(Nero)
A person better known as Nero was born to Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Julia Agrippina in 37 A.D. Neros' father was a man of vicious character who had been Consul in 32 A.D. He died when Nero was three so perhaps had little or no impact on him. Neros' mother was the great-granddaughter of the Emperor Augustus (27 B.C. - 14 A.D.), granddaughter of the Emperor Tiberius (14 A.D. - 37 A.D.), sister of the Emperor Gaius Caligula (37 A.D. - 41 A.D.), and niece (and later wife) of the Emperor Claudius (41 A.D. - 54 A.D.).
"In A.D. 39 or 40, Caligula confiscated the wealth of Neros' father and banished his mother for supposedly plotting against the throne. Nero was left destitute and in the care of an aunt. However in A.D. 41 the new Emperor Claudius recalled Agrippina, and restored most of her estate. She married again but soon poisoned her second husband. Therefore she set out to win the affection of Claudius both for herself and her son, Nero.
"Agrippinas' ambitions were thwarted until 48 A.D. when the Empress Messalina, Claudius' first wife was executed for adultery, perhaps as a result of Agrippinas' own intrigues. The next year Emperor Claudius married Agrippina after the law was changed to permit the incestuous relationship of uncle and niece.
"Soon Agrippina began plotting to secure the crown for Nero. She persuaded Claudius to give his daughter Octavia in marriage to Nero and to adopt Nero as his elder son ahead of his natural-born son Britannicus.
When adopted, Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus became Nero Claudius Caesar.
In order to groom Nero for the purple, Agrippina employed the Stoic philosopher Seneca to be his tutor. To further secure her position, Agrippina befriended various generals including Burrus, the Commander of the Praetorian Guard (the Emperors' private army and bodyguard).
"When we consider the atmosphere in which Nero was reared, it is not surprising that his personality and character were somewhat unstable. His mother dominated him. The result of that domination was a shy and withdrawn young man who lacked self-confidence. His primary interests were sports, poetry, music and art - not government.
"Now only Claudius stood in the way of Agrippinas' ambition. So in 54 A.D. she had him poisoned. Partially because she bribed them to do so, Burrus and the Praetorian Guard proclaimed Nero the new Emperor. The Senate acquiesced, and formally ratified the appointment.
"Since Nero was only sixteen when he became Emperor, the affairs of state were placed in the hands of Burrus and Seneca. For five years the government was efficient and mild, both in Italy and the provinces....
"However, Agrippina was now determined to rule through Nero. She clashed head-on with Burrus and Seneca. Seneca turned Nero against his mother. First they dismissed Pallus, the treasurer and Agrippinas' chief supporter. Then they encouraged Nero in his affair with Acte, a servant of his wife Octavia. Agrippina retaliated by promoting Britannicus as the rightful heir, but that action led to his murder. Then she sided with Octavia, whom Nero never really loved.
MATRICIDE
"Nero first banished and then (in A.D. 59) murdered his mother. The murder of his mother marked a decisive turn in Neros' reign. By that time he was already under the influence of a second known mistress, Poppea Sabina. In A.D. 62 Nero divorced Octavia and married Poppea. Not long afterward, Octavia was murdered. Poppea may have plotted the deaths of Agrippina and Octavia. She herself later died from a vicious kick by Nero while she was pregnant. After Poppea died, Nero married Statilia Messalina.
"In A.D. 62 Burrus died or was murdered and Seneca retired from public life. Thus all restraint was removed from Nero. Ofoneus Tigellinus, the new commander of the Praetorian Guard became his chief minister. Soon Tigellinus instituted a reign of terror. A secret police was organized and individual informers were encouraged. Treason trials were instituted. Various high-ranking persons (such as the ex-Consul Petus Thrasea and the famous general Corbulo) were condemned or asked to commit suicide. Others were banished. Still others had their estates confiscated. As a result the upper classes were completely alienated, and in A.D. 65 Gaius Calpurnius Piso led a plot against Nero. The conspiracy was discovered, suppressed, and eighteen conspirators were executed. Among the victims were Seneca, the poet Lucan, and the satirist Petronius.
"NERO FIDDLED WHILE ROME BURNED"
"In the summer of A.D. 64, a horrible fire destroyed much of Rome. Though Nero probably had no part in setting the fire, and despite his attempt to blame it on the Christians, he could not allay suspicions of his guilt. Tacitus, a Roman historian, (about A.D. 55-120), notes that a rumor persisted that Nero ordered the fire started to permit adequate space for building operations (Annals; XV; 44). In any event he set about to rebuild the city on a grand scale. In particular he began construction of his Golden House, a new palace that would cover 120 acres and contain a collonaded porch almost a mile long and a 120 foot statue of the Emperor himself.[1] This project and the foreign wars exhausted the treasury, led to further confiscation of estates, increased taxes, and resulted in debasement of the coinage. On the positive side, this devaluation did increase trade and lessen the monetary drain to the Far East. However, it also increased prices, and thus worked a hardship on the poor and necessitated an increase in the dole (government gifts of bread and money).
