Claudius already had 2 natural children by his 3rd wife Messalina: Claudia Octavia and Britannicus. Nero did not want to share the throne with anyone—even his own mother—so he had her killed also. The mad Emperor Nero failed to poison his mother, so he used diabolical means to make her death look like an accident :. But being terrified with her menaces and violent spirit, he resolved upon her destruction, and thrice attempted it by poison.
Finding, however, that she had previously secured herself by antidotes, he contrived machinery, by which the floor over her bed-chamber might be made to fall upon her while she was asleep in the night.
This design miscarrying likewise, through the little caution used by those who were in the secret, his next stratagem was to construct a ship which could be easily shivered, in hopes of destroying her either by drowning, or by the deck above her cabin crushing her in its fall.
Accordingly, under colour of a pretended reconciliation, he wrote her an extremely affectionate letter, inviting her to Baiae, to celebrate with him the festival of Minerva. He had given private orders to the captains of the galleys which were to attend her, to shatter to pieces the ship in which she had come, by falling foul of it, but in such manner that it might appear to be done accidentally.
All his murder plots failed, so he eventually sent some soldiers to her villa to murder her. Nobody was safe around the mad monster Nero. He ordered his wife Octavia to be scalded to death in a hot bath. In 65 AD, he kicked his pregnant wife Poppaea in the stomach and killed her. After the murder of Poppaea Sabina, Nero was introduced to a male look-alike of his murdered wife named Sporus.
It was then that the infamous same-sex marriage took place. Not content with all his previous crimes, Nero set fire to Rome and blamed it on the Christians. It was the first recorded false flag operation in history.
Nero fiddled while Rome burned!! In the first recorded false flag operation in history, he set fire to Rome and blamed it on the Christians.
When the people looked suspiciously at Nero as the incendiary, he deflected blame by accusing the Christians of starting the fire. Here is a report by a pagan historian named Tacitus:. Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace.
Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular.
Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired. Nero offered his gardens for the spectacle, and was exhibiting a show in the circus, while he mingled with the people in the dress of a charioteer or stood aloft on a car.
Hence, even for criminals who deserved extreme and exemplary punishment, there arose a feeling of compassion; for it was not, as it seemed, for the public good, but to glut one man's cruelty, that they were being destroyed. Tacitus, Annals , XV At that time, Christians in Rome and throughout the world believed that the Neronian persecution was a sign that the end of the world was near.
The Messiah had already warned them of great tribulation before his Second Coming:. For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. Matthew Due to this unprecedented persecution, the Christians believed that their generation would be the final one before the end of the world.
The Romans stole all their pagan pantheon from Greece. Jupiter is Zeus and Minerva is Athena. We cannot say with any certainty whether she did kill Claudius, but people at the time immediately accused her of doing so. Who told us that he was such a monster, where does our information actually come from, and can the witnesses stand up to examination?
One questions whether Nero had anything to do with the Great Fire of Rome, while another is convinced that he started the blaze. They did not know him personally, and their knowledge was based on stories.
Did they perhaps add elements that were important to THEM? Just 13 when his father dies, Britannicus, the emperor's biological son, is frail and possibly epileptic And yet, he might pose a threat to young Emperor Nero, should he lay claim to the throne when he reaches maturity. Using poison to commit murder is difficult in ancient Rome, as the meals of the rich and powerful are tasted in advance.
Drinks are also sampled by the taster, but Nero is clever: he has a harmless but very hot drink served. According to Tacitus, the poison races through Britannicus' body, making it impossible for him to breathe or speak. However, murder by poison is easier to describe than to commit — even in ancient Rome.
The descriptions of Britannicus' death suggest a rapidly-acting poison that was both colorless and odorless. Did such a poison even exist in the age of Nero? In antiquity, the most effective poisons were plant toxins from yew trees, lily of the valley, hemlock and wolf's bane.
Today, scientists in a modern forensic lab are testing whether any of these poisons could have killed Brittanicus in the manner described. The poison had to have been both colorless and odorless, otherwise it would have been immediately in the water.
In order to put the poison in the water, the toxin would have had to be extracted from the plant first. The more the water is reduced during the boil, the more concentrated the poison will be, but the color and aroma also become more intense. Tacitus writes that the poison is placed in a jug of water that was used to cool Britannicus' hot drink. If that was the case, the poison had to have been very concentrated in order to remain effective after being watered down…twice. Wolfgang Bicker If one considers all the steps that are required to create an odorless and colorless but which is sufficiently toxic to be effective, then one must accept that it was practically impossible at the time considering the methods that were available.
Wolfgang Bicker If a plant toxin is ingested orally, then it takes time for the poison to cross from the digestive system into the bloodstream.
Then it must still be transported to the part of the body where it takes effect. It is therefore fundamentally inconceivable that death could occur within seconds. So, given the circumstances, is it not possible that an epileptic fit was seen as attempted murder?
After all, people believed Nero was capable of anything. Agrippina has not made Nero emperor out of a mother's love for her son. She sees herself as the true ruler of the empire, and Nero as a mere puppet.
