2.7 Revolt of Vindex and Galba and Nero's death.After his death, at least three leaders of short-lived, failed rebellions presented themselves as " Nero reborn" in order to gain popular support. In the eastern provinces of the Empire, a popular legend arose that Nero had not died and would return. Some modern historians question the reliability of the ancient sources on Nero's tyrannical acts, considering his popularity among the Roman commoners. Tacitus claims that Nero seized Christians as scapegoats for the fire and had them burned alive, seemingly motivated not by public justice but by personal cruelty. Suetonius tells that many Romans believed that the Great Fire of Rome was instigated by Nero to clear land for his planned " Golden House". The historian Tacitus claims the Roman people thought him compulsive and corrupt. Most Roman sources offer overwhelmingly negative assessments of his personality and reign.
His death sparked a brief period of civil war known as the Year of the Four Emperors.
He fled Rome, and on 9 June AD 68 he committed suicide. When the Roman senator Vindex rebelled, with support from the eventual Roman emperor Galba, Nero was declared a public enemy and condemned to death in absentia. The Bosporan Kingdom was briefly annexed to the empire, and the First Jewish–Roman War began.
The Roman general Suetonius Paulinus quashed a major revolt in Britain led by the Iceni's queen Boudica. The costs involved were borne by local elites either directly or through taxation, and were much resented.ĭuring Nero's reign, the general Corbulo fought the Roman–Parthian War of 58–63, and made peace with the hostile Parthian Empire. The provision of such entertainments made Nero popular among lower-class citizens, but his performances undermined the Imperial dignity. This scandalised his aristocratic contemporaries as these occupations were usually the domain of slaves, public entertainers and infamous persons. He ordered the construction of amphitheaters, promoted athletic games and contests, and made public appearances as an actor, poet, musician, and charioteer. Nero's practical contributions to Rome's governance focused on diplomacy, trade, and culture. After Poppaea's death in unclear circumstances, Nero in short succession married an aristocratic woman Statilia Messalina and another freedman, Sporus, whom he had castrated. He is said to have "married" a freedman Pythagoras, acting the part of bride at the ceremony. Most Roman sources present Nero as sexually dissolute. Roman sources also implicate Nero in the deaths of his wife Claudia Octavia – supposedly so that he could marry Poppaea Sabina – and of his foster-brother Britannicus. His power struggle with his mother was eventually resolved when he had her murdered. In the early years of his reign Nero was advised and guided by his mother Agrippina, his tutor Seneca the Younger, and his praetorian prefect Sextus Afranius Burrus, but he soon sought to rule independently and to rid himself of restraining influences. His mother married the emperor Claudius, who eventually adopted Nero as his heir when Claudius died in 54, Nero became emperor with the support of the Praetorian Guard and the Senate. When Nero was two years old, his father died. Nero was born at Antium in AD 37, the son of Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Agrippina the Younger, a great-granddaughter of the emperor Augustus. After being declared a public enemy by the Roman Senate, he committed suicide aged 30. Most contemporary sources describe him as tyrannical, self-indulgent and debauched. Nero seems to have been popular with the members of his Praetorian Guard, and with lower-class commoners in Rome and the provinces, but was deeply resented by the Roman aristocracy. He was adopted by the Roman emperor Claudius at the age of 13 and succeeded him on the throne. Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( / ˈ n ɪər oʊ/ NEER-oh born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68) was the fifth Roman emperor and the last emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 until his suicide in 68.