NERO, Roman emperor from A.D. 54 to 68, born at Antium, son of Cn.  Domitius Ahenobarbus and of Agrippina, daughter of Germanicus; after the murder of Claudius, instigated by Agrippina, who 4 years previously had become the emperor’s wife, Nero seized the throne, excluding Britannicus, the rightful heir; during the first 5 years of his reign his old tutors, Seneca and Burrus, were his advisers in a wise and temperate policy, but gradually his innate tendency to vice broke through all restraint, and hurried him into a course of profligacy and crime; Britannicus was put to death, his mother and wife, Octavia, were subsequent victims, and in 64 numbers of Christians suffered death, with every refinement of torture, on a trumped-up charge of having caused the great burning of Rome, suspicion of which rested on Nero himself; a year later Seneca and the poet Lucan were executed as conspirators, and, having kicked to death his wife Poppaea, then far advanced in pregnancy, he offered his hand to Octavia, daughter of Claudius, and because she declined his suit ordered her death; these and many other similar crimes brought on inevitable rebellion; Spain and Gaul declared in favour of Galba; the Praetorian Guards followed suit; Nero fled from Rome, and sought refuge in suicide (37-68).

NERVA, Roman emperor from 96 to 98, elected by the Senate; ruled with moderation and justice; resigned in favour of Trajan, as from age unable to cope with the turbulence of the Praetorian Guards.

NESS, LOCH, the second largest loch in Scotland, stretches along the valley of Glenmore, in Inverness-shire, is 221/2 m. long, and has an average breadth of 1 m. and an extreme depth of 280 ft.:  its main feeders are the Morriston, Oich, and Foyers; the Ness is its chief outlet.

NESSELRODE, COUNT VON, celebrated Russian diplomatist, born at Lisbon, where his father was Russian ambassador; represented Russia at a succession of congresses, played a prominent part at them, and directed the foreign policy of the empire under Alexander I. and Nicholas I., from 1816 to 1856, though he strove to avoid the war which broke out in 1853 (1780-1862).

NESSUS, a Centaur who, for attempting to carry off Dejanira, Hercules’ wife, was shot by Hercules with an arrow dipped in the blood of the HYDRA (q. v.), and who in dying handed to Dejanira his mantle, dipped in his poisoned blood, as a charm to regain her husband’s affections should he at any time prove unfaithful.  See HERCULES.

NESSUS’ SHIRT, the poisoned robe which Nessus gave Dejanira, and which in a moment of distrust she gave to Hercules.  See NESSUS.

NESTOR, king of Pylos, a protege and worshipper of Poseidon, the oldest, most experienced, and wisest of the Greek heroes at the siege of Troy; belonged to the generation of the grandfathers of the rest of them.