Nero the evil emperor

But Nero was into the arts, and that was something people liked. It wasn't until after the Great Fire of Rome in 64 that things really soured when he was accused of fiddling while the city of Rome burned. But historians wonder if he was unfairly blamed for that tragedy.

Historians are not looking to completely absolve Emperor Nero in the slightest — there is no question that he was a bad man. After all, he had his mother killed and had not one but possibly two wives killed, not to mention all of his atrocities to Christians.

But has he been unfairly maligned for the Great Fire of Rome? Even before they had been forced into the bull statue, the victims had had their tongues cut and their hands bound. Once inside, a fire was lit underneath the bull's belly. Right before death, the victims would thrash around and make terrible moaning sounds that made the bull appear alive.

In a cruel twist, Phalaris first used the Brazen Bull on Perillos first, thus guaranteeing that the horrendous device worked.

This egomaniac proved that he would stop at nothing to marry a woman who could bear a male child. Although decapitation was the execution reserved for nobles hanging was for commoners , the executioner apparently had to hack at Anne's head several times before it fell off her shoulders. An earlier marriage, this time to the Spanish Catherine of Aragon, pitted England's king against the Vatican. Murad IV became the ruler of the vast Ottoman Empire at eleven years old.

By the time he took control of the throne all by himself as an adolescent, his mother and grand viziers handled all day-to-day decisions , he discovered that the Ottoman state was in chaos. Rebellions in the provinces and an unruly Janissary corps a crack Ottoman army unit made up of former Christian slaves defined Ottoman politics in the 17th century. Murad IV changed all of that through sheer power. Murad IV first acted against subversion by closing down all coffeehouses and wine shops.

Next, he outlawed the use of tobacco. If any of these laws were broken, or if someone was suspected of disloyalty, Murad IV had them executed. Abroad, Murad IV reconquered Baghdad in after a long siege.

At the battle's end, Murad IV killed all those he found still alive inside of the city's walls. Murad IV also angered the religious conservatives of the Ottoman Empire.

According to one story, Murad IV liked to dress as a commoner and look for anybody breaking one of his draconian laws. If he found such a lawbreaker, he immediately sentenced them to death. In many ways, Diocletian was actually the savior of a unified Roman Empire. Between and A. Under Diocletian, the seeds were planted for the later administrative break-up of the Western and Eastern Roman empires.

While Western Rome was swamped by Germanic barbarians in the fifth century, the Eastern Roman Empire maintained the treasure of Greco-Roman culture well into the 15th century.

Despite his reforms and his successes, Diocletian is best remembered as one of Rome's most ardent persecutors of Christianity. Fearing the power of the new religion, Diocletian sought to shore up imperial support for the old Roman religion.

He surrounded himself with religious fanatics and pagan governors who were ready and willing to kill off their Christian populations. Under Diocletian, Christian martyrs were burned alive, crucified, and publicly executed. While they may not have been fed to the lions of the Coliseum, Roman Christians suffered the worst under Diocletian and his supporters. Tsar Ivan IV was a ruthless monarch who ended his life as a raving lunatic.

For Russia, Ivan IV actually provided several benefits, most notably land. Russian soldiers and settlers also pushed deeper into Siberia, thus making Moscow the center of a new Eurasian empire. In the royal court however, Ivan IV was nothing less than an absolute terror. In Moscow and its surrounding environs, Ivan IV used the dreaded oprichniki , or secret police, to squash all dissent. In , oprichniki troops arrived in the Russian city of Novgorod in order to stop the possible handover of the city to the Polish king.

Ivan IV's men raised the entire city and may have killed as many as 30, people. Ivan IV also blinded the architect of St. Basil's Cathedral and beat his pregnant daughter-in-law until she had a miscarriage. Ancient historians put Elagabalus on the worst emperors along Caligula, Nero, and Vitellius who didn't make this list.

