Did Nero really fiddle while Rome burned?

The man known to history as the ‘Emperor Nero’ was born, ‘Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus’ on the 15th of December 37 AD at the imperial villa in the Italian town of Antium. Nero’s father, ‘Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus’, was born sometime around 2 to 1 BC to the prominent Ahenobarbi clan. Originally of the Plebian class, the family was raised to ruling Patrician status under Augustus and had produced many consuls, the highest elected political office in the Roman Republic.

Gnaeus Domitius held the consulship in 32 AD for the entire year however, four years later after a fire tore through the Aventine and Circus Maximus in Rome, the emperor Tiberius appointed him to serve on a commission set up to compensate those who had lost their property to the blaze. In the closing months of Tiberius’ reign Gnaeus Domitius, found himself accused of incest with his sister Domitia Lepida and of adultery with the noblewoman Albicilla, in proceedings brought about by the Praetorian prefect Macro, but with Tiberius’ death and the smooth succession of Caligula, Domitius escaped prosecution. Nero’s mother, Agrippina the younger, was the daughter of the elder Vipsania Agrippina, mother also of the emperor Caligula. As such Agrippina the younger was also the great grand-daughter of the first Roman emperor Augustus. Agrippina’s father was the prominent Roman general Germanicus and a member of both the Julian and Claudian clans, and so Agrippina had a distinguished ancestry.

She was born on the 6th of November 15 AD in the Rhineland settlement of Ara Ubiorum during one of her father’s Germanic campaigns. In 28 AD, when the Emperor Tiberius returned to the mainland after his withdrawal to Capreae, today’s island of Capri, he arranged for the thirteen year old Agrippina to marry Domitius Ahenobarbus.

Their first and only child, Nero would be born nine years later following Tiberius’ death in 37 AD. Nero’s birth was accompanied by mixed omens. The delivery was traumatic for Agrippina as it was a breech birth. Contemporary philosopher Pliny the elder noted that the only person to have been born in such a way who had ever made a success of their life was the Roman general Marcus Agrippa, a close friend to Augustus.

But as Nero was finally delivered it is said that before he touched the ground for the first time he was touched by the rays of the sun. Yet despite this positive omen, his horoscope was unfavourable and purportedly one astrologer predicted that Nero would rule but would kill his mother to which she exclaimed “Let him kill me, only let him rule”.

Nero was only two years old when he was parted from his mother in 39 AD after she was implicated in a plot against her brother Caligula. A number of leading men were executed in the wake of the conspiracy whereas both Agrippina and her sister Livilla were sent into exile, Agrippina taking up residence on the island of Pontia where her older brother had served his own exile.

Initially Nero stayed with his father, but Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus had been suffering with dropsy for a time from which he died in January of 41AD. Nero was sent to live with his aunt Domitia Lepida, mother of the soon to be empress Messalina, but despite her affections for the young boy, he was subjected to a spartan life thanks to Caligula.

When imposing exile on his sisters, Caligula had confiscated their property, and not content with that, when Nero’s father died he also took Nero’s share of his inheritance. Nero stayed with his aunt for only a short time, as on the 24th of January 41 AD Caligula was assassinated. Claudius became emperor the following day and quickly recalled both Agrippina and Livilla from exile, restoring their property to them.

Following her return from exile, Agrippina took her son back from Domitia Lepida, appointing him appropriate tutors, placed under the supervision of the freedmen, former slaves, Beryllus and Anicetus, and began the search for a new husband, setting her sights first on the distinguished general Galba. However, Galba resisted her advances and instead she turned to the wealthy, older consular Passienus Crispus, who at the time was married to Domitia Lepida’s older sister Domitia the elder.

Unlike Galba, Passienus, already distinguished in himself, likely saw the merits of a marriage to the daughter of distinguished general Germanicus and married Agrippina sometime late in 41 AD. Holding the proconsulship of Asia in 42-43 AD, and taking his second consulship in 44 AD, Passienus’ success continued but he would be dead by 47 AD, leaving his fortune to Agrippina.

Some of the ancient sources claim that Agrippina murdered her husband after being made his heir but whether there is any truth to the claim cannot be proven. The year of Passienus’ death also marked the eight-hundredth year since the founding of Rome, and accordingly Claudius held centennial games to mark the occasion.

Both Claudius’ son Britannicus and Nero appeared at the games, taking part in the Lusus Troiae equestrian event, but of the two it was Nero who received the warmer reception. It has been suggested that this adulation was orchestrated by agents of Agrippina. It clearly had a negative effect on Claudius’ wife Messalina, as did the rumour that she had sent assassins to kill the infant Nero who was saved by a snake, the skin of which he would wear in a golden bracelet.

