Concept

Nero Redivivus Legend

Intro

The emperor Nero killed himself in AD 68. Within a year, rumors spread that he had not really died and would come back, and more than one man claimed to be him. Historians call this the Nero Redivivus legend, from the Latin for "Nero revived".

The legend comes up in two places in Christian apologetics. Skeptics sometimes cite it as an ancient parallel to the resurrection of Jesus: people believed Nero came back too. And readers of Revelation have long asked whether its beast with a healed death-wound, and its number 666, allude to Nero. The first use does not survive a look at what was actually claimed. The second is a real interpretive option, held in some Christian traditions and not in others.

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In full

The ancient evidence is Roman, not Christian, and it is consistent.

The death. According to Suetonius, Nero, declared a public enemy by the Senate and abandoned by his guard, fled Rome to a freedman's villa and, as soldiers approached to arrest him, drove a dagger into his throat with the help of his secretary Epaphroditus, in June AD 68.
The rumors. Suetonius also reports that for years afterward some people decorated his tomb with flowers and displayed his images and edicts as though he were still alive and would soon return to destroy his enemies.
The impostors. Tacitus describes a man in AD 69, a slave or freedman who resembled Nero and could sing and play the lyre, who gathered followers in the eastern provinces before he was captured and killed (Histories 2.8-9). Suetonius mentions another pretender about twenty years after Nero's death who won support among the Parthians. Later sources report at least one more.
The apocalyptic reuse. Jewish and Christian apocalyptic writings of the following generations, notably books of the Sibylline Oracles, pictured Nero returning from the east as an agent of destruction.

What the sources describe is a belief that Nero had not died, or had escaped, and would return. The rumor could spread precisely because the circumstances of his death were private and hurried, and the body was not publicly displayed.

Not a resurrection parallel

The claim that the Nero legend parallels the resurrection of Jesus confuses two different kinds of report.

	Nero	Jesus
Death	Doubted by those who expected his return; the legend depends on the doubt	Proclaimed as certain by those who announced the resurrection: "Christ died ... he was buried" (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)
Claim	He escaped and is alive somewhere, and will return	He died, was buried, and was raised on the third day
Appearances	Impostors appeared, who claimed to be Nero and were exposed or killed	The risen Jesus is reported appearing to named individuals and groups, including skeptics (James) and an enemy (Paul) (1 Corinthians 15:5-8)
Body and tomb	No claim of an empty tomb; his remains were placed in the family tomb, which his supporters decorated	The tomb is reported empty; the earliest counter-claim (that the body was stolen) concedes it (Stolen Body Hypothesis Defeater)
Result	Rumor faded; the pretenders were forgotten	A movement proclaiming the resurrection grew in the city where Nero had executed its members

So the cross-examination question is simple: "Did anyone claim that Nero died, was buried, rose bodily and appeared to his followers? Or did some people believe he never died?" The evidence supports only the second. A survival rumor is not a resurrection claim, and the Nero case, far from making the Christian proclamation look ordinary, shows what a legend about a famous man's return actually looked like in the first century. See Resurrection of Jesus - Naturalistic Counter-Theories and Dying and Rising God Motif for the wider parallel literature.

Revelation and the Nero reading

Revelation describes a beast with "one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed" (Revelation 13:3, KJV; the margin gives "Gr. slain"), a beast "that was, and is not, and yet is" (Revelation 17:8), and a number, "the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six" (Revelation 13:18, KJV).

Many interpreters have seen Nero here:

The number. In the Hebrew alphabet, where letters double as numerals, the Greek name "Nero Caesar" transliterated into Hebrew letters (nrwn qsr) totals 666. Written without the final n, following the Latin spelling, it totals 616, and 616 is a variant reading of Revelation 13:18 known in the early church (Irenaeus mentions it). The coincidence of the variant with the alternative spelling is the strongest single argument for the Nero reading.
The healed wound and the one who "was, and is not". Read against the legend, the imagery fits a ruler expected to return after an apparent death.
The persecutor. Nero was the first emperor to persecute Christians, in Rome after the fire of AD 64 (Tacitus, Annals 15.44; see Historical Evidence for the Martyrs).

How far the Nero reading goes depends on the interpretive school:

Preterist readings take Nero as the primary referent and date Revelation accordingly.
Idealist readings take Nero as the historical type of a recurring figure, the persecuting state that sets itself up as divine.
Futurist readings expect a figure still to come, and may treat Nero as a foreshadowing at most.

The codex does not settle that question. What the evidence supports is modest: the Nero legend was part of the world Revelation's first readers lived in, and the number 666 (with its 616 variant) fits Nero's name in Hebrew letters.

Apologetic significance

Against the parallel objection, the legend is a useful counter-example: it shows how survival rumors about a famous figure behaved, and they did not produce a proclamation of death and bodily resurrection.
For the reliability of the New Testament world, Roman historians and the New Testament agree on Nero as persecutor, and Revelation's imagery makes most sense against a first-century backdrop.
Caution: do not claim that the Nero reading of Revelation is the only Christian reading, and do not use 666 arithmetic as a proof of anything beyond the fit it shows.

Common questions this page answers

Q: Did people believe Nero rose from the dead?

Not in the sense Christians claimed of Jesus. After Nero's suicide in AD 68 some people believed he had not really died, or had escaped, and would return, and several impostors claimed to be him. No one claimed he died, was buried, rose bodily and appeared to his followers.

Q: Is the Nero Redivivus legend a parallel to the resurrection of Jesus?

No. The Nero rumor depended on doubting that he had died; the Christian proclamation depended on insisting that Jesus had died and was buried. A survival rumor and a resurrection claim are different kinds of report.

Q: How did Nero die?

Suetonius reports that Nero, declared a public enemy and facing arrest, stabbed himself in the throat with his secretary's help at a villa outside Rome in June AD 68.

Q: Is 666 in Revelation a reference to Nero?

Many interpreters think so: "Nero Caesar" written in Hebrew letters adds up to 666, and the spelling without the final letter gives 616, a variant reading of Revelation 13:18 known in the early church. Whether Nero is the full referent depends on how one reads Revelation as a whole.

Q: Who were the false Neros?

Men who claimed to be Nero after his death: one in AD 69 described by Tacitus, and another about twenty years later who gained support in Parthia, according to Suetonius.