Nero

Nero

"Let Nero be ever before your eyes, swollen with the pride of a long line of Caesars… an Emperor condemned by his own people… Nero will always be regretted"

(Tacitus: The Principle of Adoption)

Throughout the ages, Nero has been viewed as a rogue and a disgrace to the Roman Empire, thanks to unreliable primary sources. Because of this, Nero is now renowned world wide as the man who hated Christians, the man who killed Jesus and the man who wanted nothing but to satisfy his own desire of personal gain. This, though was not the case.

Ever since birth, Nero has been slandered, shunned and looked down upon; but now (thanks to more reliable secondary sources) we know that these allegations are untrue, and are nothing but a petty stereo type which was branded upon Nero years ago.

Nero's childhood was anything but that of a fairy tale.

Even before his birth, Nero was ridiculed and disliked, Suetonius himself having proclaimed "Any child born to himself (Nero's father) and Agrippina was bound to have a detestable nature".

Nero's father, Domitius, passed away when Nero was three years old, and so his Mother took care of Nero until the age of ten. At this age, his then Uncle Claudius adopted Nero, because Agrippina was exiled from Rome. Claudius (another roman emperor) passed away when Nero was seventeen years old, leaving Emperorship to Nero.

According to Suetonius, Nero immediately turned over all Roman public and private affairs to his mother's management. Primary sources then go on to list Nero's accomplishments and contemporary ideas, such as the founding of a colony at Antium for retired centurions, Nero's promise to base roman law upon that of Augustus, and Nero's obvious attempts to always look ge...

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...Jones, Plutarch and Rome, Oxford House University Press, Ely House, 1971

pages 18,19,22,24,25,29,78,79,80,125

SECONDARY SOURCES

 John Malam, Indiana Jones Explores Ancient Rome, Evans Brothers Ltd, 1994

page 25

 P Levy, People who Made History In Ancient Rome, White Tomson Publishing Ltd, 2000

pages 27-30

 Larousse Encyclopedia of Ancient and Medieval History, Gillan Auge, 1963, Paul Hamlyn

London

205-206

 The History Of the Ancient and Medieval World-The Roman Empire Volume Six,

Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 1996

Pages 768-774

 Fact or Fiction, Alice Cary, Biography, March 2000, Volume Four, Issue Three

page 28

INTERNET SITES

 http://www.crystallinks.com/plutarch.html

 www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/tacitus/tacitus_hist1a