The tiny girl, not more than an infant, sat alone in the corner of the town square and was crying. She had been taken from her mother and watched two men nail her mother to a cross and watched her mother burn to death. This terrifying story is an example of one thing that happened in an era in Roman history. During this time there were four different emperors who ruled, and all of them were cruel and insane. The first emperor was Tiberius, an emperor that had benefits to his rein and was probably the most sane one out of the four. The second emperor was Caligula, a man that did not have any sanity at all. The third emperor was Claudius, a weak and timid emperor who was easily influenced by others. The last emperor was Nero, a man who was vicious …show more content…
His reign lasted from A.D. 14 to 37 and he was ready to follow the policy that was already prepared by past emperors. However, Tiberius had his faults, such as, he was cruel to those he had personal relations with and would sustain authority using drastic measures. For example, he used delation, a practice where people would give information about enemies and would be paid, to punish his enemies. This practice caused a class of spies to arouse throughout the empire(Morey 233). There is proof he might have killed Postumus, the last possible person for throne, to get the throne. This, however, is not the only person he killed during his reign. In fact, when he visited some of Italy, he ended up staying on the island of Capri and creating torture chambers and other places where he executed people for fun. He killed viciously and the people he picked were random. By this time he was slowly losing sanity, but back in Rome he had left Sejanus in power and he started to fear Sejanus. Tiberius managed to get a letter to the Senate calling for Sejanus’s execution. After the execution of Sejanus, evidence was found that Sejanus had killed Tiberius’s son. The last six years of Tiberius’s life was spent torturing and executing the innocent. One day he wrenched his shoulder while throwing javelin and stayed in bed. He developed an illness and went into a coma. Then his doctors said they did not think he would …show more content…
His name was Nero. Nero was born on December 15, 37, in Antium, Latium. He became the emperor after the death of Claudius. For the first time in the Roman times the power was in the hands of a boy not even 17. His mother, Agrippina, had a plan to control the government herself through Nero. However, to men named Burrus and Seneca encouraged Nero to act on his own and not with his mother. This created some issues with Nero and his mother. Because of Nero’s upbringing he was expected to act viciously, however, he surprised everyone. Nero ended things Claudius had done and managed to create many benefits for the empire. For the early reign of Nero all was well and peaceful. There were not very many deaths if any at all and he banned any violent competitions that caused bloodshed. This was only the beginning of his reign when he was under the influence of Burrus and Seneca. After ordering his mother to a death sentence and doing the same for his wife, Octavia, in June 62, everything changed. He killed his mother because her insanity led him to do it and Nero murdered his Octavia because he had fallen in love with Poppaea Sabina, a woman who was married to a senator. He married Poppaea,but she died not three years after they were married, so he married Statilia Messalina. Nero began giving public performances in theatre and arts. In theatre he played every kind of role, which seemed to be wrong to the other