Emperor Nero, Persecutor of the Christians
Since his earliest childhood his mother, Agrippina, had known but one ambition, namely, that he should some day be emperor. Wily, unprincipled and daring, she married Claudius, the emperor, and compelled him to adopt her son, Nero, as his son. She then poisoned Claudius and had Nero, a youth of seveenteen, proclaimed emperor.
Not long after becoming emperor he murdered his step-brother, Britannicus, the rightful heir to the throne, lest the fourteen-year-old lad should try to usurp the throne.
In A.D. 59, five years after she had given him the highest position in the world, he murdered his mother. During the next few years he murdered his wife, Octavia, a daughter of Claudius; his tutor, Seneca; the poet, Lucan, and others of high and low degree.
In a fit of rage he kicked his second wife, Poppaea Sabina, causing her death; then he killed Octavia's sister, Antonia, because she refused to marry him, and married Mesalina after executing her husband.
When Rome was burned in 64, at first, the people accused Nero of setting the city on fire. He at once sought to turn attention from himself and laid the blame on the Christians.
For the first time the Roman Government recognized the existence of this new religion and used all her power to destroy it, charging the Christians with the evil deed of their own wicked emperor.
The people had become degenerate and were pleased when Nero made torches of living Christians to light the Roman festivals, when he threw Christian men and women to the beasts in the arena, and used other fiendish modes of punishment.
Three years after the burning of Rome, Paul, a leader of the hated Christians was brought to Rome for trial, perhaps before the wicked emperor himself. According to tradition, Paul was beheaded about three miles outside of the city, during the reign of Nero, who was himself later hunted down by patriotic citizens and who committed suicide in the summer of 68.
