Nero Caesar

Life and work

Nero became emperor in AD 54 at age sixteen following the death of his adoptive father Claudius, ruling until his own death by suicide in AD 68 amid a military revolt. His early reign, guided by advisors including the philosopher Seneca, was relatively stable, but it grew increasingly erratic, tyrannical, and violent in its later years, including the murder of his own mother and, ancient sources report, his wife.

Nero never appears by name in the New Testament, but he is the unnamed 'Caesar' Paul repeatedly invokes near the end of Acts. Facing trumped-up charges before the governor Festus in Caesarea, Paul exercises his right as a Roman citizen to appeal directly to the emperor: 'I appeal to Caesar!' Festus replies, 'You have appealed to Caesar. To Caesar you shall go' (Acts 25:10-12), setting up Paul's eventful voyage to Rome (Acts 27) to stand trial before Nero's court. Philippians 4:22, written from Paul's Roman imprisonment, sends greetings from believers 'of Caesar's household' — evidence the gospel had reached even into Nero's own domestic staff.

Acts ends before recording the outcome of Paul's appeal, but later church tradition (not the New Testament itself) holds that Paul was martyred in Rome under Nero, traditionally by beheading, and that Peter was crucified there as well, traditionally upside down at his own request. The Roman historian Tacitus, writing decades later, independently corroborates that Nero blamed and brutally persecuted Christians in Rome after the great fire of AD 64, describing torments inflicted on 'an immense multitude' — the same general period church tradition places both apostles' deaths in, though Tacitus does not name Paul or Peter specifically.

Extra-biblical evidence

Scripture references

• Acts 25:10-12 — Paul appeals his case to Caesar (Nero)
• Philippians 4:22 — Greetings from believers 'of Caesar's household'

Further reading

• Encyclopaedia Britannica: Nero