666

-What was Nero's personal life like?
   -He was kind of a bro!  Loved to chill, party, and enjoyed music and poetry and shit.
   -Usually participated in crazy parties at night, causing public disturbances, etc.
-If Nero was partying all the time, then who was governing the empire?
   -Seneca the Younger (before he was killed during one of Nero's purges) and Sextus Afranius Burrus (Praetorian prefect). 
-Nero went from party bro to monster in the early 60s AD.  What happened? 
   -In 58 AD, Nero met Poppaea Sabina, who at the time was wife of Marcus Salvius Otho (a powerful noble and future Roman princeps Otho!).  It was love at first sight, and Nero was head over heels in love with her.
      -There was even a rumor that Poppaea had specifically targeted Otho so she could get closer to Nero.  Other rumors were that she was also behind convincing Nero to have his mom killed. 
-62 AD- Poppaea was pregnant (with Claudia Augusta, who unfortunately died when she was only four months old in 63 AD due to illness), so Nero decided that he had had enough of his arranged marriage with Claudia Octavia, so he divorced her (claiming that she had committed adultery and/or was barren) and exiled her to the tiny island of Pandateria (modern-day Ventotene, approximately 70 km west of Naples).  Around this same time, Poppaea divorced Otho and had Nero send her now ex-husband to the remote province of Lusitania (basically modern-day Portugal) in 58 AD (not sure which happened first, the divorce or Otho being sent away).  Nero then married Poppaea (12 days after divorcing Claudia Octavia!) in an epic wedding.
   -The people actually loved Claudia Octavia, so this was the starting point of when the public began to turn on Nero.  They demanded that Octavia be brought back, but unfortunately she had already "committed suicide". 
   -At the same time, Burrus died (murdered?) during this year, too.  Seneca the Younger was now alone, and it was obvious (based on the rumors floating around) that Poppaea wanted him dead too so she could have absolute control over everything. 
      -Burrus was replaced as prefect by a Praetorian named Ofonius Tigellinus, a brutal monster.
         -Usually spent his time ordering the execution of his political enemies and participating in massive orgies.
         -Burrus had tried to keep Nero in check, but Tigellinus encouraged Nero to indulge in his debauchery.  Obviously, Tigellinus' influence combined with Poppaea's influence resulted in Nero descending into utter madness.
-64 AD- the Great Fire of Rome!
   -The fact that everyone blamed Nero for starting the fire himself just shows how much he had become so hated in the city.
      -Nero attempted to deflect the blame onto the strange new cult that had popped up throughout the empire- the Christians!
      -Of the 14 districts of Rome, three were completely destroyed and seven were badly damaged. 
      -The fire was started near the Circus Maximus, and the fires burned for 5-7 days!  Even the imperial palace and various important temples were at least partially burned (if not destroyed, which was the case for some of the buildings).
      -The rumor was that Nero had started the fire to get rid of some buildings in order to make space for a new palace.  However, it's worth pointing out that it WAS true that Nero had wanted to build a big ass pleasure palace for himself. 
         -It was also claimed that Nero played his lyre as he watched Rome burn. 
         -Other rumors said that Nero had burned the city to make an epic backdrop for a lyre concert for his friends, and that he had even dressed in a costume for the occasion.
         -Tacitus, however, reports that Nero wasn't even in Rome at the time, and that when he heard about Rome burning he immediately rushed home to manage the situation.
         -Anyway, after the fire, Nero updated the city's fire code and started some urban renewal projects (including his massive palace complex (100-300 acres!) in downtown Rome.  Not a good look.
   -Nero knew that everyone was blaming him for the fire, so it was obvious that he needed a scapegoat- of course, the cult of Christianity made perfect sense.
      -Christian cults had been popping up all over the empire for the past 30 years.
      -The cult had started in Judea and was usually comprised of converted Jews.  However, as the cult spread to other parts of the empire, non-Jews started converting as well. 
         -According to the New Testament, Christianity was brought to Rome by a dude who would come to be known as "St. Peter" (AKA Simeon, Simon, or Simon Peter), who was allegedly executed during the Great Fire as a result of Nero's crackdown on Christians during the mid-60s AD. 
            -Fun fact: St. Peter's Basilica in Rome was allegedly built on top of St. Peter's tomb. 
         -During this time, most Christians in Rome were immigrants who spoke only Greek and/or Hebrew. 
      -After the fire, Nero had government thugs go out into the city and arrest Christians and torture them until they admitted to starting the fire.  Once enough Christians had admitted to starting the fire, Nero initiated an all-out war with Christians in Rome by having them thrown to dogs in public games, crucified, and burned alive.
         -This actually made people hate Nero even more to the sheer brutality of these executions, and this just caused Christianity to get more popular.
         -As a result of the persecutions, obviously the Christians hated Nero with a passion.
            -One theory is that the number "666" in the Book of Revelations is a code for Nero because the Greek spelling of Nero's name in Hebrew numerology is 666. 
               -Fun fact: after Nero committed suicide in 68 AD, the Christians feared that Nero hadn't really died and that he would return to persecute them again in the near future, so they made a coded reference to him so that Christians would always remember to remain ever-vigilant. 
-Anyway, so Nero continued to be isolated politically as he grew further and further autocratic and his inner circle continued to grow smaller.
-65 AD- year of the Pisonian Conspiracy (the plot to assassinate Nero).
   -Organized by the senator Gaius Calpurnius Piso (ex-husband of Livia Orestilla (Caligula's second wife)). 
      -Piso wanted to replace Nero with himself, as he wanted to rule in the style of Augustus, not whatever nonsense was going on now.
         -Piso conspired with Tigellinus' prefect colleague Faenius Rufus (among others).
            -The plan was to kill Nero and then have Piso led to the Praetorian Guard camp by Rufus where he would be declared the new princeps.
               -Unfortunately for the conspirators, the plot was unsuccessful, as one of the conspirators betrayed the others by ratting them out in order to curry favor with Nero.
                  -As a result, Piso and the others were busted, and the various conspirators were either exiled or executed.  Seneca the Younger had been one of the conspirators, so he was forced to commit suicide.
-Because of this assassination attempt, Nero, of course, started a massive purge, which just pissed off the Senate and nobles even more.