"Nobody is safe."
If Nero's reign had a motto, that would be it.
I mean, he killed his stepbrother Britannicus to secure his throne.
He had his own mother, Agrippina, assassinated.
He had his wife, Claudia Octavia, executed.
He ordered his former tutor, Seneca, to take his own life.
He kicked his pregnant wife, Poppaea Sabina, during an argument, after which she died.
He later castrated a young Greek man named Sporus, who resembled Poppaea, and married him in a public ceremony.
He also loved the arts and actively participated in singing, acting and poetry, which was unusual for a Roman emperor.
Many among Rome's elite disapproved of his public performances, viewing them as beneath the dignity of an emperor.
Nero, however, seems to have fancied himself quite the artist.
So... how did a man who wasn't born heir to the throne become emperor?
Rise of Nero
Nero was born in AD 37 to Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Agrippina the Younger, the great-granddaughter of Emperor Augustus.
His father died when Nero was only three years old, and not long after, his mother was sent into exile by her brother, Emperor Caligula.
For a while, young Nero was left without either parent.
Then Caligula was assassinated in AD 41.
His uncle Claudius became emperor, and Agrippina was allowed to return from exile.
Agrippina eventually married Claudius in AD 49. Yes, her uncle.
Claudius already had a biological son, Britannicus, who would ordinarily have been the obvious successor.
But Agrippina began positioning Nero for the throne.
Nero was older than Britannicus, married Claudius' daughter Octavia, and in AD 50, Claudius officially adopted him as his son.
Nero was now Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus and suddenly stood very close to the most powerful seat in the world.
Then, in AD 54, Claudius died.
It's believed that Agrippina poisoned him, famously with mushrooms, to secure Nero's throne.
Whatever killed Claudius, Agrippina wasted no time.
The Praetorian Guard proclaimed Nero emperor, and the Senate followed. Britannicus, Claudius' biological son, was passed over.
Nero was just 16 years old.
His reign began well. With the philosopher Seneca and Praetorian prefect Burrus advising him, Nero's early government was comparatively restrained.
But the relationship between Nero and the mother who had helped put him on the throne quickly deteriorated.
Britannicus, Nero's stepbrother, died suddenly in AD 55, blamed on poison ordered by Nero.
Agrippina herself was killed in AD 59 after Nero turned against her.
Her last words to the assassins were:
Strike here, strike my womb, for this bore Nero.
By his early twenties, Nero had gone from a boy who wasn't born heir to the throne to an emperor willing to eliminate those closest to him.
But in the summer of AD 64, Nero was about to face a crisis unlike anything his reign had seen.
Rome was burning. Literally.
The Great Fire of Rome
On the night of July 18, AD 64, a fire broke out in Rome.
It started around the shops near the Circus Maximus, Rome's enormous chariot-racing stadium.
And once it started, it spread fast.
Much of the city was packed with narrow streets, wooden structures and buildings squeezed closely together. And strong winds accelerated the spread.
The fire burned for six days before finally weakening.
Then it started again.
By the time it was over, Rome had burned for roughly nine days in total.
NINE DAYS!
Of Rome's fourteen districts, only four were reportedly left untouched. Three were completely destroyed, while seven others were badly damaged.
Thousands of Romans had lost their homes.
And naturally, people wanted to know one thing:
Who started the fire?
Some accused Nero of being behind it.
Never mind the fact that Nero actively contributed to relief efforts, even opening his own properties to people who had lost their homes.
Rumors even spread that Nero was singing while Rome burned.
And for the record, it's not known what caused the fire. Nero could have been responsible, but it could just as easily have been an accident.
But politically, that hardly mattered.
Rome had burned. People were angry.
Someone needed to take the blame.
And Nero found someone.
The Christians.
The Torches of Rome
Christians were still a small and unpopular minority in Rome.
They refused to worship the Roman gods and wouldn't worship the emperor either.
Their faith made them convenient scapegoats.
So Nero blamed the Christians for the fire.
He essentially played the "enemy of my enemy is my friend" card.
Christians within Rome were rounded up and killed.
Some were covered in animal skins and torn apart by dogs.
Others were crucified.
And some were covered in flammable material, tied to stakes and set on fire at night.
They became human torches.
Nero even opened his gardens for the spectacle while games were held for the crowds.
Christians, burning on poles, lighting up his gardens.
This wasn't simply execution.
It was entertainment.
The cruelty became so extreme that some of the people eventually began to feel sorry for the Christians.
Meanwhile, Nero's grip on Rome was beginning to slip.
The Fall of Nero
By AD 68, Nero's grip on the empire was falling apart.
Rebellions broke out across the provinces, beginning with the governor Gaius Julius Vindex in Gaul.
Soon, Galba, the governor of Hispania, joined the revolt and declared himself against Nero.
Then, one night, Nero woke up to an empty palace.
His personal guard, the Praetorian Guard, had abandoned him.
Nero fled Rome with two servants and took refuge at the villa of one of his freedmen.
The Senate declared him a public enemy and condemned him to death.
Nero didn't wait to be captured and executed. He chose to take his own life.
On June 9, AD 68, with the help of his secretary Epaphroditus, Nero stabbed himself in the throat.
He was only 30 years old.
His famous last words were:
What an artist the world loses in me!
He had ruled Rome for only 14 years.
The Church Nero Couldn't Kill
Nero's great persecution of the Christian faith was almost 2,000 years ago.
The faith he persecuted has outlasted him many times over.
Tertullian famously wrote that:
The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.
The idea is simple: the more they persecuted the Church, the more it grew. For every saint who fell, more would rise in their place.
This reminds me of the Lord's words in John 12:24:
I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives
Nero had Christians crucified.
He had them torn apart by dogs.
He turned them into human torches.
And yet, he couldn't kill their faith.
Nero died. The Church didn't.
