Talk:Emperor Nero/@comment-173.25.47.250-20140531011056/@comment-1509826-20140531092743

Don't be naivie, he may have been a saint compared to Caligula, but Ivan the terrible and Vlad the Impaler would have been a saint compared to Caligula. Caligula was just that evil.

He scapegoated a populace to attract the blame away from him, which although he was most likely innocent, he didn't make his case much better for himself as he used the fire as an excuse to grab enormas ammounts of land to build a Palace for himself, chucking the owners off and leaving them with near nothing. He then enforced extreme payments across the empire to finance said Palance's construction. He carried on this policy of building throughout his reign.

And regurdless how insignificant it was at the time (it still numbered into the several hundreds if not thousands), no human beings deserve what he did, from putting them on Crosses, to covering them in tar and burning them alive, to having Animals rip them open. Even Roman writers of the time criticised him for his cruelty. Worst still, as he made it law if carried on after his death (on and off).

He also murdered his mother (granted she was pretty evil herself), murdered his wife cause he got bored with her, gave her head to his new love, who he then had exercuted as well. His reign was a failure, he was easily overthrown in 68 Ad, showing just how much the populace liked him, and he was forced to commit suicide to avoid being exercuted by the angry people.

No doubt Nero's exploits were exagerated when the Christians came to power (after what he did can you really blame them though) but the fact remains, there is no smoke without a fire, almost every historian agrees with the assesment Nero was nothing short of a Tyrant.