Nero

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Nero \Ne"ro\ (n[=e]"r[-o]), prop. n.
     A Roman emperor notorious for debauchery and barbarous
     cruelty; hence, any profligate and cruel ruler or merciless
     tyrant. -- {Ne*ro"ni*an} (n[-e]*r[=o]"n[i^]*an), a.
     [1913 Webster] Nero (originally Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus,
     later Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus). Born at


     Antium, Italy, Dec. 15, 37 a. d.: committed suicide near
     Rome, June 9, 68. Roman emperor 54-68, son of Domitius
     Ahenobarbus and Agrippina (daughter of Germanicus).
     He was adopted by his stepfather, the emperor Claudius, in
     50, and in 53 married Octavia, the daughter of Claudius by
     Messalina. In 54 Claudius was poisoned by Agrippina, who
     caused her son to be proclaimed to the exclusion of
     Britannicus, the son of Claudius. His former tutors, the
     philosopher Seneca and Burrus, commander of the pretorian
     guards, were placed at the head of the government, and the
     early years of his reign were marked, on the whole, by
     clemency and justice. He caused his rival Britannicus to be
     removed by poison in 55. In 59 he procured the assassination
     of his mother, of whose control he had become impatient.
     Burrus died in 62, whereupon Seneca retired from public life.
     Freed from the restraint of his former advisers, he gave free
     rein to a naturally tyrannical and cruel disposition. He
     divorced Octavia in order to marry Poppaea, and shortly
     afterward put Octavia to death (62). Poppaea ultimately died
     from the effects of a kick administered by her brutal
     husband. Having been accused of kindling the fire which in 64
     destroyed a large part of Rome, he sought to divert attention
     from himself by ordering a persecution of the Christians,
     whom he accused of having caused the Conflagration. He put
     Seneca to death in 65, and 66-68 visited Greece, where he
     competed for the prizes as a musician and charioteer in the
     religious festivals. He was overthrown by a revolt under
     Galba, and stabbed himself to death with the assistance of
     his secretary.
     But the imperial Reign of Terror was limited to a
     comparatively small number of families in Rome. The provinces
     ware undoubtedly better governed than in the later days of
     the Republic, and even in Rome itself the common people
     strewed flowers on the grave of Nero.
     --Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders, I. 6.
     [Century Dict. 1906]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  Nero
       n : Roman Emperor notorious for his monstrous vice and fantastic
           luxury (was said to have started a fire that destroyed
           much of Rome in 64) but the Empire remained prosperous
           during his rule (37-68) [syn: {Nero Claudius Caesar
           Drusus Germanicus}, {Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus}]

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Nero
     occurs only in the superscription (which is probably spurious,
     and is altogether omitted in the R.V.) to the Second Epistle to
     Timothy. He became emperor of Rome when he was about seventeen
     years of age (A.D. 54), and soon began to exhibit the character
     of a cruel tyrant and heathen debauchee. In May A.D. 64, a
     terrible conflagration broke out in Rome, which raged for six
     days and seven nights, and totally destroyed a great part of the
     city. The guilt of this fire was attached to him at the time,
     and the general verdict of history accuses him of the crime.
     "Hence, to suppress the rumour," says Tacitus (Annals, xv. 44),
     "he falsely charged with the guilt, and punished with the most
     exquisite tortures, the persons commonly called Christians, who
     are hated for their enormities. Christus, the founder of that
     name, was put to death as a criminal by Pontius Pilate,
     procurator of Judea, in the reign of Tiberius; but the
     pernicious superstition, repressed for a time, broke out again,
     not only throughout Judea, where the mischief originated, but
     through the city of Rome also, whither all things horrible and
     disgraceful flow, from all quarters, as to a common receptacle,
     and where they are encouraged. Accordingly, first three were
     seized, who confessed they were Christians. Next, on their
     information, a vast multitude were convicted, not so much on the
     charge of burning the city as of hating the human race. And in
     their deaths they were also made the subjects of sport; for they
     were covered with the hides of wild beasts and worried to death
     by dogs, or nailed to crosses, or set fire to, and, when day
     declined, burned to serve for nocturnal lights. Nero offered his
     own gardens for that spectacle, and exhibited a Circensian game,
     indiscriminately mingling with the common people in the habit of
     a charioteer, or else standing in his chariot; whence a feeling
     of compassion arose toward the sufferers, though guilty and
     deserving to be made examples of by capital punishment, because
     they seemed not to be cut off for the public good, but victims
     to the ferocity of one man." Another Roman historian, Suetonius
     (Nero, xvi.), says of him: "He likewise inflicted punishments on
     the Christians, a sort of people who hold a new and impious
     superstition" (Forbes's Footsteps of St. Paul, p. 60).
     
       Nero was the emperor before whom Paul was brought on his first
     imprisonment at Rome, and the apostle is supposed to have
     suffered martyrdom during this persecution. He is repeatedly
     alluded to in Scripture (Acts 25:11; Phil. 1:12, 13; 4:22). He
     died A.D. 68.