Why has the ancient Roman emperor Nero depicted as a cruel man?

Answer 1

Nero was popular among the lower classes, but unpopular with the aristocracy. Nero pursued policies to help the poor. He thought that the poor were taxed too heavily and reduced the tax rates. He confronted tax collectors who were too harsh on the poor and replaced them with other collectors. He also made tax records, which previously were secret, public. He fought against corruption. He put limits on the amounts of fines and bails and on the fees charged by lawyers. He protected freedmen and opposed a proposal to allow patrons to re-enslave them.

Most Roman writers were aristocrats. The writers who made allegations against Nero were biased against him. They did not hesitate to smear him and to create gossip stories. They had plenty of ammunition. Nero was the step-son of the previous emperor, Claudius. His mother, Agrippina the Younger, murdered Claudius to promote succession by Nero. It was thought that Nero was privy to that. Agrippina wanted to control the young emperor and be the effective ruler. Nero fought for his independence, getting rid of his mother's allies and other opponents. As she was losing power, Agrippina tried to promote Nero's step-son, Britannicus, to the throne. Britannicus died suddenly and suspiciously the day before he was due to come of age. Agrippina continued to conspire against him and Nero expelled her form the court and then had her murdered. Nero divorced his wife to marry another woman and exiled her. After public protests, he had to allow her to return to Rome, but she was executed shortly after.

In his process of consolidating power, Nero made himself unpopular with the aristocracy. He levied accusations of treason against opponents and had one executed and another exiled. He slandered the senate in a book. This led to a conspiracy. It failed and Nero executed the conspirators, including a poet. He forced Seneca, a philosopher and previously his tutor in his youth and his foremost adviser in government, to commit suicide after he admitted having discussed the plot with the conspirators. After a military revolt led to his suicide, the aristocracy rejoiced. It was claimed that the people also rejoiced. However, there is evidence that the poor were very upset.

The allegations that Nero set fire to Rome are most likely to be untrue. It was alleged that he did this to create room to build the Golden House (Domus Aurea), an enormous imperial palace which was like a mini city with many buildings, gardens and a lake. However, these allegations came from writers who were not around at the time of the fire. They also wrote that Nero sang a song in a stage costume during the fire (Nero was an eccentric and fancied himself as an actor and gave stage performances) and a popular legend had him playing the fiddle during the fire. However, one writer who was around at the time did not even mention the fire and another (Tacitus) said that Nero elsewhere at the time of the fire and returned to Rome to organise and fund a relief effort and that he searched for people caught in the debris for days without bodyguards. He arranged for food supplies and gave shelter to the homeless in his palaces. Moreover, the fiddle did not exist in Rome at that time. Nero's eccentricity and extravagance made to create the later allegations.

Answer 2

There is no question that in his early years as emperor Nero helped ancient Rome in many ways.Much of his bad press came from the writings of Roman historians Tacitus and Cassius Dio. His list of cruel deeds begins with reported events that are difficult to prove. However, with that said, his list of reported crimes are the following and they are not in consecutive order:

1. Had his mother killed, Nero believed she was plotting against him;

2. Had his step brother Britannicus poisoned;

3. Had Rubellius and Faustus Sulla murdered for treason;

4. Had his former wife Octavia killed;

5. Killed his next wife Poppaea;

6. Had a freedman castrated and then "married " him;

7. Began the official persecutions of Christians. They met horrible deaths by being publicly tortured and burned; and

8. Had his retired teacher, Seneca, to commit suicide for conspiring against him in the so-called Piso conspiracy.

In 68 AD CE the Senate declared him to be an enemy of the people and he committed suicide.

He was never "tried" for his crimes.

His death brought to an end the family of emperors known as the Julio-Claudians