Elagabalus's besetting sin was not as murderous as the others, but rather simply acting in a manner ill-befitting an emperor. Elagabalus instead behaved as a high priest of an exotic and alien god. Writers including Herodian and Dio Cassius accused him of feminity, bisexuality, and transvestism. Some report that he worked as a prostitute, set up a brothel in the palace, and may have sought to become the first transsexual, stopping just short of self-castration in his pursuit of alien religions.

In his short life, he married and divorced five women, one of whom was the vestal virgin Julia Aquilia Severa, whom he raped, a sin for which the virgin was to have been buried alive, although she seems to have survived.

His most stable relationship was with his chariot driver, and some sources suggest Elagabalus married a male athlete from Smyrna. He imprisoned, exiled, or executed those who criticized him. Elagabalus was assassinated in CE. Nero is perhaps the best known of the worst emperors, having allowed his wife and mother to rule for him and then stepping out from their shadows and ultimately having them, and others, murdered. But his transgressions go far beyond just that; he was accused of sexual perversions and the murder of many Roman citizens.

Nero also confiscated senators' property and severely taxed the people so that he could build his own personal Golden Home, the Domus Aurea. During Nero's reign, Rome burned for nine days, the cause of which was fiercely debated. Some said that Nero used the fire to clear space for a palace expansion.

The fire destroyed three of Rome's 14 districts and severely damaged seven others. An artist at heart, Nero was said to be quite skilled at playing the lyre, but whether he truly played it while Rome burned is debatable.

He was at least involved behind the scenes in some other way, and he blamed the Christians and had many of them executed for Rome's burning. The rebuilding of Rome was not without controversies and financial strains, ultimately leading to Nero's death. A conspiracy to assassinate Nero in 65 CE was discovered and thwarted, but the turmoil led the emperor to take an extended tour of Greece.

He immersed himself in the arts, took part in the Olympic Games, and announced futile projects that didn't address the current state of his homeland. Upon returning to Rome, he neglected to address issues that faced him, and the Praetorian Guard declared Nero as an enemy of the people. He attempted to flee but knew he wasn't likely to succeed. There are so many, contradicting, and often singular, reasons why Nero ordered to killed his mother. But the most common reason is that Agrippina plotting to kill Nero.

So, Nero said better I killed her first. Nero ordered an accidental bump of her boat, hoping she may perish with the sinking ships. But unfortunately, she survived the preparatory attempt.

Finally, he ordered a slayer to kill her and make it look like a suicide. This time she did not survive and she dies. The fire blazed on the Aventine Hill in Rome, one of the seven hillsides that Rome is built on, overlooking the Circus Maximus.

The fire burned for nearly 6 days before it might be somewhat controlled, only to reignite once thereafter and burn uncontrolled for another 3 days.

Over a total of nearly 9 days, two-thirds of Rome has burned to the land. Temples, homes, and markets all burned to the land. Nero, at the same time, was not actually in Rome.

He was at his villa in Antium which is about 35 miles faraway from Rome, though he rushed back immediately upon hearing the news. Once back in Rome, Nero instantly opened his palace doors for the homeless people of Rome and offered them shelter and food. He was quick in his desire to begin rebuilding the city and conveniently, a new palace for himself called the Domus Aurea, which in Latin means The Golden House. It was an extensive palace complex that would eventually take up nearly one-third of Rome.

The construction of the new palace is what lead to many Roman citizens conjecture that Nero had ordered the Great Fire of Rome himself, a Crooked plan that would allow him to clear the land to build his dream palace while also allowing him to spin his public image by being the philanthropic ruler who opened his doors to his people when they needed help. Although he got the palace that he wanted, his image was irreversibly tarnished as the rumors spread quickly and escalated.

He reduces the weight of the Denarius and aureus. Revolts all over in the Roman provinces of Judea and Britain were also escalating. Nero suspected that there were high-level conspiracies originating in the Senate to have him assassinated, which he decided he could only prevent by having them killed first.