide. And she died from multiple blows with a male heavy sword, yes. Fell on the sword seventeen times ... Two thousand years since then, the technique has been alive. And the biography of the Roman emperor Nero is just beginning from this place.
Unworthy inclinations
It should be noted that it was very little like the modern world. If in our country the word of a famous artist or musician is perceived by the people as a revelation from above, then in Rome in the time of Nero there were no more despicable people than actors and musicians. Clownery and any entertainment of others is a shame and dishonor. The people recognized only gladiatorial fights and the eating of criminals by wild animals. This is a sight worthy of men.
Nero did not just dislike the fights of gladiators. He banned them. The animals in the circus were still feasting on criminals, since there was no normal penitentiary system and punishment system in the empire. Therefore, wholly and completely according to Roman law, various criminals were given to beasts. Nero did not like that either. He loved theater and music. He composed poems, sang them, masterly playing along with himself on the cithara, and terribly did not like it when he was torn away from this occupation. That is, the beautiful did not make him better. Rather, the opposite is true.
Strength and weakness of art
He made noble matrons and patricians dishonor their high name, participating in theatrical performances, musical and poetry competitions, horse races in the circus, fencing for show, and not for business, and even right in front of the people, instead of gladiators ...
It was impossible for the patricians to look at all this, but it was also impossible to leave. The doors of the theaters were tightly closed and no one was allowed out until the end of the performance. Nero willingly showed his fellow citizens his dramatic and musical art. And the Romans themselves gradually got used to the unbridled orgies, and at concerts during the performance they learned to applaud their emperor in Greek - to the beat of the music.
Shame and oppression
Nero, the Roman emperor, whose years of reign were overgrown with all sorts of ugly stories, almost did not deal with public affairs. He loved art and devoted most of his time to it. The rest is for inventive revelry and orgies. That is, if he inflicted damage on his country, it was more a shame. However, such extravagance required continuous investment, and the empire's finances suddenly came to an end.
Now covetousness was added to the shame. It was necessary to get a coin to continue the fun. Trials and executions began for insult to the majesty. They were extremely massive due to specially hired provocateurs and informers.
Honor is a fight!
The educated, the wealthy and the smart were particularly affected. It became dangerous to be honest. It was during this period that one of the most decent people of Rome, the Praetorian prefect and educator of Nero, Burr, died. Even Tacitus does not know if his death was natural. He was the only one who opposed Nero's marriage to Poppaea, because, like all the people, he was very fond of his wife, the well-behaved Octavia.
Immediately after the death of his mentor, Nero, the Roman emperor, whose interesting biography facts, and so began to divorce Octavia and marry Poppaea. The murderous repression continued. Noble Romans were killed without trial, accusations were built from scratch, and Nero no longer had any restraint.
Seneca was a philosopher and understood perfectly well that he could not influence the emperor and reason with him. The emperor became hostile to him, and the teacher decided to quietly retire from public affairs. Guessed wrong. I had to open my own veins on my own, filling the bathtub with water half and half with blood. But how. After all, he, too, was not only famous, but really rich, and Nero had nothing to celebrate.
Short-lived widowhood
As soon as Octavia ceased to be an empress, on the false accusation of Poppea, she was exiled to the island of Pandarius and killed there. Rome was saddened, but the Senate ordered to celebrate the next salvation of the emperor. So disasters became the cause of the holidays. And Nero never tired of celebrating.
However, Poppaea also celebrated the victory for a short time. Having achieved everything she wanted, she suddenly fell out of love with unbridled orgies. Probably old quickly. The most wrong thing in her behavior was that she began to nag Nero about this and demand a change in her lifestyle. Nero listened, listened and began to beat her. Once it worked out to death.
Fire in Rome
Where there is revelry, there are inevitable disasters. The best part of the people of the empire was exterminated, the people became impoverished and degraded. The bottom line is this: in 64, Rome caught fire. It all started with the benches that clung to the circus. Everything that could burn, and almost everything could burn, because Rome was then basically a wooden city. For six whole days the streets were on fire, then the fire was stopped, but not for long, it flared up again, and blazed for three more days. Of the fourteen districts of Rome, only four survived.
