It is factually true that the 666 business does refer to Nero. This isn't so much to do with his persecution of the christians but more because they assumed he would bring about the end of the world. The assumption among the early christians was that armageddon was nigh and the Emperor would bring it about. That they were wrong was an early manifestion of christian inaccuracy.
Funnily enough there is a school of thought that says Nero didn't persecute the christians at all. There were many radical Jewish sects milling around the Roman Empire at the time all with their own messiah and Nero blamed the fire in Rome on a separate bunch of zealots. They were successfully wiped out thus leaving the christians to take the credit.
Even more interestingly the place where Nero carried out his executions was on the Vatican hill in Rome. The memorial that was placed there by the christians / zealots whoever grew into a church which became the centre of worship in Rome which is why the Pope lives there to this day.
__________________
"It's the bally ballyness of it all that makes it all so bally bally."
Bertie Wooster. |