"Although Nero's death had at first been welcomed with outbursts of joy, it roused varying emotions, not only in the city among the senators and people and the city soldiery, but also among all the legions and the generals; for the secret of empire was now disclosed, that an emperor could be made elsewhere than at Rome."Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, the son of Agrippina the Younger, was born on Dec. 15 A.D. 37 in Latium. When his stepfather, the Emperor Claudius died, probably at the hand of Agrippina, Lucius, whose name had been changed to Nero Claudius Caesar (showing lineage from Augustus), became the Emperor Nero. A series of treason laws in A.D. 62 and the fire in Rome of A.D. 64 helped seal Nero's reputation. Nero used the treason laws to kill whomever Nero considered a threat and the fire gave him the opportunity to build his golden palace, the "domus aurea." Unrest throughout the empire led Nero to commit suicide himself on June 9 A.D. 68 in Rome.
-Tacitus Histories I.4
Nero is on the list of Most Important People to Know in Ancient History.
