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neromore about nero

nero


  2  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Nero  \Ne"ro\,  n. 
  A  Roman  emperor  notorius  for  debauchery  and  barbarous 
  cruelty;  hence  any  profligate  and  cruel  ruler  or  merciless 
  tyrant.  --  {Ne*ro"ni*an},  a. 
 
  From  Easton's  1897  Bible  Dictionary  [easton]: 
 
  Nero 
  occurs  only  in  the  superscription  (which  is  probably  spurious, 
  and  is  altogether  omitted  in  the  R.V.)  to  the  Second  Epistle  to 
  Timothy.  He  became  emperor  of  Rome  when  he  was  about  seventeen 
  years  of  age  (A.D.  54),  and  soon  began  to  exhibit  the  character 
  of  a  cruel  tyrant  and  heathen  debauchee.  In  May  A.D.  64,  a 
  terrible  conflagration  broke  out  in  Rome,  which  raged  for  six 
  days  and  seven  nights,  and  totally  destroyed  a  great  part  of  the 
  city.  The  guilt  of  this  fire  was  attached  to  him  at  the  time, 
  and  the  general  verdict  of  history  accuses  him  of  the  crime. 
  "Hence,  to  suppress  the  rumour,"  says  Tacitus  (Annals,  xv  44), 
  "he  falsely  charged  with  the  guilt,  and  punished  with  the  most 
  exquisite  tortures,  the  persons  commonly  called  Christians,  who 
  are  hated  for  their  enormities.  Christus  the  founder  of  that 
  name  was  put  to  death  as  a  criminal  by  Pontius  Pilate, 
  procurator  of  Judea,  in  the  reign  of  Tiberius;  but  the 
  pernicious  superstition,  repressed  for  a  time,  broke  out  again 
  not  only  throughout  Judea,  where  the  mischief  originated,  but 
  through  the  city  of  Rome  also  whither  all  things  horrible  and 
  disgraceful  flow,  from  all  quarters,  as  to  a  common  receptacle, 
  and  where  they  are  encouraged.  Accordingly,  first  three  were 
  seized,  who  confessed  they  were  Christians.  Next  on  their 
  information,  a  vast  multitude  were  convicted,  not  so  much  on  the 
  charge  of  burning  the  city  as  of  hating  the  human  race.  And  in 
  their  deaths  they  were  also  made  the  subjects  of  sport;  for  they 
  were  covered  with  the  hides  of  wild  beasts  and  worried  to  death 
  by  dogs,  or  nailed  to  crosses,  or  set  fire  to  and  when  day 
  declined,  burned  to  serve  for  nocturnal  lights.  Nero  offered  his 
  own  gardens  for  that  spectacle,  and  exhibited  a  Circensian  game, 
  indiscriminately  mingling  with  the  common  people  in  the  habit  of 
  a  charioteer,  or  else  standing  in  his  chariot;  whence  a  feeling 
  of  compassion  arose  toward  the  sufferers,  though  guilty  and 
  deserving  to  be  made  examples  of  by  capital  punishment,  because 
  they  seemed  not  to  be  cut  off  for  the  public  good,  but  victims 
  to  the  ferocity  of  one  man."  Another  Roman  historian,  Suetonius 
  (Nero,  xvi.),  says  of  him:  "He  likewise  inflicted  punishments  on 
  the  Christians,  a  sort  of  people  who  hold  a  new  and  impious 
  superstition"  (Forbes's  Footsteps  of  St  Paul,  p.  60). 
 
  Nero  was  the  emperor  before  whom  Paul  was  brought  on  his  first 
  imprisonment  at  Rome,  and  the  apostle  is  supposed  to  have 
  suffered  martyrdom  during  this  persecution.  He  is  repeatedly 
  alluded  to  in  Scripture  (Acts  25:11;  Phil.  1:12,  13;  4:22).  He 
  died  A.D.  68. 
 




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