Was Nero A Saint Or Sinner?

Was Nero a Saint or Sinner? Use at least one primary source. Use at least one primary source
We must first define what a saint is and what a sinner is. According to Webster’s dictionary a saint is a person of great holiness, virtue or benevolence, while a sinner is a person who sins; a transgressor. The bible states that all believers are saints, but in truth to some small degree we are all sinners and saints.
Nero was a seventeen when he ascended to the role of Emperor of Rome. For the first few years of his rein he was considered a generous and reasonable leader, he eliminated capital punishment, and lowered taxes. He had ended the previous Emperors practice of closed-door political trials, decreased the power of corrupt bureaucracy and
Rumors arose that accused Emperor Nero of ordering the city to be torched. When in fact he was at his summer palace in Antium over 35 miles away and raced back to the city assist in relief efforts to include the opening of public buildings and his own gardens to house and feed the displaced people of Rome. For all these measures it didn’t help change the common people’s opinion of their emperor. Rumors spread that Nero had gone to his private stage and from there sang of the destructions of troy. There is a saying states that Nero played the fiddle wile Rome burned but this couldn’t have happened since the fiddle was invented after the fall of the Roman Empire. It may have a double meaning, since not only did their emperor sing and play music while his people suffered but he was an ineffectual leader in a time of
During the last few years of Nero’s rule the Roman Empire was under tremendous strain, with the cost of reconstruction, revolts in Britain and Judea as well as the conflicts in Parthia and the decline in the denarius. The Governor of Galba declared himself legate of the Senate and Roman people, following the governors lead the Praetorian Guard declared allegiance to Galba and soon after the Senate. With his supporters gone Nero found himself declared an enemy of the state. The historian Suetonius reported that Nero’s final lament “what an artist dies in me!”
While initially seen as a fair ruler this can be most contributed to the level heads and knowledge given from those who primarily advised the young ruler, and as his advisers left him to his own resources we can see the slow decline and shift in Emperor Nero’s priorities and desires. His perceived lack of caring for the support of the Roman people that eventually promulgated his down fall and resulted in his death. In other words best intentions are often laid barren and to waste when focus is