Ne´ro, Clau´dius Domit´ius Cæ´sar

A celebrated Roman emperor, son of Caius Domitius A he no barb us and A grip pin a, the daughter of Germanic us. His name is the synonym for cruelty and vice. In the night it was his wont to sally out from his palace to visit the meanest taverns and the different scenes of depravity that were to be found. He appeared on the stage, sometimes representing the meanest characters. He resolved to imitate the burning of Troy, and caused Rome to be set on fire in different places, the flames being unextinguished for nine days, and he enjoyed the terrible scene. During the conflagration he placed himself on the top of a tower and sang, accompanying himself on a lyre, of the destruction of Troy. Many conspiracies were formed against him, the most dangerous of which he was saved from by the confe ion of a slave. He killed himself A.D. 68, in the thirty-second year of his age, after a reign of thirteen years and eight months. Wretch that he was, it is said that he had some few to mourn for him, and Suet on i us records that some unseen hand had placed flowers on his tomb.