Messalina had played her part alongside her husband Claudius in removing those perceived as rivals to his somewhat shaky claim to power, including Agrippina’s sister Livilla early in his reign. After returning to exile late in 41 AD she was subsequently executed, and so it is thought that during the years since her return from her exile Agrippina kept her head down in order to avoid attracting Messalina’s attention, so much so that her actions during 41-47 AD have gone largely unrecorded.

Instead, Agrippina seemed to have worked in such a way to keep attention from herself while subtly building up Nero. The adulation for Nero garnered a hostile reaction from Messalina but by this point her attention was elsewhere as she was engaged in an affair with the consul designate Gaius Silius. It was her later supposed bigamous marriage to the man in 48 AD that brought about her death and the end of the threat to Agrippina and Nero.

 Whether Agrippina truly had designs on Claudius during this period cannot be proven but following the death of Messalina, she emerged as the favoured candidate for marriage to Claudius among those put forward by his freedmen. Already in 48 AD she had had a hand in Claudius’ daughter, Claudia Octavia’s betrothal to Lucius Junius Silanus dissolved with the aim of having Nero marry her instead, but her own marriage would come first.

Engaging the assistance of Vitellius, the longstanding friend and colleague of Claudius, the issue of their marriage was brought before the senate. Unions between uncle and niece were considered incestuous by Roman standards. But Vitellius extolled the union, and the senate voted to allow the marriage, and to the apparent joy of the people and senate alike Claudius gave his consent when he met the crowds in the Forum and supposedly, they were married that same day, early in January 49 AD.

The betrothal of Nero and Claudia Octavia quickly followed, as well as the recall of Seneca from exile. This was seen as a reversal of fortune for Seneca, who had been exiled some years earlier on the probable trumped up charge of adultery with one of Claudius’ relatives. Nero was formally adopted by his now step-father Claudius in 50 AD, and in the following year, still only thirteen years old, he took the toga virilis, or toga of manhood, in March of that year.

But this wasn’t the only honour bestowed upon him. In the same month he was designated to hold the consulship in the year 56 AD, as well as being granted proconsular imperium, or special command, outside the city and given the title of princeps iuventutis, or ‘first in order.’ At the same time as promoting the advancement of her son, Agrippina sought to isolate Claudius’ natural son Britannicus and began systematically removing those tutors, confidants and sympathisers that had surrounded the young man, as well as convincing Claudius to revert the office of Praetorian prefect to a single position with the appointment of Afranius Burrus. Nero’s assumption of the toga virilis marked his step into a public career and in the same year he made his first appearance in the senate, giving a speech of thanks to Claudius. In 52 AD when Claudius was ill, Nero once again spoke in the senate, making vows for the recovery of the ageing emperor and promising to hold games should he recover.

Then in 53 AD he appeared before the senate and Claudius to make petitions, some spoken in Greek, on behalf of towns and cities throughout the empire that required help to recover from disasters that had befallen them, as well as pleading the case for Rhodes to have their freedom returned which Claudius had stripped in 44 AD.

When Claudius left the city to attend the annual Latin festival, Nero was appointed as Prefect of the City. But 53 AD also saw the culmination of Agrippina’s master plan when Nero married Claudia Octavia, Claudius’s daughter. As Nero by this time had been adopted by Claudius, before the marriage could take place it was necessary for his daughter to be adopted into another family, as once again the union would otherwise have been considered incestuous.

 But after the formalities of adoption were completed, the marriage went ahead and the games that Nero had promised for Claudius were celebrated following the ceremony. 54 AD opened with ill omens when a comet appeared in the sky. Early in the year charges of practising magic and failure to control her slaves were brought against Domitia Lepida, possibly engineered by Agrippina, and so Nero’s aunt was executed after Nero himself gave evidence against her.

But hers was not the only prominent death that year as on the 13th of October it was announced that the emperor Claudius had died. The exact nature of his death is unknown but some sources suggest he was murdered either by Agrippina using poisoned mushrooms, or her allies to ensure Nero’s succession, although this cannot be conclusively proven.

The lead up to the announcement of Claudius’ death saw feverish preparations to secure Nero’s position. The Praetorian Prefect Burrus had already returned from camp that morning to prepare the guard, and following the announcement, accompanied the sixteen-year-old Nero out of the palace where he was greeted by the praetorians at the foot of the steps and hastily escorted to their camp at the Viminal gate.

In the camp, Nero gave a speech to the soldiers, prepared by Seneca, and was hailed as Emperor, taking the name Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, before promising a generous gift for each man of the guard, matching the sum promised by Claudius on his own ascension. Nero was then escorted to the senate where they granted him the tribunician power and proconsular imperium, although as with his predecessors, he initially declined the title of pater patriae, or Father of the nation, only accepting it later in 56 AD.

