When he was
almost killed by one of his would-be victims, he surrounded himself
with armed bodyguards who overcame any unexpected resistance.
Nero's original name was Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus. When Agrippina
the Younger married her uncle, Emperor Claudius I, she convinced him
to adopt the child and he acquired his new name, Nero Claudius Caesar
Drusus Germanicus. Nero married his stepfather's daughter, Octavia. He
was declared Emperor at the tender age of 17. Nero promptly had his
mother poison Claudius' son, Britannicus - but his first five
years were marked by the moderating influence of Burrus, the prefect
of the Praetorian Guards, and the philosopher Seneca, his tutor.
Nero abolished the pernicious habit of secret trials, put the affairs
of the state at the hands of a nascent bureaucracy, and made the
Senate more independent. He forbade bloodshed in public circus
contests, abolished capital punishment, reduced taxes and allowed
slaves to sue their unjust masters. He initiated competitions in
poetry, drama, and athletics. He pardoned plotters and authors of
scathing epigrams against him. Claudius, by comparison, has executed
40 Senators for treason.
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