Although he was known for his nighttime frolicking, his actions were good-natured, if irresponsible and self-indulgent. He spent exorbitant amounts of money on artistic pursuits and around 59 A. When Burrus died and Seneca retired in the year 62, Nero divorced Octavia and had her killed, then married Poppaea. Around this time accusations of treason against Nero and the Senate began to surface, and Nero began to react harshly to any form of perceived disloyalty or criticism.
One army commander was executed for badmouthing him at a party; another politician was exiled for writing a book that made negative remarks about the Senate. Other rivals were executed in the ensuing years, allowing Nero to reduce opposition and consolidate his power. The blaze began in stores at the southeastern end of the Circus Maximus and ravaged Rome for 10 days, decimating 75 percent of the city. Although accidental fires were common at the time, many Romans believed Nero started the fire to make room for his planned villa, the Domus Aurea.
Whether or not Nero started the fire, he determined that a guilty party must be found, and he pointed the finger at the Christians, still a new and underground religion. With this accusation, persecution and torture of the Christians began in Rome. In order to finance this project, Nero needed money and set about to get it however he pleased. He sold positions in public office to the highest bidder, increased taxes and took money from the temples.
He devalued currency and reinstituted policies to confiscate property in cases of suspected treason. These new policies resulted in the Pisonian conspiracy, a plot formed in 65 by Gaius Calpurnius Piso, an aristocrat, along with knights, senators, poets and Nero's former mentor, Seneca.
As well as ordering the executions of numerous rivals, real or perceived, and even having his mother and two wives killed, Nero made many enemies through unpopular policies and confiscation of property. He was suspected of starting the great fire that destroyed much of Rome in 64 AD in order to create space to build the vast Domus Aurea - a complex of palaces and pavilions in a landscaped park with an artificial lake and a gigantic bronze statue of himself.
Nero blamed the fire on the small community of Christians, many of whom were put to death. Armed men had been despatched to apprehend him. The next moment, increasingly erratic emperor was berating himself for his cowardice. Hooves from a troop of cavalry approaching the villa to arrest Nero finally decided the matter. Rather than face execution, the cornered Nero chose to end his own life.
He made his companions promise to bury him respectably. Then he took up the dagger. Ancient History. Deserted and reviled, Nero had fled Rome in disguise to the villa of one of his freedmen. Once there, the man who had killed his wife, mother and adopted brother without compunction and was rumored to have started the Great Fire of Rome spent the last few hours of his life attempting to avoid the inevitability of his death.
Nero was so terrified of dying that he begged one of his servants to kill themselves to serve as an example to him- before a troop of armed soldiers forced his hand. Even then he needed help to drive the dagger home. However, within months of his death, rumors began that Nero still lived and would return in glory to reclaim his empire.
All were out-ed as fakes and foreign pawns.
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