Person · 3798–3828 AM · 38 CE — 68 CE
Nero
the emperor under whom the Great Revolt broke out
Ruled 54–68 CE. Under him Judea rose, and he sent Vespasian. The Talmud tells its own tale: nearing Jerusalem, Nero shot arrows to the four winds—every one flew toward the city. He then stopped a boy and asked him for his verse, and the boy said: "And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel" (Ezekiel 25:14). Nero understood that the Holy One meant to destroy His house by his hand and then exact payment from that same hand—so he fled and became a convert, "and from him descended Rabbi Meir" (Gittin 56a). Suetonius tells it otherwise: Nero died outside Rome in 68.
On the timeline
Sources
Tanakh
- Ezekiel 25:14 — the verse the boy said: vengeance on Edom by the hand of Israel
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Gittin 56a — the arrows, the flight and the descendant Rabbi Meir
Documents of the period
- Suetonius, Nero — the years of rule and the death
Basis: documents and evidence.