The Reasons why Emperor Nero as not Good Essay Example

Emperor Nero was the emperor of Rome during the time called Pax Romana. He was born on December 15, 37 AD to his mother Agripinna in modern day Italy. Nero's reign lasted from 54 AD to 68 AD and went down as one of the worst. He came to power after his mother had poisoned Cladius so he became leader. During his time as emperor he did many bad things and was looked down upon by Roman citizens. Emperor Nero was not a good emperor for Rome because he killed innocent civilians, was distracted by his love of arts and games, and poor usage of Rome's treasury.

One of the three characteristics that demonstrated Nero was not a good emperor was his unnecessary killings of civilians. The first example of Nero killing an innocent person was when he had his own mother killed who went by the name of Agrippina in the year 59 AD. He made many attempts including breaking the roof she slept below, but was successful after he tried drowning his mother but was unsuccessful so he ordered an assassin to kill her. His reasoning behind the unnecessary killing was that she was trying to take control over Rome by domination. Nero also killed his wife Octavia for the sole reason of falling in love with a different woman named Poppea Sabina. Senators, or basically any person who threatened power to him, was either killed or alienated. Once he had senator Publius Clodius Thrasea Paetus killed for having the human emotion of being sad. The troubled Emperor had two of his advisors aligned because they did not agree with him. One of Emperor Nero’s most well known forms of killing was to the Christians. Since he was blamed for the great fire of Rome which occurred in 64 AD he had to put the blame on something rather than himself so he blamed the Christians. The Christians were viewed as abnormal because of their traditions and beliefs. He gave Christians identifying badges and began a mass persecution similar to a genocide. He would often force them to participate in sporting events for the amusement of him and have them rampaged by bulls and dogs. The crazy person would also have them nailed to crosses and put on fire. The examples prove that he unnecessarily killed innocent people. If anyone were to have belief they would be killed which is certainly unnecessary. Also when he killed Christans he could have dealt with the situation himself but instead he decided to persecute many innocent civilians who had done nothing wrong. Killing his wife just because he liked a different woman is definitely unnecessary because all she did was live. While the innocent killings of civilians was bad he also had another “strange habit.”

The next reason why Nero was not a good emperor for Rome was the distractions art and games caused him. While under the rule of Rome Nero showed a great interest in the criteria of liberal arts. His interest lay more with art and theater than the Roman populus, due to his love of this he was viewed down on by the majority of Romans. Romas viewed it out of his role to have such interest in these types of topics. One of his first examples of this interest came from when he started the Quinquennalia. This was an event that was heavily influenced by Greek culture which “consisted of  musical, gymnastic, and equestrian contests, and were called Neronia.” Nero also held a festival of celebration after he had his mother killed. Nero also viewed himself as a great artist and was a lover of the olympics. In these events he would give gi Things started to change for the worse when he left Rome for fifteen months to go to Greece and pursue his passion. During his time in Rome he competed in many events and took home 1,808 first place prizes in art competitions. He also forced Greece to push the Olympics back one year so he could compete in them. He eventually fell in love with Greek culture so much he ended up freeing Greek cities from Rome. All of his interest in theater made him unable to always be there. During his time when he was in rome and acting, he caused his own people to dislike him because of the reputation acting had. The time Nero was in Greece further solidified his interest in rome. He was the leader of one of the biggest empires and he was more worried about theater. When he was in Greece he was unable to perform the duties he was supposed to do.  While Nero was distracted by his love of Liberal arts he was wasting something very important to Rome.

The way that Nero treated the Roman treasury's future solidified himself as a bad emperor. There were many examples from his poor decision on land and buildings along with his policies. The prime example of nero’s poor usage of money comes from the roman fire. After about a third of Rome had been destroyed he decided to build a palace for himself. This building project was called the Domus Aurea and was between 100-300 total acres. In order to fund this he needed lots of additional money on top of the money that he already needed to rebuild the city. The building of the Grand palace was just an example of his extravagant buildings. Nero had constructed many statues of himself and past emperors. Due to his over usage of money he was forced to make changes to the system that was already put into place. He was forced to change the weight of the Roman coin and raise the price of taxes. Due to all of these abrupt changes he caused one of the greatest empires to almost become extinct. These changes caused many revolts within the empire itself. Instead of helping out the people who lost their homes during the great fire of Rome he decided to make something for the pleasure of himself. If he cared so much about his people he would have helped them out. As previously stated his sudden changes in the economy caused a ripple effect. It caused Roman citizens to feel insecure and unprotected all at the cost of Nero’s pleasure.

During the time Nero was leader of Rome he demonstrated he was not a good emperor by killing innocent people, being distracted by artistic pursuits, and wasting Rome’s money. Nero’s persecution of Christans and killings of senators exemplified his cruelty because he blamed people that were not at fault for problems in rome. Emperor Nero’s love of the art and visit to Greece demonstrated he was distracted from his imperial duties and unable to fulfill his duties as an emperor. His poor response economically to the Roman fire demonstrated his inability to responsibly take care of Rome’s economy. Nero’s reign solidified himself as a horrible emperor and caused a chain reaction to come.