"Soon problems arose in the provinces and on the frontiers. In A.D. 60 the native population of Britain revolted. The next year the general Suetonius Paulinus quelled the uprising, but not before some 70,000 Romans perished. In A.D. 61 the uneasy peace in Armenia collapsed. Caesennius Paetus suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Parthians. After that defeat, Corbulo effected a compromise whereby the Parthian favorite Tiridates IV was allowed to assume the throne of Armenia provided that he go to Rome and receive the title from Nero. In A.D. 66 the Jews revolted. Nero dispatched general Vespasian to Palestine, but the revolt was not quelled until Jerusalem fell to Titus (Vespasians' son) in A.D. 70 - two years after Neros' death and a year after Vespasian had become Emperor.
"Despite the deterioration of his rule, Nero toured Greece in A.D. 66 - 67 and made numerous appearances as a singer, actor, flautist and charioteer. Nero 'won' 1,808 first prizes in the chariot races! He was so carried away by the Greek flattery that he even proclaimed their freedom. Previously Nero had instituted several Greek-type festivals in Rome, and his infatuation with Greece and the Orient (including several Oriental religions), further alienated the upper classes.
In A.D. 68 Julius Vindex, governor of the province of Lugdunensis, in modern France, revolted. He quickly won the support of Galba, governor of Nearer Spain, and Otho, governor of Lusitania (modern Portugal). Vindex was defeated by Verginius Rufus, governor of upper Germany. Soon, however, the army of Galba proclaimed Vindex as Emperor.
The Praetorian Guard deserted Nero and also declared for Galba. The Senate condemned Nero as a public enemy. Thereupon Nero fled Rome and on June 9, A.D. 68 committed suicide with the help of his secretary Epaphroditus.
Galba was quickly overthrown by Otho, Otho by Vitellius, and Vitellius by Vespasian (A.D. 69 - 79) who restored stability.
"Nero is not mentioned by name in the New Testament. Nevertheless several allusions to him and points of contact are evident. First, he is the Emperor to whom Paul appealed (Acts 25:11). Some have wondered how Paul could have hoped to get an audience from Nero. However it must be remembered that prior to A.D. 59 Neros' reign was relatively good. Probably Nero himself never heard Pauls case. Possibly the commander of the Praetorian Guard (perhaps Burrus but possibly Tigellinus, depending upon the actual date of the trial) heard the case.
"A second point of contact between Christians and Nero was his attempt to blame the fire of A.D. 64 on them. This accusation and the persecution which followed is highly significant in Christian history. Tacitus, Roman historian (A.D. 55 - 120) commenting on the situation said:
'But neither human help, not imperial munificence, nor all the modes of placating Heaven, could stifle the scandal nor dispel the belief that the fire had taken place by order. Therefore, to scotch the rumor, Nero substituted as culprits, and punished with the utmost refinements of cruelty, a class of men, loathed for their vices, whom the crowd styled Christians. Christus, the founder of the name, had undergone the death penalty in the reign of Tiberius, by sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilatus, and the pernicious superstition was checked for a moment, only to break out once more, not merely in Judea, the home of the disease, but in the capital itself... First, the confessed members of the sect were arrested; next, on their disclosures, vast numbers were convicted, not so much on the count of arson as for hatred of the human race... they were covered with wild beasts skins and torn to death by the dogs, or they were fastened on crosses, and, when daylight failed were burned to serve as lamps by night... Hence, in spite of a guilt which had earned the most exemplary punishment, there arose a sentiment of pity, due to the impression that they were not being sacrificed for the welfare of the state, but to the ferocity of a single man.' Tacitus. Annals. XV. 44.
"Early Christian tradition (according to Eusebius, 'Ecclesiastical History', II; xxv; III; i), indicates that both Peter and Paul perished in the Neronian persecution. We do not know whether Nero formally outlawed Christianity. The probability that the persecution did not spread to the provinces and the sporadic nature of later persecutions make such action unlikely. However the mere fact that Roman government began to distinguish between Christians and Jews meant that Christianity no longer shared Judaisms' status or priviledges as a legal religion.
