it left only a few half-ruined houses. Not only the temples and public buildings, as well as private houses, but also monuments of all kinds, masterpieces of art, and libraries were destroyed, and a groat number of lives lost. Although the emperor remained at Antium during the early part of the conflagration, and only re- turned to Rome when the fire approached his palace, the people generally accused him of having purposely set fire to the city, and preventing its being put out, in order to build up a finer one on its ruins. In compli- ance with his orders the sufferers were relieved, and such as built again were aided by the state; but this did not allay the general suspicion, as he was said to have ascended the tower of Msecenas during the fire, and there recited verses on the downfall of Troy. All the processions and sacrifices which he commanded for the purpose of appeasing the gods, as well as the vast sums he squandered among the people, did not allay the suspicion. Indeed Dion and Suetonius expressly accuse him, but these writers, it is well known, were always inclined to favorably receive any scandal. Taci- tus (A nn. XV, 38) thiidis the matter doubtful, or at least all his efforts to determine Nero's part in the case failed to convince of guilt. So doubtful was Nero's character that the belief of his guilt was general at the time, and ever since the world has been inclined to judge him the perpetrator of the crime. Church historians thus treat him. Even the liberal-minded Renan, who in his UAnlechrist (Paris, 1873) has furnished the latest, full- est, most spirited, and probably most accurate delinea- tion of Nero and his time, believes this emperor to have caused the conflagration, in order to rebuild the city in greater splendor and more artistic form, and thus give renown to his reign. Says Renan : " Rome, above all things, preoccupied his [i. e. Nero's] thoughts. His project was to rebuild it from top to bottom, and to name it afresh — Neropolis. For a century past it had been one of the wonders of the world. In size it rival- led the ancient capitals of Asia, and its edifices were flne, strong, and solid. But its streets appeared mean to the taste of the daj' : for that taste tended more and more to vulgar and decorative construction, it aspired to broad effects such as rejoice the heart of gaping sight- seers, and it condescended to a thousand tricks unknown to the ancient Greeks. At the head of the whole move- ment was Nero. The new Rome which he imagined was something like the Paris of our own day— one of those artificial cities, built to order, in planning which the great point aimed at is to catch the admiration of visitors from the country and of foreigners" (p. i;)G-l-13). To remove all suspicion from himself, Nero spread the report that the Romans should regard the Christians as the authors of the fire — that mysterious sect who, like the Jews in the Middle Ages, were generally hit upon as the cause of all otherwise inexplicable calamities; and, as if Nero himself believed them guilty of this crime, he now inaugurated a series of persecutions which have made his name a byword for cruelty and inhumanity. See Neronian Peksecutions. But while busy perse- cuting the Christians, Nero found time to carry forward his scheme for the embellishment of Rome. He rebuilt in great magnificence the burned districts, and reared for himself on the Palatine Hill a splendid palace, called, from the immense profusion of its golden ornaments, the Anrea Bomus, or Golden House; and in order to pro- vide for this expenditure, and for the gratification of the Roman populace by spectacles and distributions of corn, Italy and the provinces were unsparingly plunder- ed. In A.D. 65 a powerful conspiracy was formed for the purpose of placing Piso upon the throne, but it was discovered by Nero, and the principal conspirators were put to death. Among others who suffered on this oc- casion were Lucan and Seneca; but the guilt of the lat- ter is doubtful. In the same year Poppasa died, in con- sequence of a kick which she received from her husband while she was in an advanced state of pregnancy. On the death of Poppaea Nero wished to marry Antonia,
NERO
954
NERONI
of Jerusalem by Titus, and the overthrow of the Jewish polity. According to the personnel given by Kc-nan {L'Antech>-ist, p. 173), '"Nero had a bad face, lowering looks, blue eyes, chestnut hair dressed in rows of curls, a terrible lip, and the air (wicked and stupid at the same time) as of a great silly doll, supremely self-sat i.stied, puffed up with vanity." Altliough repeatedly alluded ( to, he is not expressly named in the text of the New .-^,.| Testament (see Acts xxv, 11, etc.; Phil, i, 12, 13; iv, '^■-> . 22) ; but in the subscription (probably spurious) to the Second Epistle to Timothy he is called C(esar Xero {Kataap yiifjw}/). Many authors refer to Nero the prophecy by Jolni (Hev. xiii, 11-18) of the beast with two horns, and interpret the 18th verse as referring to the Hebrew name of Nero, "lOp ',ilb, which amounts numerically to 606, the number there given ; since, writ- ten more nearly in Roman style, "iDp 112, it amounts to 61G, which Irenajus testifies was the number found in many manuscripts in his day (see Stuart, Apoc. ii, 457 sq. ; Benary, Zdtschrift J'lir JSpeculalive The- olofjie, 1836, vol. i,"pt. ii ; Bibliotheca Siicra, 1843, p. 332 sq. ; 1844, p. 84 sq.). See Kevelatiox, Book of. Nero was the emperor before whom Paul was brought on his first imprisonment at Rome, A.D. 56-58; and in the persecution of the Christians by Nero in the year A.D. 64 the apostles Peter and Paul are supposed to have suffered martyrdom. All the autliorities furnish- ing facts in Nero's life are collected by Tillemont (^IJist, (les J-Jmpereurs, vol. i). See the monographs cited by Volbeding, Index Programmatum, p. 95, 97 ; and com- pare also Renan's UAntechrist, and the original au- thorities quoted there ; Merivale, Hist, of the Honuins un- der the Empire; Diderot, Essai sur les likf/nes de Claude et de Neron ; and the Church historians quoted in the article on Nekoxian Peusecutioxs. (J. II. \V.)