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.