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   NERO (Claudius Domitius).  This son of Cneius Domitius Abenobarbus and of Agrippina the younger, was born at Antium in the 37th year of the Christian era. He was adopted (A.D. 50) 
           
and created Caesar by Claudius whose daughter. Octavia, he married. He eventually succeeded Claudius although he had no family claim or birthright to the imperial throne. But Claudius having espoused Agrippina, that unscrupulously ambitious princess persuaded him to adopt her son by Domitius and consequently to exclude Britannicus whom the Emperor had by Messalina.  From this time he took the name of Claudius Nero and received the title of Princeps Juventutis in 51. After Claudius was removed by poison, Nero succeeded in A.D. 54 at the age of 17. It is said that he possessed great and even good qualities. His precepor Seneca certainly neglected nothing to ennoble his mind and to accomplish his education. He was fond of the fine arts, of poetry and above all of music, a passion which led him to commit a multitude of extravagances. In the first year he seemed to give promise of a happy reign. But in this he evidently was diguising the atrocity of his disposition. He soon dropped the mask of virtue.
   Nero abandoned himself to his vicious and cruel propensities. He successively put to death Britannicus his half brother (55), Agrippina his mother (59), Domitia his aunt, Octavia his wife, Claudia his sister in law. Seneca and Burrhus who had been his tutors and Corbulo his victorious general, Lucan and Petronius and his second wife Poppaea also became the victims of his murderous fury which extended to a multitude of other persons.
   In the year 64 he caused ten districts of Rome to be burnt. At the same time he falsely accused the Christians as the incendiaries and this crime being imputed to them, gave rise to the first persecution.