Nero

June 24, 2010 0

It was on this day in the year 64 the Roman Emperor Nero (AD 37–68) first began persecuting Christians. The persecution began after a fire erupted in Rome and burned much of the city over the course of five days. Several legends have spread about the course of events. The historian Tacitus, who was only nine at the time, says Christians confessed to the crime; but it is most likely any such confessions were induced by torture. Accidental fires were also not uncommon in Rome, which suffered two other large fires in 69 and 80. About Nero it is speculated that he played the fiddle during the fire. An unfortunate circumstance for this claim, however, is that the fiddle did not yet exist–the lyre, however, did. Suetonius and Cassius Dio do report that Nero sang “Sack of Ilium” in costume as the city was consumed in flames; but the more detailed account of Tacitus places Nero in Antium at the time of the fire, in addition to claiming that the story of Nero playing his lyre and singing as the city burned was mere rumor.

In the account of Tacitus, Nero returned home from Antium after hearing news of the fire to organize and fund a relief effort. Once the fire abated, he is said to have contributed to a new plan for re-development of the city with preventative measures–houses were spaced out, built with brick, and faced by porticos on wide roads–and a new palace complex, the Domus Aurea. Of course it also included a 30 meter statue of himself, the Colossus of Nero.

The persecution, once again according to the account of Tacitus, came on the heals of public reaction to the fire. There were rumors spreading which aimed at holding Nero responsible. To escape blame, Nero pointed his finger at the local Christians. More than this, he gave orders that they should be thrown to dogs, crucified, and burned. Here is how Tacitus describes the event:

Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians [or Chrestians] by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired.

So Tertullian identified Nero as the first persecutor of Christians, as he writes, “Examine your records. There you will find that Nero was the first that persecuted this doctrine.” And in the famous remark from his Apologeticus, “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”