It was likely at this time that Seneca received the title of Amicus Principis or friend of the princeps, while the freedmen Beryllus and Anicetus were rewarded with the positions of Secretary for Greek correspondence and Prefect of the Misenum fleet respectively. It was expected that Claudius’s will would be read at the senate meeting but it was suppressed and while a lot of conjecture has been put forward, the contents remain a mystery.

It’s unknown whether Britannicus had in any way been named in the will. Claudius’ funeral was an elaborate affair arranged by Agrippina, taking place five days after his death to allow for a period of lying in state before processing to the Campus Martius and the funeral pyre. Nero gave the eulogy, the speech itself written again by Seneca and a short period of mourning was declared.

The day after the funeral, Nero went before the senate and asked that Claudius be deified, which they granted, and preparations for the establishment of his cult and temple construction were made. Following the deification, Nero didn’t hesitate to use the title Divi Filius, or Son of a God.

Agrippina was granted honours from the senate, including the use of two Lictors or bodyguards, and made a priestess for Claudius’ newly founded cult, and for a time she appeared on imperial coinage both alone and in tandem with her son. She is purported to have been left to deal with much of the day to day running in the beginning of Nero’s reign.

Her son even went so far as to have senate meetings held in the palace so that she could listen in on the proceedings, but she still had her eyes set on dealing with potential rivals. Although we cannot be completely certain that she played a part, a short time after Nero’s ascension, Marcus Junius Silanus, governor of Asia and brother to the deceased Lucius Junius Silanus was killed while at dinner, possibly by the equestrian procurator Celer and freedman Helius though no one was held to account for the crime.

By the end of the year, Claudius’ loyal freedman Narcissus, would also be dead. In his first years as emperor, Nero swiftly gained a reputation for generosity, sharing power with the Senate and ending closed-door political trials, though he would also pursue his own interests and largely left ruling up to three key advisers, his tutor the philosopher Seneca, the prefect Burrus and also his mother Aggripina.

In 55 AD however Agrippina’s face was taken off the coinage. Seneca had encouraged Nero’s independence from his domineering mother, which prompted her to turn against him and promote her stepson Britannicus as the true heir to the throne. She also protested against Nero’s affair with Poppaea Sabina, the wife of a friend.

Agrippina was aggrieved by these actions but Nero was undeterred. He also began to emphasize links to his natural father, Domitius Ahenobarbus, asking the senate that a statue be granted to him and having his birthday commemorated outside his house each year. As a further sign of tension between Nero and his mother, in 55AD he began an affair with a former slave Claudia Acte and threatened to divorce Octavia.

While he didn’t get that far, he did live openly with Claudia Acte, much to his mother’s dismay. Supposedly, Nero was assisted in initially hiding his affair by Seneca who recruited the prefect Serenus to pretend to be the woman’s lover. While this may have worked in public Agrippina knew better and was unable to contain herself from doling out abusive comments to the woman.

But to further add to her anger, the former slave Pallas, who had long been her ally was dismissed from his post by Nero. In that same year, Nero’s adopted brother Britannicus died. Sources suggest that Nero had engaged the services of a poisoner, Locusta, after the emperor had become suspicious of Brittannicus, Locusta was supposedly the same poisoner who had supplied the toxin to dispatch Claudius.

Echoing Claudius’ final hours, the poison was said to have been administered during a dinner party and when it took effect Nero announced that Britannicus was suffering from one of his epileptic seizures and would recover, but after being removed on a stretcher he died and was hastily cremated the following day.

Following Britannicus’ death Agrippina sought to shore up her position, finding an ally in his sister Claudia Octavia, as well as other wealthy and influential individuals, and those among the lower ranks of the praetorians, having earlier lost Burrus’ support when she insulted him. But Nero realised what she was doing and sought to do the same, winning over the praetorians with an allotment of free grain.

Nero went further still by banishing his mother from the palace on the pretext that her morning salutation, or formal greeting was too disruptive, Agrippina moved to her grandmother Antonia’s house on the Palatine. Then in an effort to further isolate her from the guard, Nero reformed their duties, which culminated in Agrippina losing access to the guards assigned to her and those around the palace.

Perhaps seizing the opportunity of Agrippina’s estrangement from Nero, and with scores to settle, the ex-wife of Gaius Silius, Junia Silana, and Nero’s aunt Domitia the elder, joined forces against her. Nero was still on good terms with his aunt and it was one of her former slaves, the actor Paris, who supposedly presented charges to Nero of maiestas, or crimes against the emperor, targeting Agrippina and Rubellius Plautus, Tiberius’ great-grandson.

