* The earliest writer who asserts an extension of the imperial persecution to the provinces is Orosius (Hist. vii. 7), who wrote
δ. 400 4.D. Regarding a mutilated inscription found at Pompeii, of doubtful interpretation, but supposed to refer to a bloody persecution of Christians there, prior to 4.0. 79, see Aubé, Perséc. Ὁ. 415 f., and Schaff, Apostolic Christianity, p. 384.
ce.
art. PETER.* ‘The alleged banishment of St. John under Nero (contrary to Iren. adv. Her. v. 30,
and Eus. HZ iii. 18. 20) rests mainly + on what is
regarded as strong internal evidence for the com-
position of Rev in 68-69 (see REVELATION [Book The Neronian persecution was the first of three outstanding events in close succession (the
OF)).
destruction of Jerusalem and the settlement of St. John in Asia being the other two) which paved the way for the consolidation of Jewish and Gentile Christendom. Amid common peril and suffering, the sectional friction noted in Ph 1°" would decline and mutual sympathy increase ; while the fiery ordeal would rid the Roman Church at once of Judaizing false brethren who alienated Gentile believers from the Jewish Christian com- munity, and also of Gentile professors whose lax morality prejudiced Jewish believers against Gentile Christians as a whole.
In A.D. 65 the widespread discontent aroused by the conflagration and its supposed origin, by the divorce and death of Octavia, and by the emperor’s murderous pea and extortionate levies, issued in a powerful conspiracy being organized, the ob- ject of which was to depose Nero, and to enthrone Calp. Piso, a man of noble birth, great wealth, and general popularity. Many senators, knights, and other influential persons were drawn into the oe including Fenius Rufus, one of the prefects ;
lautius, consul-elect ; Lucan the poet, Seneca’s nephew ; and Senecio, one of Nero’s most intimate courtiers. The conspiracy was prematurely dis- closed by the imprudence or the treachery of some who were implicated, and the leaders of the movement were put to death. Among others condemned without evidence was Seneca, whom Nero constrained to commit suicide. A reign of terror ensued. ‘The city was thronged with funerals, the Capitol with victims’ (Tac. Ann. xv. 71). On flimsy pretexts, almost every prominent citizen whose virtue rebuked Nero’s vices, whose wealth tempted his cupidity, or whose popularit excited his jealous fear, was mercilessly executed. The most notable victims were the senators Thrasea and Scrranus, whose death Tacitus (Ann. xv. 21) ascribes to Nero’s passionate desire to ‘ extirpate virtue itself.’ Petronius, long a prime favourite, killed himself to avoid execution. The cruelty of the emperor was matched by the callousness of a populace whose hostility he averted by largesses and spectacles ; by the servility, also, of a debased senate which condoned the condemnation of its noblest members. It outdid the former deification of deceased emperors by decreeing the erection of a temple to Nero, as to a god, in his lifetime ; and it voted divine honours to Poppa, at the instance of the emperor, for once remorseful, when he had killed her with a kick during pregnancy (Tac. Ann. xv. 74, xvi. 21 f.).
Amid his career of shameless debauchery, un- natural self-prostitution, and murderous frenzy, Nero remained a devotee of art. He played on the lyre, and was vain of his voice; he posed as an orator, and wrote tolerable poetry; he attained
* Nevo occupies a prominent place in apocryphal and legend- ary ‘Acta of Apostles,’ particularly in the Acts of Peter and Paul. He is there represented as deceived by Simon Magus hha zh a magic trick) into the belief that Simon after being
eheaded had come to life again, Ultimately, when Simon attempts to fly, Peter’s invocation causes him to fall into the Via Sacra and to be killed. This, however, does not prevent Nero from ordering Peter to be crucified and Paul to be beheaded.
{ The external evidence includes (1) the title of the Syriac Version of Rev (ascribed to 6th cent.); (2) the Syriac Apoory- phal History of John (Wright’s Trans. ii. 56); (3) Hieron. ado. Jov. i, 26, where (if the reading be correct) Tertullian is in- accurately reported as ascribing to Nero St. John’s torture prior to exile.
Regarding St. Peter’s alleged arrival in me and gh Gas about the same time, see
some proficiency in painting and sculpture; he acted on the public stage, and was an accomplished charioteer (Tac. Ann. xiv. 14, 21; Suet. Nero, 52, 53). A visit to Greece, long projected, and accomplished in A.D. 66, provided ee with the opportunity not only of gratifying his artistie tastes, but of enjoying an apparently greater appreciation of his talents than even a servile Roman crowd could supply. National Greek games, which recurred in successive years, were all crowded into the period of his visit, so that he might be awarded every notable prize for music, acting, and chariot-racing, and attain the coveted distinction of ‘periodonikes,’ or universal victor. He rewarded Greek adulation by declaring Achaia ‘free’; and endeavoured at once to benefit Greek commerce and to glorify himself by initiating a scheme—soon given up—for piercing the Isthmus of Corinth (Suet. Nero, 23f.; Dio, Ixiii. 10-16).
The visit to Greece caused no interruption in the course of imperial bloodshed. Rich victims were to be found in Achaia, asin Italy. Ignoble jealousy and fear prompted Nero to summon from the East the brilliant conqueror Corbulo, only to condemn him to immediate suicide, the general’s sole crime being that he had been urged, but had refused, to proclaim himself emperor. In Rome executions and confiscations continued under the delegated authority of Helius, a freedman (Dio, | Ixiii. 12, 17). Meanwhile, however, disaffection among citizens and armies had developed into an organized conspiracy to place Galba, governor of Hither Spain, on the throne; and when Nero returned to Rome in the spring of 68, loaded with | laurels, it was already too late to stem the tide of | insurrection. Sycophantie senators and courtiers deserted him; the preetorian guard was seduced | by bribes from its mercenary allegiance. Eventu- ally, Nero fled from Rome in disguise to the suburban villa of a faithful freedman ; and, after exclaiming Qualis artifex pereo! stabbed himself on the approach of emissaries from the senate, to avoid a more painful and ignominious doom (Suet. Nero, 42-49). A touching incident lights up the ‘loom of this closing ‘tragedy of the Casars.’