<u>The Roman empire started well but eventually shrank when Nero was in power. </u>
Nero was very young when he became a Roman emperor. <u>He started out well </u>by reducing taxes, allowing slaves to sue unfair owners, prohibiting capital punishment, helping Jews and providing assistance to cities that were struggling from disasters.
<u>However, Nero was known as being one of the worst and craziest emperors</u>; he was quite deranged, had many people killed, terrorized those who dared challenge him and even had his own mom killed. He, also, launched tremendously expensive building projects that cost a huge price in taxes.
<u>At the end, Rome was totally unsatisfied</u> and the Senate had declared he was a public enemy, which meant that anyone could kill him without facing punishment. Scared, Nero ran away leaving the Roman Empire <u>with no leader and no heirs</u>. Within a year, many generals rose up and tried to take over Rome until a general named Vespasian successfully took it and became the emperor.