Nero panicked and ordered the immediate execution of his mother, but Burrus agreed only if the charges against Agrippina could be proven, and so she was granted a hearing. Interrogated the following day by Burrus, in the presence of Seneca and a number of freedmen as witnesses, Agrippina argued her case and was subsequently heard by Nero, who concluded the matter by dismissing the charges against her.

56 AD saw a new piece of legislation come before the senate looking at the rights of freedmen. It proposed that a law should be passed giving patrons the right to re-enslave disrespectful freedmen, which met with much support, however they did consult Nero on the matter before voting. Nero, most likely guided by his advisors, wrote to the senate suggesting that as freedmen played roles throughout society their rights as a whole should not be diminished but each individual case should be assessed on its own merits, which the senate accepted.

Nero held his second consulship in 57 AD and embarked on the expensive construction of an amphitheatre in the Campus Martius. The stone-built foundations were faced with marble, while the main structure was constructed of wood and shaded with a sky-blue awning decorated with stars. Construction projects were not his only target for spending, and ever willing to increase his support using his wealth, he made a gift of 400 sesterces to each citizen of Rome.

In the following year, when he held his third consulship, complaints from farmers and those in the harbours about the indirect taxes collected by the publican, or tax collectors, reached the emperor. Initially Nero suggested abolishing all indirect taxes throughout the empire, however it seems he was dissuaded from this action and instead issued an edict to all the provincial governors and the urban praetor of Rome that all cases brought against the publican were to be given priority.

It was in the same year that the notorious prosecutor, Suillius Rufus, faced charges relating to his activities as a prosecutor during Claudius’ rule, indeed it was his string of prosecutions that prompted Gaius Silius to raise the issue of reviving the Cincian law, which banned defendants paying orators to plead their case.

Rufus argued his position in front of Nero, stating that what he had done had been on the orders of the late emperor, but Nero found no mention of any orders in Claudius’ records and so Rufus changed tack, arguing that the orders had come from Messalina. But this claim, while it wasn’t challenged didn’t save him and he was exiled.

But of all the events in 58 AD, likely the one that occupied Nero the most was his infatuation with Poppaea Sabina, a noblewoman married to a member of the Roman aristocracy. Some sources suggest her marriage to a man called Otho was a sham to disguise their affair until such time as Nero could divorce Claudia Octavia.

Whatever the truth of the matter, Otho was appointed as governor of Lusitania, located in present day Portugal and Spain, where he was to remain until the end of Nero’s rule, leaving Nero free to continue his affair with the Poppaea. Nero’s mother Agrippina strongly opposed the idea of divorce, which was frowned upon in Roman society.

Angered by his mother’s intransigence, and in the belief that she was plotting to murder him, he ordered his mother to be killed. But killing his mother was not to prove easy. Nero employed the services of the freedman Anicetus, who was in charge of the Misenum fleet who also had a dislike for Agrippina.

Supposedly the first plan Anicetus devised involved a mechanism placed into the ceiling of Agrippina’s room which would loosen the supports and cause the ceiling to fall on her while she slept, however it seems the plan was leaked and was scrapped. It was then that the idea of the trick boat was conceived that would sink with Agrippina on board, however it should be noted that given the implausibility of such a craft it is possible that there was some confusion in the ancient sources when describing the murder. The act was planned to take place during the festival of Minerva while Nero was at the resort of Baiae, and to this end, feigning a wish for reconciliation Nero invited Agrippina to join him, which she accepted, travelling by ship from Antium. On the night that Agrippina dined with Nero he showed her much outward affection and when the banquet was concluded walked her down to the shore where the ship was waiting.

Agrippina is said to have casually reclined on board with her friend Acerronia until the weighted canopy above them collapsed, killing another companion instantly. However, the crucial section failed to work. Even so, Agrippina and Acerronia ended up in the water, and when Acerronia called out for help, claiming to be Agrippina, she was quickly killed.

Agrippina is said to have died looking her killers in the eye. Before the fatal blow, she was said to have borne her stomach and told her executioner to strike the womb that had borne Nero. Officially described as a traitor she was denied a state funeral, and was hastily cremated and buried in an unmarked grave at the age of 43.

The incident damaged Nero’s popularity which he was never to recover. Supposedly haunted by his deed, Nero moved to Naples, where he sent a letter to the senate written by Seneca in which he outlined his complaint that Agrippina had sought to bring power to herself and subvert the loyalty of the praetorians, people and senate and blamed her for the scandals of Claudius’ reign, culminating in her attempt on Nero’s own life following the accident on the ship.

Far from condemning Nero it seems that the senate reacted with relief and sought to offer their gratitude at her undoing, including voting annual games to mark the festival of Minerva to celebrate the foiling of Agrippina’s alleged conspiracy. Nero returned to Rome in June to scenes reminiscent of a triumph and proceeded to the Capitol where sacrifices were made to the triad, Jupiter, Juno and Minerva, as well as to Mars Ultor, symbolizing a victory over Rome’s enemies.

