Power, as a unique abstract thing in human society, has been highly sought after by people since its birth.
Whether in Chinese history or in world history, there are many people who have worked for power and toiled all their lives.
The Roman Empire, as a glorious era in European history, left behind a great influence on civilization, system, culture and even spirit.
Their monarchs, the consuls of the Roman Empire, held most of the power in the country, and absolute power naturally gave rise to decay.
By the time of Nero, the fifth monarch of the Roman Empire, he did even more absurd things.
He castrated his "wife" and "sacrificed" himself to the slave and became the slave's "wife".
Such absurd behavior also created a two-sided character in the historical evaluation of this monarch.
The authority of the House of Augustus, the fate of Nero the Younger
The first emperor of the Roman Empire, the famous Julius Caesar.
As a generation of monarchs whose achievements were equivalent to Qin Shi Huang in European history, Julius Caesar had absolute authority in the Roman Empire.
But after all, he was a soldier, and he was not outstanding in governing the country in comparison, so although he had high prestige during his reign, he was hated by people with intentions.
In 44 BC, Julius Caesar was assassinated.
On his deathbed, he appointed Octavian as his successor, hoping that Octavian would inherit the glory of Rome.
At this time, Rome, because of the death of Julius Caesar, was in turmoil, and the power was in the hands of the senatorial republicans Brutus and Cassius.
Knowing that he would not be able to take power back to Rome, Octavian formed an alliance with Caesar's former colleagues Antony and Lepida to form the latter three-headed alliance.
With the support of his allies, Octavian cleansed the Senate of heresy.
Swift and adept at winning hearts, Octavian defeated the heretics, Brutus and Cassius, at the Battle of Philippi.
The battle was regarded by Roman citizens as an outstanding contribution by Octavian to the country.
Thus, Octavian acquired the qualities of "authority"—legitimate inheritance, service to the country, allegiance to the army.
Upon his return, Octavian officially succeeded to the consulship and became the leader of Rome.
The Senate awarded him the title of "Augustus", which was regarded in Roman civilization as a "holy relic and a holy place", an honor that no one had ever held before, not even Julius Caesar.
When Octavian took supremacy, his first thought was how to consolidate this power.
With the trust of the citizens, coupled with the support of the Senate, he smoothly laid down the basic principle of hereditary succession to the throne: the heir must be a member of the royal family.
This provision indirectly made the Augustus family the legitimate holders of inheritance.
From then on, the throne of the Roman Empire was "monopolized" by the Augustus family, and people from other families had the highest power and could not encroach on the throne.
But in fact, Octavian had no heir, which also led to his forced succession to his stepson and son-in-law Tiberius Nero.
That is to say, after Tiberius' generation, the lineage of the sacred Augustus bloodline was "diluted".
According to the cognition of Eastern civilization, "it is better to look than a concubine, and it is better to be a neighbor than a relative".
The same was true in terms of succession, but not with Nero, the fifth emperor of the Roman Empire.
Although his father Gnaeus was a nobleman, he was not a direct royal family.
Gnaeus's mother was the "princess" of the Augustus family, which was the key to Nero's inheritance.
Of course, it was Nero's mother, Agrippina, who really made Nero the Roman emperor.
A calculating mother, Nero ascends the throne
Agrippina, a descendant of Octavian.
Her mother was Octavian's granddaughter, that is, Agrippina had Augustan blood flowing in her body.
Despite this, Agrippina could not become emperor, and in the Roman Empire, there was no precedent for women to take power.
Even Octavian's ally, Egypt, was in power by the queen at the time.
Just as the so-called "Pifu is not guilty, he is guilty", and Agrippina, who cannot become emperor but enjoys the right of inheritance, was also hated by the Roman emperor Caligula.
In order to prevent his throne from being robbed, Caligula exiled Agrippina.
Not long after Agripina became a mother, she was "thrown" by Caligula out of town, and naturally had a hatred for Caligula.
But at that time, she had no power, and could only silently accept Caligula's arrangement.
In this way, poor little Nero experienced the death of his father (Gnaeus died of debauchery), the violent death of his mother, and became an "orphan" - his mother was exiled and did not allow little Nero to accompany him.
