Nero the Executioner

It’s a marvel how time alters history. Take Nero, generally considered by historians until the late 20th Century to have been “Rome’s worst emperor.” A typical assessment from The Illustrated World History, edited by Hammerton and Barnes (1935): “Nero was one of the few emperors who seem to have completely deserved their evil reputation.”

Historians today tend to give him a more sympathetic review. Some doubt Nero metaphorically “fiddled while Rome burned.” They point out that he had the city rebuilt -- and instituted fire safety measures -- after most of it was reduced to ashes in 64 A.D. They wax skeptical of Nero’s reputation for particular atrocities against the early church. (Nero was ruler at the time of the apostle Paul’s execution. It was said he ordered the bodies of Christians to be used as torches.)

Nonetheless, few can dispute that Nero displayed sadism enough during his dreadful reign. His fellow Roman leaders perhaps feared him even more than the Christians. Many were killed for plots or rivalries, real and imagined, against the emperor.

The nadir of his insanity was the killing of his own mother, who’d denounced him for an illicit affair. Nero subsequently divorced his wife, had her executed, and married his mistress Poppaea Sabina. Poppaea had little time for royal marital bliss; Nero kicked her to death and took a new wife (whose previous husband he’d had executed).

It ended in 68 A.D. The Roman senate successfully deposed him and, pursued by the army, Nero committed suicide.