There seemed little ill feeling in Rome for Nero’s deed and the few instances such as graffiti and a farce performed by Datus, were treated leniently. Those that had been exiled during Agrippina’s time as Claudius’ wife were allowed to return and the ashes of Lollia Paulina, the wife of former emperor Caligula, were returned to Italy and buried in a newly constructed tomb.

Free from the restraint of his mother, Nero was now able to indulge his passions. He began spending extravagantly and giving public performances as a poet and lyre player and encouraged members of the upper classes to take dancing lessons, although this was regarded as unseemly. The Gaianum, built by Caligula on the far side of Rome, was adapted so he could drive chariots away from public view.

It has been suggested that this concession was advised by Seneca and Burrus to steer him away from openly pursuing his other interests, which were considered less masculine. However, it soon became known what Nero was doing and crowds gathered to cheer on the young emperor. Perhaps buoyed by this apparent support Nero instituted the Juvenalia, or youth games, to mark the shaving of his first beard, for which he had a private theatre constructed in gardens across the Tiber.

Entrance to the games, which followed the dedication ceremony in the Temple of Jupiter, where his shorn hair was gathered into a golden box and presented in the temple, was strictly by invitation only, so Nero could be assured of a warm reception of his performances of song, poetry and the lyre. But Nero was not the only one to perform, as a number of the invited members of the nobility, men and women alike, also took to the stage.

The same year, a group of equestrians was established who became the emperor’s companions, known as the Augustiani, who would praise and applaud Nero’s actions as they followed him. It may also be around the time of the Juvenalia that Nero’s Ludi Maximi, a series of plays dedicated to the eternity of the empire, took place.

It was at this event that tokens were thrown into the crowd which could be exchanged for a number of prizes including jewels, slaves, horses and in some instances even houses. 60 AD, the year in which Nero held his fourth consulship, saw the establishment of more games, Greek in style, when the inaugural Neronian games came into being, loosely modelled on those founded by Augustus in Greece after the victory at Actium.

The festivities included recitations and music as well as athletics competitions, that in keeping with Greek tradition, were performed naked. Although Nero didn’t perform in the games himself, he was still awarded a number of first prizes for Latin poetry and rhetoric, only declining the prize for best performance on the lyre, instead placing it at the foot of a statue of Augustus as a mark of respect to the first emperor.

Following the success of the games, construction of a large public bath house and adjoining gymnasium began. But all was not well with Nero and purportedly in this year, as with the year of Claudius’ death, a comet appeared in the sky. It’s been suggested that Nero may also have suffered from a bout of ill health raising the question of the succession.

Such was the speculation that Nero felt obliged to exile Rubellius Plautus quietly to his estates in Asia Minor, seeing him as a rival given his descendancy from Augustus and Tiberius. Rome saw both victories and defeats in the same year, in Armenia and Britain. General Corbulo was successful in conquering the Armenian capital Artaxata, which led to the installation of the pro-Roman Tigranes as king of Armenia.

But in Britain there was a very different story. In the previous year the king of the Iceni, a client ruler of the Romans, Prasutagus, died, naming Nero as co-heir along with his daughters in his will. However, in claiming the kingdom for the emperor the heavy-handed tactics of the financial procurator, Catus Decianus, in plundering the land and confiscating the weapons of the tribe did not go down well with the widowed queen Boudicca who tried to resist.

But her efforts were futile and resulted in her being flogged and both her daughters being raped. Outraged by the conduct of the Romans, the Iceni made common cause with the Trinovantes tribe to the south, who had their own grievances against the Romans, uniting against them. With the governor Paulinus engaged against the Druids in Anglesey, Boudicca defeating a special force which had been sent against them, before marching on Camulodunum, sacking the town and removing the head of a statue of Claudius.

From Camulodunum they marched on to Londinium and then Verulamium, raiding both towns and putting many citizens to the sword. But in their fervour, the tribes wasted the opportunity to cut off the under-strength Paulinus who had returned ahead of the bulk of his main force, allowing him to join up with the men marching down from Anglesey.

The tribal warriors fell in droves until their resolve broke but were hindered in their retreat by a line of wagons they’d drawn up behind them, overconfident in their ability to prevail against the legionaries. Following the defeat, Boudicca took poison to avoid falling into the hands of the Romans, and the legionaries subsequently took retribution on much of the area of eastern England that had been involved in the rebellion, causing a famine among the beleaguered communities.

The freedman Polyclitus was sent to assess the situation in Britain and soon Paulinus was replaced as governor. Archaeological evidence can be found in all three towns for the raids by Boudicca’s forces however, although the site of the final battle between the two armies has never been identified. In 62 AD, the way was now clear for Nero to divorce Claudia Octavia, as Burrus who had always been staunchly opposed to the idea had died.

