Who they were
Nero was a Roman emperor who reigned from 54 to 68. He was the last of the Julio-Claudian dynasty.
What they did
His reign saw the great Fire of Rome in AD 64, after which he built his lavish Domus Aurea. Hostile ancient sources accuse him of blaming and persecuting Christians and of having his mother and wife killed. Facing revolt and abandoned, he died by suicide in 68, ending the dynasty and opening the Year of the Four Emperors.
Legacy
Ancient writers portray him as a tyrant obsessed with performing, and his name became a byword for cruelty. The tale that he fiddled while Rome burned is a later legend, since the fiddle did not yet exist, and modern historians treat the hostile sources with caution.