What bad things did Nero do?

Answer 1

Nerva's reign lasted only just over sixteen months. He was proclaimed emperor by the senate in haste, within hours of the news of the assassination of Domitian to prevent a civil war. He might have been considered a safe choice because he was old and childless. He lacked widespread support in the empire. Despite the fact that many senators suffered with Domitian's many treason trials, there still was a pro-Domitian faction in the senate. Therefore, his attempts to involve the senate in his government were only partially successful, even though he stopped Domitian's treason trials, returned the confiscated property to its owners, released the people who had been imprisoned and gave amnesty to those who had been exiled.

To gain support among the people Nerva gave a sum of money to each Roman citizen, granted a large number of plots of land for the poor, exempted people from the inheritance tax and made loans to the rich conditional to paying an interest of 5% to the local council for the support of the needy. However, the expenses that this generosity involved got the treasury into trouble.

To appease the Praetorian (imperial) Guard, Nerva gave them a generous donation and sacked their head, who had been involved in Domitian's assassination. However, support for Domitian was still strong in the army and the Praetorian Guard considered his measures insufficient. They demanded the execution of the assassins, but Nerva refused.

In his efforts to be a benign ruler, Nerva allowed the senate to continue to prosecute those who had been Domitian's informers. This led to anarchy as the senators acted in their personal interest and tried to settle scores with personal enemies. It was said that Domitian's tyranny was preferable to Nerva's anarchy. A plot against him was discovered, but he refused to execute the conspirators. This met the disapproval of the senate. As he had no heir, Nerva considered adopting the governor of Syria to have him as his successor. This was opposed by those who supported the general Trajan. The Praetorian Guard sieged his palace, took him hostage and forced him to meet their demand to hand over the assassins of Domitian for execution. His reputation was irreparably damaged. Nerva realised that without the support of the senate and the army his position was untenable. He adopted Trajan as his successor and shared power with him. Three months later he had a stroke and died soon afterwards.

Answer 2

Well he did let Rome burn down and blamed the Christians for it!

while it was burning some people say he put on a costume and danced and sungs at the top of a hill just because he hated the narrow roads and old buildings

Answer 3

Nero did vary few crazy or insane things. You may be mixing him up with Caligula. Nero, himself could be considered to have done cruel things, but none of them insane if you understand the reason for them.

Answer 4

for one he burnt down rome and when rome was done burning he told his gards to not let any one into rome so he could take all the good stuff but then, this ruins the whole idea of what he did bad, he gave out cheap supplies of corn to all the plebians (poor).

Answer 5

He definitely killed his mother and first wife. He is supposed to have indulged in many vices, but some of these are questionable and come down to us by way of writers who were republican leaning and would have nothing positive to say about any emperor. Some of these "vices" that he's accused of having scandalized the Roman upper class, but endeared him to the populace. He performed on the stage and drove chariots in competition. This caused the aristocracy to gasp, but the general public loved it. But the worst thing that he did was to exempt Greece from taxes (Greece was one of the wealthiest provinces) and then to deplete the treasury on his lavish spending sprees.