Little Nero, who had just turned three years old, was raised by his aunt.
However, although the aunt was rich, she was extremely stingy and treated little Nero's life very indifferently, which also led to "Nero being raised in a very miserable situation".
This experience is one of the highlights of later historians' analysis of Nero's distorted psychology.
In 41 AD, Agrippina's uncle Claudius ascended the throne with the support of the army.
He recalled his niece Agrippina as soon as possible, which also allowed Agrippina to finally accompany her son to grow up.
But Agrippina aroused the jealousy of another existential being - Claudius's queen Mesalina.
Mesalina, fearing that Agrippina threatened her throne, suppressed her more, despite Agripina's humble and flattering behavior.
Originally, Agrippina had no chance, but Mesalina did something wrong - cheating.
She cheated on her lover, and the news was learned by Agrippina.
Eventually the matter reached the ears of Emperor Claudius, and Mesalina was forced to commit suicide.
At this point, Agrippina lost her opponent, and she set her sights on the throne.
Taking advantage of her beauty, she successfully married her uncle Claudius and ascended the throne of empress.
An uncle marrying a niece, even during the Roman Empire it was incest.
But when people discover that the two sides of the union are the Claudius family and the Augustus family, they find that their hearts are extremely eager to facilitate this.
This is the charm of the holy Augustus family, and even after hundreds of years, Roman citizens still consider the Augustus family to be supremely sacred.
After becoming empress, Agrippina used means to make her son the heir to the throne.
At the same time, she began to wield power, befriended the Senate, established majesty in the army, and laid the foundation for her son's succession.
Under the operation of his mother, Nero had not yet ascended the throne and already enjoyed high prestige in the hearts of the senate, the army and citizens.
After Claudius's death, Nero ascended the throne with the approval of the army and the senate.
Killing the mother, castrating his own "wife"
In 54 AD, Nero became the fifth emperor of the Roman Empire with the full support of his mother.
At that time, the power of the Roman Empire was still in the hands of the Senate and his mother, so Nero behaved "well-behaved".
He cooperated with the senate class to abolish many taxes and win the favor of the senatorial class; After that, the treasury was opened, and free bread was distributed to the Janissaries every month, and the army's trust was obtained; And in terms of obedience to his mother, Nero is even more enthusiastic.
He publicly preached respect for his mother and printed her head on the Roman currency of the time.
Although the imperial government at that time was in the hands of Agrippina, the confirmation from the emperor still made Agrippina, the mother, very happy.
In this way, Nero spent several years on the throne.
In recent years, he has grown rapidly, becoming more and more proficient in power calculations, and his thirst for power has become more and more.
But Agrippina was not willing to let go of power, which led to irreparable contradictions between the two.
This contradiction was inevitable for Nero to become the Roman emperor, and it was also brought about by years of getting along.
Agripina, who wields power, is extremely domineering, she does not allow her son to learn the art he is interested in, and tries to suppress his son's interest.
In her view, an emperor should devote his energies to politics.
But how cruel is this to Nero, who has experienced hardship since childhood and needs art to comfort his heart?
Over time, Nero's conflict with Agrippina rose into a struggle.
At that time, Nero was authorized by the Senate to be the orthodox consul of the state; Although Agrippina is the "Queen Mother" and has also managed government affairs for many years, she has always been in the name of "acting".
Therefore, once Nero decided to make a move on Agripina, Agripina was quickly defeated.
Power returned to Nero, but Nero did not spare his mother.
On one occasion, when Agrippina sent a slave to ask him for peace, he sent troops to kill Agrippina on the pretext that the slave had been assassinated.
Killing his own mother seemed to have completed the "metamorphosis" for Nero.
After that, Nero, who held great power, completely exposed his true nature.
In the early days of his reign, in order to curry favor with the senate, he frequently showed favor to the senators.
But after the power was in hand, Nero forced the senator to go to the gladiatorial competition just for "whim".
After that, it even developed to the point of molesting the wife of an old senator.
Not only that, Nero also has his own opinions on the matter of "absurdity".
He loves not only women, but also handsome men.
On an outing, he met the little boy, Spolus.
