Claudius Caesar, the sixth of the Caesars, was the fourth Roman emperor in succession from Augustus, and descended from a family which had taken an active part in all the important political transactions of their country. This family, however, had partaken of the degeneracy of the times, and the more immediate predecessors of Nero had been more distinguished for their follies and extravagancies than for the stern virtues of the earlier ages. His grandfather, Cnæus Domitius, was chiefly known for the cruelties he had allowed to be perpetrated in the gladiatorial exhibitions; which it was at last found necessary to put down by a public edict, the private remonstrances of Augustus having been disregarded. Cnæus Domitius was married to Antonia Major, the elder daughter of Marc Antony by Octavia, sister to Augustus, and had by her L. Domitius, the father of Nero. L. Domitius attended C. Caesar to the East, where he was dismissed with ignominy, because he had put to death his freedman for refusing to drink as much wine as he ordered. Towards the end of the reign of Tiberius, he was accused of a variety of enormities, and only escaped by the death of the emperor. He was married to Agrippina, the daughter of Germanicus, and the sister of Caligula the emperor.

Nero was born at Antium, in Latium, on the 15th of December, A.D. 37, nine months after the murder of Tiberius, and in the first year of Caligula's reign. On receiving the congratulations of his friends, his father said that it was no subject of joy, as he was certain that nothing good could spring from such parents as himself and Agrippina. Nero lost his father in his third year, and was at the same time deprived by Caligula of his patrimonial estate. The young Nero took refuge in the house of his aunt, Æmilia Lepida, till the accession of Claudius, A.D. 41, when the property of his father was restored, and he also became the heir of his step-father, Crispus Passienus, an old rich senator, whom his mother had in the meanwhile married. In his eleventh year he was adopted by the Emperor Claudius, A.D. 48, who had been induced, by the wiles of his mother, to raise her to the imperial throne. He was now placed under the tuition of the philosopher Annæus Seneca; but the pernicious doctrines and example of a corrupt court were far more likely to make an impression upon the youthful mind of Nero than the stern doctrines of the philosopher. We must not therefore place the follies of the prince to the account of Seneca, nor conclude that he did not perform his duty towards him. In his seventeenth year, A.D. 54, he married Octavia, the daughter of Claudius; and the same year he ascended the throne (13th of October), on the death of the emperor, who was supposed to have been poisoned by Agrippina.

Nero began his reign with the usual professions of respect for the senate, and of an intention to take its opinion in all matters of importance. The administration of affairs was chiefly in the hands of Agrippina, of Burrus the prefect of the praetorian guard, and of Seneca the instructor of the emperor. The two latter tried to moderate the furious proceedings of Agrippina, and to prevent her from taking any part in public affairs. Her quarrels with Nero soon enabled them to succeed in this object, as her imperious disposition could endure no rival. Her friend Pallas, who had assisted her to get rid of Claudius, was ordered to retire from court; and Britannicus, the son of Claudius, whose cause Agrippina threatened to espouse, was removed by poison. In the meanwhile, Nero amused himself by night in traversing the streets of Rome in search of adventures; he used to attack people returning from supper, and even to break into shops and rob them, sometimes at the risk of his life. The most innocent of his amusements was music, of which he is said to have been passionately fond. His whole time was devoted to the cultivation of this taste, and, after he had delighted the ears of private parties with his vocal powers, he at last made his appearance upon the public stage, at Naples, A.D. 64, and was of course much applauded. It is said, that whilst he was performing, the theatre was shaken violently by an earthquake, but that he was so absorbed with the music that he did not perceive it. Agrippina made many attempts to regain her influence over her son, and some of these were of the most flagitious kind; but Nero having become entirely devoted to Poppaea Sabina, was encouraged by her to get rid of Agrippina. After making several abortive attempts, he at last succeeded, A.D. 59; and, that he might be legally united to Poppaea, he ordered his wife Octavia to be put to death, A.D. 62. By Poppaea he had one daughter, who died in infancy; and he is said to have soon got rid of this woman by striking her with his heel on the stomach when she annoyed him by complaining of his being frequently absent from her. The dreadful conflagration which happened at Rome, A.D. 64, was generally believed at the time to have been caused by his orders; and it was even said, that at the moment when it was raging most furiously, he appeared on the top of the palace of Macenas, on the Esquiline Hill, and sang part of a tragedy entitled the Burning of Troy. It continued to rage during six days, and was only at last stopped by throwing down some of the houses, and thereby preventing the communication of the fire. The use which Nero afterwards made of the space thus cleared by the fire was a strong corroboration of the truth of the report. He appropriated the ground to himself, and erected a palace called Aurea Domus from its magnificence, but which was still more remarkable for the beauty of the gardens and ground attached to it. They were laid out under the direction of Severus and Celer, two engineers, who proposed to him to cut a canal along the coast, from Lake Avernus to Ostia, a distance of 160 miles. What advantage he supposed likely to arise from such a project it is difficult to discover; but he actually commenced it in the vicinity of Cumae, and it is supposed that the Lago di Licola is the remains of this foolish enterprise. Another work which he attempted had been projected by Caligula. This was to cut through the Isthmus of Corinth; and so much interest did he take in the work, that he commenced it with his own hand, in order to encourage the workmen to proceed in it with zeal. The people were so firmly convinced that the conflagration had been the work of incendiaries, that Nero found it necessary to turn the public indignation in some other direction than himself. The Christians were at this time attracting attention, and, like most new sects, were charged by their enemies with the most atrocious crimes. Nero accused them of having set fire to the city, and many were in consequence put to the most cruel deaths. His conduct had now excited very general indignation against him; and as no one felt secure of his life, a conspiracy was entered into by all the principal men in Rome, including Seneca, and Lucan the poet. It does not appear that Seneca had any thing farther to do with the conspiracy than that he was cognizant of it. The conspiracy, however, was discovered, A.D. 65, and most of the conspirators were put to death. On the murder of Poppaea, Nero proposed to marry Antonia, daughter of Claudius; but she preferred death to an union with such an inhuman monster. He married Stetilia Messalina, by whom he had no children. The first circumstance which excited his alarm was the revolt of Vindex, governor of Gaul, who published a manifesto against him, in which he gave the greatest annoyance to Nero by calling him a miserable and despicable musician. Nothing could have given Nero greater pain than such an assertion. A few days afterwards he received intelligence from Spain of the desertion of Galba, who was destined to be emperor; and he at once gave himself up for lost. He sent some of his most faithful freedmen to prepare some ships at Ostia Nertschink for flight, and in the meanwhile solicited some tribunes and centurions of the praetorian guard to accompany him; but on various pretexts they refused. He soon found himself completely abandoned by all except a few of his freedmen, one of whom, Phaon, offered to conceal him in his villa, about four miles from Rome, between the Via Salaria and Nomentana. But on his way thither he was recognised by a soldier, and though he reached his place of concealment, he was soon discovered, and had only time to give himself a mortal wound when his enemies appeared. He died on the 9th of June, A.D. 68, in the thirty-second year of his age, and the anniversary day on which he had put his wife Octavia to death. He was succeeded by Galba, the last of the family of Augustus who ruled the Roman empire. (Suetonius' Life of Nero; Dion Cassius, in the Extracts of Zephyrinus; Tacitus' Annals, books xiii.-xvi.)