MYTHS ABOUT NERO

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 306, 28 December 1936, Page 9

MYTHS ABOUT NERO

I HIS LAMENT FOR ROME I A DISTORTED VERSION 12LIGHT The Emperor Nero, far from being the worst man of all time, as is often {supposed, was easily outclassed in vil- | lainy by several men of his own time ■ (writes Donald Mac Lean in the Meljbourne Argus). Little is to be found I in Nero’s career in any way comparable with the enormities credited to his immediate precedecessors, Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius. Never did emperor achieve a more 'immediate popularity than the young i Nero. Instead of the diseased, debased, and murderous wretches who i had for so long ruled Rome and kept {people in terror for their possessions land their lives, here was a cultured, I generous, spirited youth, radiating health and the joy of life. Ahenobarbus signifies red-beard or bronzebeard, and Nero was red- or bronzehaired with blue eyes. He was as well developed physically as he was mentally, and the skill, strength, and courage his displayed in chariot racing, added to his fine appearance and ex-

überant good nature, made him the darling of the populace. His advent to power was signalised not by the wholesale slaughter or exile of political opponents which had marked the beginnings of his predecessors, but by a joyous manifestation of good will to all. He had a horror of violence, and when first called upon to sign the death warrant of a criminal he was deeply distressed. “Oh,” he cried, “why was I ever taught to write.” I He remitted taxes and introduced sweeping reforms. On the whole he acted so wisely that the first five years of his reign have been described as the period of the best, government the empire had ever known. The Roman Virtues Throughout Nero's youth every art I had been used to endue the future ; Emperor with good, old-fashioned, i Roman principles. At. rock-bottom, I however, the last thing Nero desired was to be an old-fashioned Roman. He extended his patronage to singers, musicians, and artists, made friends among the bright young modernists, and definitely turned his back upon the traditionalists. His mother, who had expected that Nero would always be as clay in her hands, and that through him she would rule the Empire to suit herself was furious with disappointment, and she talked openly of deposing Nero and putting Brittnicus in his place. This was treason. In the spring of A.D. 59 Nero was at Naples. There Anicitus, the admiral of the fleet, suggested to him a method by which his mother might be disposed of without the disgrace and pain of a public trial. The ad-

miral’s plan was to constuct a vessel with stopcocks in the bottom. He would invite the empress to make a night excursion with him. When they got to sea the stopcocks would be opened, the vessel would sink and the empres would be drowned. The thing would appear to be due to an accident and no scandal would follow. This plan was adopted and carried out. It only failed because the Empress was a good swimmer, and kept afloat until she was picked up by a fishing boat and taken ashore to her villa. Nero, with Senecca and Burrhus, awaited the event in a state of nervous horror. Believing that Agrippina was now aware of the attempt upon her life and that she would in revenge plunge the country into revolution, they decided that Anicitus | must go to her villa and finish his work. This the admiral immediately did. People Give Thanks

Directly the news got. abroad people flocked to the temples to give thanks that the Empress was dead and that Nero had escaped assassination. The senate wrote him a letter of congratb illation, and decreed that the day of ■ Agrippina's death should henceforth be kept as a day of thanksgiving. Nero alone appeared to grieve for her. According to Tacitus he seemed unhappy at his own preservation and would not |be comforted. i On July 18, A.D. 62, a fire br&ke ■ out in Rome, in shops in which quantities of inflammable oils were stored. It was the height of summer, a strong i wind was blowing, and the fire spread {with appalling rapidity. It raged for ' nine days, and two-thirds of the city, • including the palace and many of the {finest buildings were destroyed. Millions of pounds worth of damage was 1 done, priceless treasures were burned, ' and many people lost their lives. When , the fire broke out Nero was at Ani tium, by the sea. He hastened back i and took charge of the operations for I subduing the fire. 1 One night, while watching the fire .from the roof of a building across the ■ Tiber, Nero suddenly took up a harp, land, in the manner of an old-time jbard, began to improvise and sing a .lament for the city. The crowds below recognised the Emperor’s power- ; ful voice but not his words, and the rumour arose that Nero fiddled while ’ Rome burned. When Nero learned of ‘ it he was cut to the heart, and ordered that a public enquiry be made. {Many witnesses were called and the .blame was finally placed upon the {Christians. I The evidence against theb seemed conclusive. The Christians met in i secret and were believed to practise ‘magical rites. There was abundant ' testimony that they frequently predicted a great fire, in which all the world, and everybody, excepting themselves, would be consumed. While the fire raged they were urged to assist in subduing it, but they refused all i help, and stood gazing rapturously into the sky. It is probable that these charges were maily true. The appalling conflagration may well have convinced many of the Christians that the day of judgment had come. It was probably the case that expecting the immediate coming of the Lord they would stand looking with a fearful

ectasy upto Heaven. This to the frenzied Romans was clear proof of their guilt, and a fearful vengeance was taken.