She is the power behind the throne and she makes no effort to conceal it, as coins from the era reveal. Marcus Reuter When Nero ascends to the throne in 54 A. The first coins that are minted show both the reigning emperor and, at eye level and the same size, his mother. This hadn't happened before, and it would not happen again. Agrippina publically lays claim to power, and the first conflicts between mother and son soon follow. The coins show this very clearly.
Just a few months after the first coins find their way into circulation, a second coin is released. The new coin still includes Agrippina, but she has now moved into the background.
She no longer holds the same significance she did at the beginning of Nero's reign. A few months later she has vanished from the currency altogether.
Her declining influence, and the looming conflict with her son, are clearly visible on the faces of Rome's coins. Nero is an ambitious emperor with progressive ideas, building public baths and markets for his subjects. Nero is at the Baiae resort on the Gulf of Pozzuoli, north of Naples, where ancient Rome's rich and famous go to escape the city. He has supposedly invited his mother to Baiae so they can share a meal and resolve their differences.
Tacitus writes that Nero accompanies Agrippina as she leaves his palace in Baiae. His last glimpse of his condemned mother touches his cold heart. According to their descriptions, Nero has a trusted assistant prepare Agrippina's yacht with a trap door that will open and sweep her out to sea.
Cassius Dio writes the mechanism would then close and the boat would continue sailing, as though nothing had happened Nero could easily have disguised a crime on the ship.
As Tacitus wrote, "Nothing allowed of accidents so much as the sea. Let us follow the evidence to determine whether the story told by the writers would stand up in court. The aim of the experiment is to determine what kind of modifications would have been necessary to create an opening in the ship that someone could fall through. The experts are certain that trapdoors would have been the only possibility, and they install two flaps at the stern of the model.
One opens inward, while the other opens out into the water. The door opening into the ship would have let water flow in immediately, stopping anyone from falling out and also quickly sinking the ship. Approximately 2 tons would have been required to force the door open, but that would have sunk the ship before it ever left the harbor.
Water would have flooded in and sunk the ship. Martin Zimmermann "Telling the truth" didn't mean providing descriptions or reconstructions of events that were one hundred percent accurate. Rather, the story had to be told well, and had to be built around a sweet center that increased the appetite and the attention of the readers.
Efforts to tell a good story have made it difficult for modern-day experts to determine the truth. And that is an important point: it is literature, rather than a scientific approach to history. Its primary purpose was to be exciting. To the people of the time, this was the pinnacle of writing: stylistically sophisticated, excitingly told and attractively presented. Cassius Dio claims that Nero has his mother's dead body uncovered so he can examine it himself, while Tacitus questions whether this is really true Martin Zimmermann There were no witnesses.
We know that Agrippina was killed, but it is impossible to recreate the details of her death, which is why, in antiquity, this story was invented and passed on to create a particularly dramatic tale of how a son killed his mother. Whether Nero gave the order to kill his mother or she died by other means, her death, and the rumors surrounding it, were a burden Nero carried for the rest of his life and beyond. The writers' horrifying stories about Agrippina's death continue to shape perceptions of Nero to this day.
In summary, there are reports that Nero had his mother murdered, but there is no material evidence, and there are no convincing leads. Rome, the summer of 64 A. The city is in flames…again. The blaze spreads faster and farther than any before it. We have been forced to accept that the writers were prepared to write down their own versions of the truth — for whatever reasons. But what really happened in the days and nights while Rome burned?
The fire starts late in the evening near the Circus Maximus, a popular night-time haunt in ancient Rome. The inferno rages for 9 days. Excavations have confirmed the blaze affected two-thirds of the city. The rapid spread of the fire and the scale of destruction immediately give rise to rumors of arson.
Was it the work of arsonists who set fires in various locations, or was a spark enough to cause the blaze? On this July day, the city is in the grip of a heat wave. There has been no rain for days, even weeks. A small mishap like an overturned oil lamp would have been enough to start a fire that moved quickly, the flames igniting the wooden walls and furnishings.
Once the fire burns the length of the Circus, it moves into an area of densely built apartment blocks. The center of the city is soon in ashes, as are the imperial palaces located close to where the fire starts. Nero's palace is among those destroyed, making it impossible for him to have stood on the roof, serenading the blaze.
Marcus Reuter I think that the story of Nero rushing back to Rome to serenade the burning city from the roof of his palace can safely be classified as nothing more than a myth.
The claim that Nero had the fire started to make room for his new palace doesn't stand up to examination either. A famine in the city, caused by Nero cutting grain supplies had lost him the support of the populace, but worse still, Nero had lost the support of the army.
They now supported a new imperial candidate, the governor of Spain, Galba. The Senate declared him a public enemy on June 9th, 68 AD. However, by the time they made the declaration, the Emperor had fled Rome. Ancient History. Bust of Nero as a young man from the Palatine Hill. Picture Credit: Jastrow. Wikimedia Commons.
0コメント