"Several other minor points of contact between Nero and the New Testament also occur. Nero recalled the procurator Felix because of his corruption and injustice (see Acts 24:24-27). Nero added to the domain of Herod Agrippa II (Acts 25-26). Nero forced Gallio (Acts 18:12-17) to commit suicide because of his involvement with the plot of Piso (Dio Cassius; 'History'; LXII 25). Apparently Nero was the Emperor to whom loyalty was to be given (Romans 13:1-7; I Peter 2:13).
666 [2]
It is very possible that:
"...the cryptic number 666 (Revelation 13:18) designates Nero. The number involves the use of gemetria (assigning numerical values to letters of the alphabet and thus determining the numerical value of words). Nero Caesar written in Hebrew letters has the numerical value of 666. That explanation becomes all the more probable when you realize that in Hebrew, Nero can also be spelled Neron. With the second "n" the numerical value is 666. Without it, 616 (a well-attested reading in some New Testament manuscripts).
"Reciving the mark" in the right hand or the forehead can be taken as these two things. "the right hand" are deeds, and "the forehead" is the thinking. Either by "doing" or "thinking" in co-operation with the un-Christian system that persecutes Christians.
The worst persecutions of Christians undoubtedly took place under Nero and those later who Emperors who imitated what he did. Thus "666" is much more than an "economic system", a "political system" or even "religious system", but savage persecutions of Believers in Yeshua (Jesus).
This would seem to suggest any "system" in the world which would of necessity be composed of "writings" (works of "the right hand"), or thoughts (that which is "in the forehead") which deny or discriminate against Yeshua and His Church.
Any "system" with the "mark" of antichrist "deeds" or "thinking" to which any True confessing Christian would be "systematically" discriminated against or denied access.
"Some recent historians have tended to tone down Neros' vicious image on the assumption the ancient sources were biased and that they painted an inaccurate picture of him. Some have even questioned whether he persecuted Christians. However, such a view is based too much on an argument from the silence of other ancient writers and a misconception of the effect of bias. Bias does not often result in complete falsification. Therefore, the traditional view of Nero may still be accepted as basically correct."
Some passages in Revelation seem to directly refer to Nero such as:
"And the voice of harpers, and musicians and of pipers and trumpeters shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman of whatsoever craft (he be) shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee." Revelation 18:22
Who was the "musician" but Nero? Who went throughout the Roman Empire giving his concerts on the pipe? Nero. Who had trumpeters announce him as did Nero? And were these things not a "millstone" to the Romans themselves.
Who was the "craftsman" as an "artist" and "actor" but Nero? His last words before his suicide were reportedly:
"What an artist dies in me!"
FOOTNOTES
[1
[2
1 John 4:3: "And (kai) every (pas) spirit (pneuma) that (hos) confesseth (homologeo) not (me) that Jesus (Iesous) Christ (Christos) is come (erchomai) in (en) the flesh (sarx) is (esti) not (ou) of (ek) God (theos): and (kai) THIS (touto) IS (estin to) THAT OF THE ANTICHRIST (tou antichristos), whereof (hos) ye have heard (akouo) that (hoti) it should come (erchomai) and even (kai) now (nun) already (ede) is it (esti) in (en) the world (kosmos)."
The Apostle John here records it was already present "in the world" in the First Century A.D. Debauched Nero was heralded as a "man of peace" while he persecuted the True Church more ferociously than any other human being who has ever lived. Under his reign, Peter and Paul were martyred. Is some proposed "future antichrist" to be even worse, as the Premillennial Dispensationalists insist must surely be? Yes, this is what they are bellowing and striking fear and terror into the hearts of new Believers by denying that certain New Testament passages refer to 70 A.D, and the Jewish diaspora, they propound that their "future antichrist" must necessarily be worse than 70 A.D, when millions perished! All the while Yeshua never referred to 70 A.D. as having anything to do with "antichrist"! To top it all off, they demand he must be worse than Nero!!! OY GEVALT!
Don't you see that it is not possible for any "future antichrist" to be worse than Nero because the Apostles Peter and Paul were martyred by Nero?!? Peter and Paul are now sitting on Thrones Judging the 12 Tribes of Israel! Who will this "future antichrist" martyr that will be greater than Peter and Paul? He (their "future antichrist") must be greater they say (because of tying their doctrine to passages for their "tribulation" [which Yeshua Prophesied concerning 70 A.D.] insisting it is all yet future, and using His Words, "no nor ever shall be"), otherwise it is already clearly fulfilled!
The PreMill Dispy argument breaks down at this point and becomes simply ludicrous.
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Brooks, James A. Sunday School Illustrator. Southern Baptist Convention. Summer, 1978. pps. 60-66.
Tacitus. Annals.