Nero
c. 37 CE–c. 68 CE · Anzio
Last Julio-Claudian emperor (r. 54–68 CE), whose reign ended in revolt and suicide, and who was popularly blamed for the Great Fire of Rome in 64 CE. Tacitus records (Annals 15.44) that Nero deflected that blame onto the city's Christians, subjecting them to executions; early Christian tradition, attested already in 1 Clement and elaborated by later writers, holds that the apostles Peter and Paul were martyred in Rome under his reign. The First Jewish Revolt broke out in 66 CE during his reign, a war that culminated in the destruction of the Second Temple under his successors in 70 CE.
Did you know?
Nero was emperor when the revolt that led to the Churban — and the rebuilding at Yavneh — broke out
The Great Revolt against Rome erupted in 66 CE, while Nero sat on the imperial throne. Those were the very years Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai was trapped inside besieged Jerusalem — on his way to being smuggled out to found the academy at Yavneh that would preserve Torah scholarship for the next two thousand years.
Meet Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai →How we know
Nero reigned 54–68 CE; the Great Revolt began 66 CE. Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai (c. 30–90 CE) escaped Jerusalem and founded Yavneh c. 70 CE.
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Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Nero’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
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