Nero watched this colorful spectacle with inspiration and sang songs about the burning Troy. For this, the people accused him of setting fire to Rome. This is how the biography of the Roman emperor Nero was overgrown with creepy details. Most likely, this is slander, since the emperor has accumulated a lot of ill-wishers. Still, in the intervals between bel canto classes, Nero himself helped extinguish the fire, fed the hungry and even saved someone from the fire. And after the fire, with his own money, he built something like a hostel for many of the victims of the fire.
New rome
This time the city was rebuilt according to good architectural and engineering plans: the streets became wide, the houses were made of stone. Beautiful squares with colonnades, fountains and pools are spread everywhere. The construction proceeded quickly, Nero spared no expense to restore Rome.
And the new imperial palace surpassed in size and beauty all that existed hitherto not only in Rome. It was incredibly magnificent: several huge buildings, distant from each other, but united by colonnades, with artificial reservoirs, meadows, olive groves and vineyards in the areas between the buildings.
A statue depicting Nero as the sun god adorned the main palace. The Romans called this grandiose project of architects Celer and Sever "Golden Palace". It is a pity that he did not live to this day, after a dozen years he also burned down. An epigram went around Rome when the true scale of the construction became visible, advising all Romans to move to Veii (a city eighteen kilometers from Rome), if only Veii would not swallow this palace.
Persecution
And still, despite the exceptional generosity and even kindness towards the burnt people, Nero continued to be accused of the fire of Rome. However, Nero, the Roman emperor, would not have been Nero if he had not figured out how to ward off this trouble from himself.
He blamed Christians for the arson. And I must say, they believed him. Almost no one liked Christians in Rome, considering them a harmful sect. There were reasons for this. Christian teaching easily recruited young people and old people - these are the most easily amenable to religious opium of the population, who understand and are close to the idea of universal forgiveness. In addition, Christians had a tradition to write off all property in favor of the church, going to the Lord. But all the newly called had relatives who hoped for an inheritance.
Many Christians were torn apart by wild animals in the circus arenas. Many were crucified like Christ. And St. Peter - not like Christ, but upside down, as he himself wished. Thus, funds appeared for the construction and arrangement of Roman streets and the "golden palace". But it was not only Christians who suffered for the rebuilding of the city. All the provinces were mercilessly plundered, even from the Greek cities the best works of art were taken away to decorate Rome.
Conspiracy
The Roman people had to endure the vileness of the emperor for a long time, but the end of patience always comes. The wealthy Roman Piso, clever and respected for this, apparently already foresaw his turn to "dispossession" and death. He decided to get ahead of the emperor and began to look for like-minded people. I found it quickly and a lot. But the people were so demoralized by the years of the wildest revelry that the conspirators could not take action. Many were afraid, others were not sure of the correctness of the plan.
The idea was great: together with Nero to kill the monarchy. The Republican Party consisted of noble people - equestrian, senatorial, patrician families. They all lacked prudence and determination. An informer was found, and Nero punished everyone fiercely. Among the suspects was Seneca, who was close friends with Piso. This fact was enough for the prosecution.
Nero allowed Seneca to choose his own death, and Seneca opened his veins. Rome wavered. Executions - one more terrible than the other - were carried out daily, and orgies and revelry did not stop between executions. Even nature helped Nero to exterminate the Romans: thirty thousand people died from the epidemic. Nevertheless, Nero, the Roman emperor, did not stop the orgy. Photos of the surviving frescoes of those years are very eloquent.
Finally, an uprising broke out in the provinces and reached Rome. The Senate gladly met the will of the people and sentenced Nero to public execution. Nero fled from Rome, but the horsemen, who had previously guarded him, and now followed the orders of the Senate, overtook the fugitive. Then Nero ordered his freedman to stab himself. It was 68. Nero was thirty years old. Fourteen of them he ruled over Rome.
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