Nero rapidly pressed the case that Claudio Octavia had failed to provide him with an heir. However, as she had supplied the link to Augustus that legitimised his claim as emperor, and also given her personal popularity, the imperial bodyguard Tigellinus suggested the removal of two figures who could be seen as rivals.

Faustus Sulla, who was married to Claudia Antonia, Claudius’ other daughter, and Rubellius Plautus, who were both already in exile, were summarily executed without trial, with Nero portraying them as agitators. In less than two weeks Nero concluded his divorce and had married the pregnant Poppaea. Demonstrations soon arose however when Claudia Octavia was exiled to Campania.

Having not produced an heir with Claudia Octavia, the birth of Nero and Poppaea’s daughter Claudia in January 63 AD at the imperial villa in Antium was a joyous occasion for all. The senate lavished honours upon both Poppaea and the infant including the title of Augusta for both of them, and a great many of the senators, upon reaching the villa were duly received into Claudia’s presence.

However, the happiness wasn’t too last, when only a few months later their daughter died, Nero’s outpouring of grief was only matched by the joy he had shown at her birth. Following Claudia’s death, she was deified but there were to be no more children for Nero and Poppaea. This same year the gymnasium was said to have been struck by lightning and destroyed by fire, burning so hot that a bronze statue of Nero melted, although some place this event in the previous year.

By 64 AD, as the influence of Tigellinus and Poppaea grew there was a feeling of discontentment among the nobles of Rome, but this didn’t stop Nero from pressing ahead and taking the leap to make his debut artistic performance to the masses. However, he chose not to perform in Rome, instead selecting the former Greek colony of Naples, as he believed that those of Greek culture would appreciate his skills.

Nero appeared for several days on end before the performances were cut short by an earthquake, although it is said that Nero continued his act through the first tremor, not wishing to leave it unfinished. Only later that day after the performers and audience had vacated the structure did it collapse, Nero, unlike some, took this as a good omen and composed a poem giving thanks to the gods that no life was lost.

Following his performance in Naples, Nero then planned to sail on to Greece, stopping at Beneventum, where he was presented with the news of the suicide of Decimus Junius Silanus Torquatus, brother to the deceased Marcus Junius Silanus. Nero had arranged for Torquatus to face charges of harbouring imperial ambition before his departure for Naples.

Upon receiving the news Nero lamented that had Torquatus only forestalled his suicide in advance of condemnation he would have been spared by Nero’s own clemency. Nero now changed his mind about the trip to Greece, although no explicit reason was given. It has been suggested that growing suspicions in the young emperor coupled with Torquatus’ suicide may have played a part.

It was on his return to Rome when he first started thinking about making a trip to the east, in particular Egypt, and when he reached the city, he assured the people that his trip wouldn’t keep him away for long and everything would continue to operate as normal in his absence. Seeking to find the most favourable time for the journey Nero ascended the Capitoline, the smallest of the hills of Rome, to venerate and make sacrifices to the gods, paying particular attention to Jupiter and Apollo.

All seemed to be in his favour until he descended to the Temple of Vesta and was overtaken by a seizure which he interpreted as a poor omen from the guardian of the Roman people and promptly cancelled the trip. Publicly, Nero gave the excuse for the cancellation that he couldn’t bear to be away from his beloved people and instigated lavish celebrations to demonstrate his feelings for his subjects, purportedly culminating in an orgy organised by Tigellinus and the mock marriage of Nero as the bride to freedman Pythagoras, which some among society considered to be an immoral excess. The overindulgence of the imperial court was soon to end however, when on the 18th of July 64 AD, a fire started in the Campus Martius and quickly spread through the shops and stalls surrounding it. It wasn’t long before the blaze, driven by the wind, was spreading up the Palatine Hill, engulfing everything in its path, soon overtaking Nero’s palace.

The emperor, however, wasn’t in residence that night but staying in Antium and was only made aware of the fire in the early hours of the morning when a messenger arrived to convey the news. Nero reacted immediately, riding for Rome. Rome had a fire brigade since 21 BC, and when Nero finally arrived in the city he set about organising their efforts.

To help the population he opened up the buildings and temples on the Field of Mars and his own gardens, providing a safe space for the survivors to rest, escape the flames and tend to their wounds. Nero threw himself into the fire-fighting efforts for six days until it seemed they had finally brought the situation under control.

Exhausted, those who had fought the fire sought sleep, but it soon flared up again in the area of Tigellinus’ property, raging for a further three days. Of the fourteen districts of Rome, only four escaped the ravages of the fire, with 75 Per cent of the city destroyed. Popular legend claims “Nero fiddled while Rome burned”, however although he did allegedly weep copiously and recite poetry at the disaster, if he had played an instrument, it would most likely have been one similar to a lyre.

