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From cautious ruler to cruel monster: The development of the image of Nero as murderer, arsonist and persecutor of Christians

From cautious ruler to cruel monster: The development of the image of Nero as murderer, arsonist and persecutor of Christians

By Gertrude Van de Ketterij

Graduate Paper, Leiden University, 2009

Imperium Nero

Introduction: “He (Nero) Rome brende for his delicasie, the senatours he slow upon a day, to heere how men wolde weep and crie; and slow his brother, and by his suster lay. His mooder made he in piteous array. For he her womb slitte, to biholde, wher he conceyved was (…)”

“Tacitus, Dio and Suetonius are writing a lot about the blood of Nero’s victims. But if we see it from Nero’s site, than the executions, the forced suicides, the matricide were necessary for the safety of the emperor and the good of his state. Much of Nero’s monstrosity would fall away.”

My topic for this research is the development of the image of the fifth emperor of Rome, Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus. I made once a paper about a historical novel that was named: The flames of Rome. I had to discuss which elements were historical and which were originated in the fantasy of the author. I soon found out that it was a difficult subject and that there was no consensus at all about Nero’s role during the fire. It seemed that my image of Nero was too negative. So I wanted to know whether the image of Nero has always been so negative. But how do you start such a complex research? I choose to start my research with an inquiry for two reasons: to analyze which image of Nero is prominent under certain people nowadays and to analyze how much influence the historians have on the ‘popular’ image. I will try to answer the following questions: How did we get such a negative image of Nero? Has it always been so negative or was there once a positive view? I will start in the 21th century and I will end in Antiquity. This means that I can follow the traces of the development back into time.



Nero died when he was thirty years old, but there is much to say about his short live. Therefore I will only look at three aspects of his image. I will illustrate with those three aspects that the image of Nero became more and more negative, until modern and post-modern times. The first aspect I will have a look at is Nero as murderer of his relatives. To analyze the sources I asked the following questions: Which murders are mentioned and seen as historical in the sources? Are those murders motivated and which motivations are mentioned? As second and third aspect I took Nero as arsonist and Nero as persecutor of Christians. In some sources there is a link between those two aspects, therefore I will take those two aspects together. I asked the following questions to analyze the sources: Is Nero seen as an arsonist? Which motives are mentioned? Is there a link with the fire of Rome and the persecution of Christians? And is there anything said about why the Christians were persecuted ?

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