Nero, the Evil Emperor

Augustus Caesar was a good and fair ruler of Rome. His people loved him, and his army obeyed him. His reign was a good time for the city of Rome, and for all of the lands that Rome controlled.

But after Augustus Caesar died, Rome had other emperors who weren’t fair and just. They were cruel to their subjects. They got richer and richer and spent more and more money on themselves, while the people of Rome got poorer and poorer. The emperor of Rome was supposed to tell the army how to fight, but the emperors after Augustus Caesar were such bad generals that the army refused to obey them! One Roman emperor even made his horse a consul, and told all the people of Rome to do whatever the horse said.

The worst Roman emperor of all was named Nero. Nero had everyone who disagreed with him murdered. His favorite pastime was playing the lyre; he was a very bad lyre player, but everyone was afraid to tell him so. So they all praised his terrible music. “When I die,” Nero used to say, “what a loss I shall be to the art of music!” And the Romans in the royal court all agreed with him, because they were afraid for their lives.

After Nero had been emperor of Rome for ten years, he decided to take a vacation from Rome. He went out to his house in the country and invited his favorite friends to go with him. They had a party that went on for days and days.

Meanwhile, Rome was burning.

The fire began late at night, in a rickety wooden building in a dark and dirty Roman street. No one knows exactly how it started. But the poor families who lived in that part of town often built small fires to keep warm. Perhaps a coal fell out of one of these fires, onto the dry wooden floor. It smoldered away until the floorboard caught fire. The fire spread to a wall, and then to the entire building. And then the flames leapt to the building next door.

Soon a whole section of Rome was on fire.

The people of Rome realized that this was the worst fire in Roman history. They sent a messenger to Nero to tell him what was happening. The messenger galloped hard until he reached the country house where Nero and his friends were celebrating.

“Your Majesty!” the messenger cried. “Your city is burning!”

But Nero didn’t even answer the messenger. He ordered him taken away, before he ruined the party. And he didn’t return to Rome for days more.

When he finally did come back to Rome, he found his people waiting for him. Hundreds of families had been driven out of their homes. Everything they owned had been burned. They were cold and hungry. They begged Nero for help. “Remember your great ancestor, Augustus Caesar!” they cried. “He gave money to every poor family in Rome! Surely you can help us out of your great wealth!”

Nero did give some money to the poor and the homeless. But he made a big mistake. He announced, “The fire has cleared away ugly, broken-down houses and left space for my new building projects! I will take the land where those houses used to stand and build myself a new and bigger palace.”

The people of Rome were furious. Nero had been unpopular even before the fire. Now they hated him even more. Soon, Nero realized that the Romans were on the edge of rebelling and taking his throne away. He had to find someone to blame for the fire—right away.

“I know who set the fire to Rome!” he told the Romans. “It was those Christians! They set the fire on purpose!”

Of course, the Christians hadn’t set the fire. But many people believed Nero’s lies. The Romans began to persecute the Christians. Christians were arrested and executed. Some of them were forced to fight in gladiator shows. Others were killed by wild animals. Nero’s cruelty to the Christians drew attention away from his own selfishness.