In the aftermath of the fire, despite Nero’s efforts to bring in extra grain supplies and slash prices to provide the populace with much needed food, he and his associates including Tigellinus were blamed for the blaze. In the days that followed, Nero went about the city to plan the rebuilding and issued a number of reforms to regulations in an attempt to make it a safer place, but suspicions grew when he took for himself a huge parcel of land on which his massive new palace, the 100-acre Domus Aurea or Golden House, would be built.

At the same time as planning for his new palace, in response to the difficulties in supplying Rome with much needed grain, a canal was planned to be dug from the Avernus lake to Ostia, but the work was later abandoned. Although it is unknown who instigated it, the blame for the fire was shifted onto the burgeoning sect of Christians, who refused to acknowledge the Roman gods, bringing the ire of the gods down on the city.

Seneca successfully rebutted the accusations and little attention was paid to them going forward. Piso however, nursed serious resentments against Nero, while openly playing the role of his friend, and in the aftermath of the fire, with many seeing Nero as taking extravagant liberties in his proposed rebuilding of the city and his own residence, he began recruiting other disenchanted senators to his cause.

Piso attempted to recruit Seneca but was initially rebuffed although seemingly not out of loyalty to the emperor. Seneca was purported to have only become involved when his nephew, Annaeus Lucanus, better known as the poet Lucan, joined the plot. At the same time a small number of officers within the praetorians, including the second prefect, Faenius Rufus, were also talking of conspiracy.

The two groups met, but what discussions they had ended in stalemate, with neither able to act without the support of the other. But the decision was taken out of the hands of both sides by the freedwoman Epicharus, the lover of Lucan’s father Annaeus Mela, when she tried unsuccessfully to recruit a captain of the Misenum fleet, Volusius Proculus, who betrayed her to Nero.

Epicharus was held in custody as Nero was holidaying in Baiae, but fear of what would be said once she passed into the hands of Tigellinus prompted action by the conspirators. The initial plan of Piso murdering Nero as he visited his villa was rejected, likely out of fear that another would supplant him as candidate for emperor with his absence from the city.

The conspirators finally settled on the festival of Ceres in April 65 AD to eliminate Nero, with Piso thereafter to be taken to the praetorian camp by the prefect Rufus to be hailed as Emperor. But the plot was betrayed by one of the conspirators. Nero didn’t hesitate in ordering the execution without trial of Piso, who for his part did not resist, committing suicide when the praetorians sent to deal with him arrived at his door.

But when it came to Seneca there seems to have been some reluctance on the emperor’s part even after he was joined by Poppaea and Tigellinus who both had reasons to wish for Seneca’s death, and instead of ordering his execution he sent the praetorian tribune Silvanus, who was among the conspirators, to find out what he had to say.

On receiving the warrant Seneca is supposed to have lamented that “Nero murdered his mother and brother. Now he has nothing worse left to do than kill his foster-father and mentor.” Seneca’s involvement in the plot is attested in various sources but many modern historians view his involvement as unlikely.

Of the approximately forty conspirators, at least seventeen received the death penalty while others were pardoned or exiled. Rufus was beheaded and replaced in his position as prefect by Nymphidius Sabinus. For his part in revealing the conspiracy the freedman Milichus was rewarded with wealth and the title of saviour.

Among the victims, would be Claudia Antonia, the last surviving child of Claudius, who was denounced and sentenced to death for a supposed part in the conspiracy after refusing Nero’s offer of marriage. To add to Nero’s woes, 65 AD also saw the death of his beloved wife Poppaea. It has long been said that in a fit of rage Nero kicked the pregnant Poppaea to death after she chastised him for returning late from the races.

Nero married for the third time in 66 AD to Statilia Messalina, the widow of the consular Vestinus Atticus, who had been forced to commit suicide in the aftermath of the Piso conspiracy. In the same year Nero finally embarked on his postponed trip to Greece. Making his feelings towards the senate clear, Nero appointed the freedmen Helius and Polyclitus to manage affairs in his absence with assistance from the prefect Nymphidius.

The thinned ranks of senators did not oppose his decision and Nero and his huge entourage took their leave of the city in September. Sometime after Nero’s arrival in Greece, he invited Corbulo to join him in Corinth in 67 AD and the general duly accepted his offer. But instead of being welcomed by the emperor he was met by a warrant for his suicide, likely for his connection to Vinicianus.

Corbulo didn’t resist and ended his life. Shortly after, the commanders of the Rhine armies, the brothers Rufus and Proculus Scribonius, who may have been in correspondence with Corbulo, received similar warrants and both committed suicide. Before leaving Rome Nero had sent word ahead to the Greeks that he wished to participate in all of their festivals and so the timetable was changed to accommodate the emperor.

