Erotic images from Greece and Rome, £16.99
Explore / Online Tours
Gladiators
Marble bust of Nero
Nero (reigned 54-68) was passionate about the games. Trained in singing and playing the lyre, he performed in public, though at his first appearance in Rome he surrounded himself with 5,000 supporters, ready to applaud and express their approval. He was also passionate about equestrian sports and drove chariots himself. He founded the Neronian Games, which comprised the entire repertory of the ancient Greek examples, with chariot-racing, athletic contests and a singing competition. In AD 57 he built a wooden amphitheatre of unprecedented size in the Campius Martius, but it burned down in the great fire of AD 64.
This fire, which raged for six days, completely devastated seven of the fourteen city quarters of Rome, leaving only rubble and ashes, and three more were partially destroyed. Nero subsequently accused the Christians of starting the fire. Rumours and speculation soon spread about their secret rituals and criminal activities, both of which were punishable by death. Nero's subsequent persecution of the Christians was very harsh and even aroused sympathy for them, 'due to the impression that they were being sacrificed not for the welfare of the state but to the ferocity of a single man'.