Emperor Nero - the Blood Bather.
This extravagant and luxurious bathtub of emperor Nero, made of Porphyry granite rock, a hard igneous rock containing crystals of feldspar in a fine-grained groundmass. The Daily Beast in it's news says, the bathtubs worth has been estimated to be worth $2 billion (this world’s most valuable bathtubs market value has yet to be proven). It's in the Vatican.
A plausible fact is that Nero's new found love Poppaea Sabina, married to Marcus Salvius Otho, as her second marriage. He is a Roman Consul's son, who was sent by Nero to govern Lusitania (Portugal) though inexperienced. Barry Strauss says that, Poppaea was one of the great beauties of the day. Nero wrote a poem about her beautiful amber (golden brown) hair. She is said to have bathed daily in the milk of five hundred asses to preserve her skin and even inspired in her day a line of cosmetics named after her. She is six years older than Nero. Josephus (Life, 3) tells, "when Nero visited Rome in AD 63, he was introduced to Poppaea by a Jewish actor and was befriended by her." Tacitus (Annals XVI,6) says that, "on her death in AD 65, Poppaea was not cremated in the Roman custom but was buried (as like the foreign custom)." Josephus (Antiquities, XX.8.11) indicates that she was a 'God fearer'. F.F.Bruce (The Spreading Flame, pg 176) writes, "the empress Poppaea whom Nero married in that year (AD 62 ?) was a friend of Jews." Some claim that she urged Nero to kill his mother Agripppina.
After the great fire in Rome, which according to Seutonius states with no reservations that Nero set the city on fire [(Life of Nero, 38); cf. Pliny the Elder, Natural History, XVII, 5]. Nero found a scapegoat, in the new found faith Christians to accuse. Out of fear that there might be possible civil disturbances in the governance of Rome with the Christians, he accused them of starting a fire. Another possibility is that Nero planned a colossal project to build, and he needs space to build it. According to Tacitus, Nero punished those guilty not only of starting the fire - a crime to which they had supposedly confessed. In his private estate across the Tiber river in the Vatican territory, which included a circus. Romans liked to watch the scenes of their myths to be enacted. As a part of this the victims were worn animal skins and were torn apart by dogs. Others were crucified or burned to death at night like living torches. Nero watched this going around as a charioteer. Eusebius in his Church History, writes that, his own mother and wife, with many others who were his near relatives, he killed like strangers and enemies with various kinds of death. He also goes on to write about the martyrdom of apostles Peter and Paul under Nero. These martyrdoms were witnessed by later writers like Roman Tertullian, ecclesiastical writer Caius, and Dionysius bishop of Corinth.
Did such a ruthless tyrant did bathe in his bathtub with water? It is no exaggeration when I say that he bathed with the blood of the martyrs, other than his relatives in his luxurious bathtub.
The Second Century Church Father, Tertullian, made a statement that is still relevant today, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church."
Matthew 5:10-12 reads, "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