He spent his time travelling around the country performing at the various festivals and was awarded in the region of eighteen-hundred prizes, even receiving a prize for his driving of a ten-horse chariot which ended in an accident which he was lucky to survive. However, supposedly still haunted by the memory of his mother and the avenging deities, the Furies, he refrained from visiting either Athens or Eleusis.

Early in 67 AD it descended into full scale war following the murder of the Syrian governor. A new governor was installed and Vespasian was put in command of three legions in order to quell the violence. Vespasian was successful in his campaigns, reaching Jerusalem in the summer of 68 AD, but victory would not be achieved until two years after Nero’s death in 70 AD, with some resistance continuing in 73 AD.

His visit to Greece was supposed to have lasted two years but matters were declining in Rome. Helius attempted several times to persuade Nero to return to the imperial capital but the emperor ignored him. It was only when he travelled to Greece to meet Nero in person that he was persuaded of the gravity of the ill feeling back in Rome and at last agreed to return.

But Nero still made time to enjoy a triumph in Naples and again upon reaching Rome where he drove Augustus’ own triumphal chariot. But he didn’t remain in the city for long and spent the spring of 68 AD in the Bay of Naples. His break was interrupted by news that the governor Gaius Julius Vindex, a Romanised Gaul, had rebelled and was raising an army of Gauls, but it seems that the news did little to trouble him, and he delayed informing the senate for some time.

Nero’s response was to name himself as sole suffect consul and instruct three legions on the Rhine to march on the rebels besieging Lugdunum, while those legions in Italy were sent north, dividing the forces between the defence of the river Po, and sending some into Gaul. Nero supposedly considered accompanying the Italian legions but not in a military capacity, instead having musical instruments loaded into wagons for the entertainment of the troops as well as providing them with concubines who were to play the part of Amazon warriors, at a safe distance from any battle, but it seems he gave up on the idea. However, things quickly grew worse when the commander of the Rhine legions, Verginius, supposedly allied himself with Vindex, although the alliance unravelled the next day when the legions slaughtered twenty thousand of the Gauls leading to Vindex’s suicide.

Nero went to bed that night still guarded, but waking in the night he found both the praetorians and many of his servants gone. Finding the palace almost deserted he fled with two freedmen, Phaon and Epaphroditus, and Sporus, making for Phaon’s villa outside of Rome. Later that night news reached the villa that Nero had been deposed in favour of Galba and declared a public enemy and would face the ancient punishment of being paraded through the streets naked and beaten to death with staves.

Epaphroditus suggested suicide. At dawn on the 9th of June, Nero went outside the villa and with Epaphroditus’ help stabbed himself through the throat just as soldiers arrived to take him into custody. Supposedly shortly before he died, he uttered the words “What an artist dies here.” His body was claimed by Claudia Acte and prepared by her and two of his nurses from childhood before being quietly cremated, his ashes were placed in the Domitian family tomb.

With Nero’s death the Julio-Claudian line came to an end but soon Rome would be plunged into turmoil with the civil war in the following year that has become known as the year of the four emperors. Nero’s reign was divided into two parts by the ancient historians, the good and bad years, the turning point beginning with the death of Agrippina.

Ascending to the principate at a young age, through the manoeuvring of his mother, he was assisted in his rule extensively by his advisors. Much of what he did in these early years was undoubtedly influenced by Seneca and Burrus, and less and less by Agrippina as time went on and so it is difficult to truly assess Nero as an independent ruler in his own right.

After the murder of his mother, followed by the loss of Burrus and the withdrawal of Seneca those that were close to him were of the more malign in influence and the lavishness of his court was resented by many. Even more so after the fire for which he was blamed when he claimed a huge parcel of land to build the 100-acre Domus Aurea Golden House Palace complex.

Taxation for the rebuilding of Rome and the subsequent reform that allowed him to confiscate the wealth of those who hadn’t made provision for him in their will only serve to make him more unpopular. With the restraint of his former advisors gone, Nero was free to indulge his follies, and while others of the nobility took to the stage, many despised Nero for his assault on Roman virtues.

Although the prosecutions under Nero did not amount to the numbers seen under previous emperors in the later years, no one was safe as his suspicions deepened and took hold, even his old tutor Seneca who had been held in high regard for years. Ultimately Nero’s Hellenic leanings and lavishness sealed his downfall, when after surviving two senatorial conspiracies, he was brought down by the very man he relied upon for his protection.

What do you think of Emperor Nero? Should he be remembered and vindicated for the good years of his rule, or does he deserve the reputation of ‘The man who fiddled while Rome burned’ that has come down to us through the ages?..