NERO: THE MAN WHO BURNED ROME, by Jeremiah Holt

    

           After Nero ordered the burning or Rome in A.D. 67, he blamed the Christians for the whole affair. Why would an emperor have his own capital burned, and how could anyone enjoy watching people suffer and die? Nero found pleasure in both of these things.

         No one knows for sure why Nero ordered the burning of Rome, but he is known to have said that he wished the ruin of all things before his death. While the flames roared, Nero was sitting in the tower of the Maceanas watching, singing, and playing a song on his harp. The fire that he had started raged in the city of Rome for nine terrible days, and the choking smell of smoke lingered even longer. The flames destroyed not only the beautiful buildings of the city but also the lives of many innocent people.


            After the fire, the Romans became very angry with Nero. They blamed him for burning Rome; this was, in fact, a correct accusation, because he was completely responsible for the entire affair. The frustrated conversations heard among the people entailed that if Nero wanted to remain emperor, he needed to do something fast. So he placed the blame on the Christians.

            Nero did not blame the Christians just to get the rope off his own neck; he also did it so that he would have an excuse to persecute them. Nero enjoyed watching people die, especially God's people; and he spent time coming up with the most painful and horrific ways to kill them. Many Christians died during this time. A few of the more well known men martyred under Nero were the Apostles Paul and Peter.

            The wickedness of Nero cannot be explained by natural means. The only way anybody can enjoy death and destruction and watching others suffer is if they are possessed by the devil, because those are the things that the devil finds pleasure in. Nero was a tool that the devil sought to use to destroy God's people. Although he did succeed in killing many of them, he failed in the end; because persecution only caused the number of Christians to increase, fulfilling God's promise that the gates of hell would never prevail against His church (Matthew 16:18). 


WORKS CITED

Fox, John. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. London, Knight and Son, 1865.

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