Politicians

Nero

Fifth Roman emperor (AD 37-68) and last of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Guided in his first five years by his tutor Seneca and the prefect Burrus, Nero presided over a period the emperor Trajan later praised as the Quinquennium Neronis — fiscal reforms, lenient governance, and respect for the Senate. He then murdered his mother Agrippina, his wife Octavia, his step-brother Britannicus, and forced Seneca to suicide. After the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64 he became the first emperor to systematically persecute Christians, blaming them as scapegoats. Declared a public enemy by the Senate during the Vindex-Galba revolt, he killed himself in AD 68, plunging Rome into the Year of the Four Emperors.

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