पहिल्यांदा प्लासी, आता निरो...Marathi Political Analyst Simplifies and Distorts History

श्री. भाऊ तोरसेकर आणि श्री सुनील तांबे यांच्या प्लासीच्या लढाईबाबतच्या लेखनाबद्दल मे २८ २०१९ रोजी लिहले. 

आता तोरसेकर रोमचे बादशाह निरो यांच्या बद्दल जून ४ २०१९ रोजी लिहतात :
 "... त्यामुळे रोम जळत असताना फ़िडल वाजवत बसलेल्या निरो नामक सम्राटाचे स्मरण झाले. मुळात निरोने रोम जळत असताना वाद्य वाजवत बसण्यात काहीही गैर नव्हते. कारण तो मनोरुग्ण होता आणि त्याला साधासरळ विचारही करता येत नव्हता. पण याने दिलेली वतने व अनुदाने याच्यावरच ज्यांची गुजराण किंवा चैनमौज चाललेली होती, त्यांना साम्राज्य किंवा देश याची कुठलीही फ़िकीर नव्हती. साम्राज्य वाचवण्यासाठी कोणी खमक्या हुशार राजा त्या जागी आणला तर नक्कीच ते राज्य वाचवणे शक्य होते. पण असा कर्तबगार राजा असल्या फ़ुकट्या बुद्धीमंतांची आधी हाकालपट्टी करण्याची खात्री होती. त्यापेक्षा मनोरुग्ण सम्राट त्यांना कौतुकाचा वाटत होता. यापेक्षा आजच्या कॉग्रेस पक्षाची वा त्याच्या भगतगणांची कहाणी किंचीतही वेगळी नाही...."
हे वाचून मी Barry Strauss यांच्या 'Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors From Augustus to Constantine' , २०१९ या पुस्तकाकडे वळलो.

त्या दहा सीझर मध्ये निरो आहेत. Strauss म्हणतात:

 “…Nero did quite respectably at some of the aspects of his job. He won the support of the common people. He was a great builder. He was a superb impresario. He presided over a cultural renaissance. He loved Greece and won the support of the Greek East. It should also be remembered that for about the first five years of his reign, he had the support of the Senate as well.

Where did Nero fail? By appointing an incompetent governor, he caused a major revolt in Judea. By confiscating property, he stirred up revolt in the Western provinces. By persecuting and executing elite enemies, and by embarrassing himself in the eyes of the elite through his personal behavior, he stirred up conspiracy and revolt.

Nero was the most cultivated and cruelest emperor Rome had seen, and one of the last members of the old Roman nobility to serve as emperor. After Nero, and with the exception of Galba’s brief reign, it would be nearly two hundred years before another member of the Roman nobility served as emperor.

Nero’s predecessors, aristocrats all, were more martial and sometimes madder, but none was more magnificent. None would match his exhibitionism….”

मेरी बिअर्ड त्यांच्या गाजलेल्या 'SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome', २०१५ पुस्तकात म्हणतात :

“…A number of modern historians have presented Nero in particular more as a victim of the propaganda of the Flavian dynasty, starting with Vespasian, which succeeded him, than as a self-obsessed, mother-killing pyromaniac who reputedly started the great fire of 64 CE not just to enjoy the spectacle but also to clear land for building his vast new palace, the Golden House. Even Tacitus admits, the rehabilitators point out, that Nero was the sponsor of effective relief measures for the homeless after the fire; and the reputed extravagance of his new residence, with all its luxuries (including a revolving dining room), did not prevent the parsimonious Vespasian and his sons from taking over part of it as their home. Besides, in the twenty years after Nero’s death in 68 CE at least three false Neros, complete with lyre, appeared in the eastern parts of the empire, making a bid for power by claiming to be the emperor himself, still alive despite all the reports of his suicide. They were all quickly eliminated, but the deception suggests that in some areas of the Roman world Nero was fondly remembered: no one seeks power by pretending to be an emperor universally hated….”

रोमन साम्राज्य १५०० (इसपू २७ - इस १४५३) वर्षे टिकले होते. Julio-Claudian dynasty जरी इ स ६९ मध्ये संपली असली तरी निरो यांच्या नंतर रोमन साम्राज्य १३८५ वर्षे शिल्लक होते. Barry Strauss यांच्या पुस्तकात १० मध्ये निरो यांचा अनुक्रमांक ३ रा आहे आणि त्यानंतर ७ सम्राट येतात.

आता पुन्हा एकदा तोरसेकर काय लिहतात ते वाचा. 

म्हणजे निरोंचा इतिहास सुद्धा , प्लासी सारखा गुंतागुंतीचा आहे आणि त्याचे सुलभीकरण करण्याचा प्रयत्न जोरदार फसला आहे. 

'Nero's Death',  1888 by Vasily Smirnov