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<p>[QUOTE="Cachecoins, post: 4902378, member: 111237"]The revisionists (nothing wrong with trying to set the record straight), while possibly correct in painting Nero as a young man trust into a position of power he did not want and was not up to the task and not really in control...does not really redeem him from his actions. Of course there are serious problems trying to pin him as a persecutor of Christians...mostly because of the timeline and how unlikely it is that many Christians were in Rome; or that he would know much if anything about them. He does come off as a spoiled brat, vain, frivolous, hungry for adoration and attention....little interest in food governance.</p><p><br /></p><p>I also agree that, just like many emperors, there is often little one can say for sure and to analyze the sources one can certainly find or detect possible bias. However I believe that his reputation was not built on the fire and Christian persecution alone and while it is good to humanize him, being thrown into the deep end is not an excuse....he may have been out of his league but he reacted to it in a spectacularly negative way. I think a lot of what is said about the so called bad (or even good like Pius) emperors are often 75 percent heresay but where there is smoke there is often at least a spark of truth.</p><p><br /></p><p>I read a great biography of Caligula some time ago which analyzed every source including statues and coins and concluded much the same thing. Young man from a shockingly disfunctional family, thrust into the highest position of power only to go off the rails....not evil but weak willed, vain, immature all too human and flawed...never should have been put in that situation and probably not as bad as the sources paint him ..but in the end...a bad emperor all the same.</p><p><br /></p><p>Of course like any good historian, he did not speak of him in such terms as bad or good but lets you conclude what you will from the information he minded from the sources and his objective analysis of those sources..[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Cachecoins, post: 4902378, member: 111237"]The revisionists (nothing wrong with trying to set the record straight), while possibly correct in painting Nero as a young man trust into a position of power he did not want and was not up to the task and not really in control...does not really redeem him from his actions. Of course there are serious problems trying to pin him as a persecutor of Christians...mostly because of the timeline and how unlikely it is that many Christians were in Rome; or that he would know much if anything about them. He does come off as a spoiled brat, vain, frivolous, hungry for adoration and attention....little interest in food governance. I also agree that, just like many emperors, there is often little one can say for sure and to analyze the sources one can certainly find or detect possible bias. However I believe that his reputation was not built on the fire and Christian persecution alone and while it is good to humanize him, being thrown into the deep end is not an excuse....he may have been out of his league but he reacted to it in a spectacularly negative way. I think a lot of what is said about the so called bad (or even good like Pius) emperors are often 75 percent heresay but where there is smoke there is often at least a spark of truth. I read a great biography of Caligula some time ago which analyzed every source including statues and coins and concluded much the same thing. Young man from a shockingly disfunctional family, thrust into the highest position of power only to go off the rails....not evil but weak willed, vain, immature all too human and flawed...never should have been put in that situation and probably not as bad as the sources paint him ..but in the end...a bad emperor all the same. Of course like any good historian, he did not speak of him in such terms as bad or good but lets you conclude what you will from the information he minded from the sources and his objective analysis of those sources..[/QUOTE]
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