Sporus was just an ordinary citizen, not a nobleman.
But he was handsome, but he was loved by Nero, who must marry him as his "wife", and Sporos could not object.
After becoming Nero's "wife", Nero became even more perverted, he dressed Spolus as a queen, took him to Greece to play, and kissed his "wife" from time to time along the way to show favor.
If so, forget it, but Nero castrated Sporus in order to make him more like a woman—another version is that he was worried that Sporus would have an affair with his lover.
In addition to being extremely absurd to others, Nero is also extremely absurd to himself.
Sacrifice himself to slavery, the fall of the Roman dynasty of Julia Claudius
The Romans loved gladiatorial performances, but slave owners never got involved, only let their slaves fight for their lives.
During Nero's reign, Rome's class of slave emancipation gradually expanded, which influenced the improvement of the slave problem in the state.
Nero issued a decree requiring no death in gladiatorial matches, which was supported by the slave class and was an important reason for Nero's early ascension to the throne.
Since then, Nero, like many Romans, loved the atmosphere of the Colosseum and often went to the Colosseum to watch matches.
But since taking power, Nero has changed.
He would still go to the gladiatorial arena, but he would force the slave owners to go down for gladiatorial fights, and even senators were sent to the gladiatorial arena by him.
In addition to this, he also sent himself in.
When the other party learned that the opponent was the Roman emperor, he was too frightened to move.
But Nero forced the other party to do it, saying that if he did not fight seriously, he would kill the other party.
Under such coercion, the other party could only move, but still did not dare to really hit this Roman emperor.
Seeing that the other party still did not dare to really make a move, Nero ordered:
"Beat me with all your might, and I will reward you, or you will be ready to die."
Seeing Nero say this, the slave was no longer afraid, and had the courage to hit Nero with his hands.
Everyone in the gladiatorial arena was stunned when they saw the emperor being beaten like this, and at the same time, they also felt even more crazy about this emperor.
In addition, once the slave beat Nero, and Nero wanted to "sacrifice" himself to the other party.
He offered to become the other party's wife, and even dressed himself like his wife, waiting for the other party's "favor" - this practice makes people feel the absurdity of Nero.
But as the saying goes, "To let a man perish, you must first make him crazy."
Nero's various performances eventually aroused the dissatisfaction of the Senate and slave owners everywhere.
Dissatisfied with the emperor, they orchestrated several assassinations, only to be escaped by Nero.
In 68 AD, the governors of all parts of Rome rose up against Nero's actions, and by this time Nero had lost the support of the army, and at the same time lost the support of the Roman citizens because of the "Roman fire".
This time, Nero no longer had the power to defuse the uprising.
On June 9, Nero committed suicide by slit his throat, ending his absurd life.
And after him, the position of Roman emperor was also separated from the royal family, and the Senate recognized the leader of the rebel army, Garba, as emperor.
But the situation was no longer completely controlled by Galba and the Senate, and Rome fell into chaos in the "Year of the Four Emperors", of course, all this had nothing to do with the dead Nero.
Brief summary:
Nero's life is actually very contradictory in historical evaluation.
Today, the mainstream thought is more about Nero as a tyrant, and the world calls him "Bloodthirsty Nero".
Christians also regarded Nero as an anti-Christian tyrant, mainly because when Nero was in office, coinciding with the development of the early Christian church, he openly persecuted Christianity, and even described Christianity as the culprit of the "Roman fire".
After his death, the Senate also destroyed all his statues, portraits, etc., deliberately erasing Nero's memory from the minds of citizens.
However, from the perspective of a latecomer, Nero also contributed to state affairs.
During his tenure, Roman territory was affirmed and many wars were pacified.
In addition, Roman law was perfected during his tenure, especially for corruption of officials, and Nero established a strict system to severely punish corrupt officials.
But in any case, Nero's absurdity is still the biggest stain on his life.
Perhaps, if he had a happy childhood, he would be a generation of Ming Jun?
Resources:
The most absurd Roman emperor in the world The House of History
(Ancient Rome) Suetonius "Biography of the Twelve Emperors of Rome" Beijing Electronic Publications Publishing Center
Nero and the demise of Claudius Dynasty Tang Bin