Heloin wrote:Emperor Nero was a pretty controversial man. In his time he was a populist well liked by the lower classes of Rome who saw the Empire expand and oversaw the rebuilding of Rome after the great fire. But also absolutely hated by the wealthy and those who recorded history at the time, and accused of burning down Rome.
That's more like it.
But I think you're perhaps in danger of over-egging the revisionist pudding.
Nero seems to have been genuinely popular in Rome for the first five years or so of his reign - perhaps because of the contrast with his elderly stepfather and predecessor Claudius - but he seems to have gone downhill rapidly after he killed his mother Agrippina in 59 AD. Here it's worth stressing that Nero was only 16 when he came to power in 54 AD, so for those first 5 years Agrippina was functionally ruling the Roman Empire. But from 59-68 AD he clearly became increasingly erratic. While some of the worst stories about him were clearly exaggerated, the clearest sign of his unpopularity is that when Vindex and Galba revolted and proclaimed the latter as emperor, Nero very quickly lost control of the situation, and no one came to his rescue after the Praetorian Guard switched sides. This is even more remarkable when we consider that Galba was the first person outside the Julio-Claudian family to claim the principate, marking a sharp break with the past (a break which would lead to 69 AD seeing four emperors once every legionary commander with the necessary ambition realised the throne was potentially there for the taking).
The Great Fire of Rome was controversial; most sources - with the important exception of Tacitus - blame Nero directly for the fire. The truth of this is unknowable, but the legend that Nero 'fiddled' (more accurately, sang about the sack of Troy while wearing stage costume) while Rome burned is almost certainly propaganda. Nero did engage in extensive relief efforts after the fire, paying for much of the initial work himself, and opening up his palaces to the homeless poor. But his financial mismanagement of the subsequent rebuilding, not least because of the vast sums of money he poured into his new palace (the Domus Aurea, or Golden House), led to the devaluation of the currency and the imposition of new taxes that were likely the direct cause of the rebellions in 68 AD.
Nero retained some popularity in the Hellenised eastern half of the Empire to the end, likely reflecting the emperor's overt phihellenism; but then in the 1st century AD the centre's impact on the provinces was comparatively light.
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