# Nero original name, Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus (A.D. 37-68) an ancient Roman emperor (A.D. 54-68), famed for his cruelty. He had his mother and wife killed and kicked his mistress to death while she was pregnant. Nero also persecuted Christians, blaming them for a great fire in Rome. A famous legend holds that Nero caused the great fire of Rome himself and played a stringed instrument while watching it. To say that someone is "fiddling while Rome burns" is to say that the person is indifferent to catastrophe.