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10 Facts About Nero
A lot of them aren’t good.
A while back I did a piece about the Olympics and Nero’s name popped up. It seems he won a chariot racing event. Of course, he cheated and didn’t even finish the race, but he was still deemed the winner. Maybe he could have medaled in the neckbeard event.
Cheating in the Olympics is far from the worst thing Nero did. He persecuted Christians, and apparently had the apostle Paul put to death. Against that lurid background, here are some things you didn’t know about Nero.
1: Early in his reign as emperor, Nero was advised by his mother, Agrippina the Younger.
That arrangement came to an end when he had his mother killed. BTW, when was Agrippina going to drop, “the Younger,” from her name?
2: He also killed his wife, Claudia Octavia, and his brother Britannicus.
I believe his brother was also known as Encyclapedious.
3: During his reign, Nero was known for building amphitheaters and promoting games and contests.
This made him popular with people in lower echelons of society, but not so much with the richer citizens who were taxed to pay for…
