Seduction Of Power (21 of 22)

In the ashes of the devastated city, he built a massive 50 acre palace.
His Golden House had lavish gardens and huge lakes, even a private zoo.
The emperor finally had what he'd always wanted, a peaceful retreat from political life.
Rumors quickly circulated that the emperor had intentionally started the fire to clear space for his new palace.
Nero panicked.
He frantically searched for a scapegoat, and settled on an obscure cult that had recently arrived in Rome.
Nero substituted as culprits and punished with the utmost refinements of cruelty, a class loathed for their vices, who the crowd called Christians.

Vast numbers were convicted and derision accompanied their end.
They were covered with wild beasts skins and torn to death by dogs or were fastened to crosses and burned to serve as lamps by night.
Tacitus.
Most Romans felt sympathy for the victims.
Nero's propaganda exercise had clearly failed.
Once again, he took refuge in his own artistic fantasies and set off on a singing tour of Greece.
The Greeks alone are worthy of my efforts.
They really listen to music.
Nero.
Not surprisingly, the most powerful man in the world won every competition he entered.
The emperor bribed judges and forced audiences to sit through every performance.
No one was allowed to leave the theater during recitals, however, pressing the reason.
We read of women in the audience giving birth and of men being so bored with listening and applauding that they've shammed death and were carried away to burial.
Suetonius.