Pod Insights Short History Of... Emperor Nero About this episode Emperor Nero was one of the most reviled and controversial leaders of Ancient Rome. To some, his reign was a breath of fresh air after his unpopular predecessor, and his failings had no more to do with him, than with the unstable infrastructure of Roman government. And yet to others, Nero is inseparable from rumours about his sexual predilections, debauched behaviours, and apparent appetite for murder.
But how did Nero seize the imperial crown while still in his teens? What really happened to ensure his downfall and the ruin of his reputation? And was Nero really as bad as history has painted him?
This is a Short History Of Emperor Nero.
A Noiser Production. Written by Dan Smith. With thanks to Greg Woolf, Ronald J. Law Professor of Ancient History at the University of California, Los Angeles.
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Transcript 0:03 Speaker 00 It's the eighteenth of July, sixty-four A.D., in Rome. A full moon beams down over the circus Maximus, the vast chariot racing stadium nestled between the city's Aventine and Palatine hills.
0:19 Speaker 00 A boy, maybe twelve years old, wanders through the compact labyrinth of streets and alleyways adjoining the circus, everywhere bustling with night hawkers and fast-food stalls.
0:31 Speaker 00 Laden with food, he is heading home to his parents. He's grateful for the cool sirocco wind, reaching up from the Sahara and Mediterranean, breathing on his neck to break the hold of the warm summer evening.
0:46 Speaker 00 Suddenly, he picks up a scent on the air, an unmistakable smoky odor. Not the smell of snacks cooking, but of a blaze.
0:59 Speaker 00 In a city mostly constructed from wood, though, fire is a common hazard. Someone is sure to put it out before long.
1:07 Speaker 00 Still, he cranes his head to search for its source, and when he sees it, he gasps.
1:18 Speaker 00 At the eastern end of the circus, where banks of wooden seating sit on a parade of shops and storage areas, the flames are licking up towards the stars.
1:29 Speaker 00 As smoke billows skywoods and wood crackles and snaps, the boy senses a rising tide of panic around him. Someone runs past, bellowing for the fire brigade. But even if they do arrive, their blankets and buckets of water and vinegar will be no match for this inferno.
1:49 Speaker 00 The boy cannot take his eyes off the cinders, flickering and dancing on the breeze, spreading the flames higher and further. The massive circus, big enough for one hundred and fifty thousand people or more, is by now fully burning, and soon, the fire is moving onto the street in which he stands.
2:08 Speaker 00 He starts to run, merging with what has become a breathless stampede of residents. Only a few bands of opportunist looters seem intent on staying put, taking their chance to profit from the mayhem. As building after building, street after street goes up, the crowd swells to number thousands.
2:31 Speaker 00 Exhausted from chasing from one neighborhood to another, the panting boy arrives at one of the city's great public spaces, vast enough that the flames have been unable to take grip.
2:43 Speaker 00 By some miracle, he spies his parents, who have joined the exodus, his mother now running to him and wrapping him in a tight embrace. "They must sleep here tonight," she tells him, "and tomorrow they will return to their home and see if there is anything to be saved."
3:04 Speaker 00 It is a similar scene in other parts of the city, thousands more abandoning their homes to race for open ground.
3:13 Speaker 00 The Great Fire of Rome, a disaster so vast in scale that it requires a comprehensive rebuild of the city. A catastrophe that prompts some to question the role even of the emperor himself, Nero, leading him on a path towards a calamitous downfall.
3:37 Speaker 00 No one knows for sure what started the Great Fire of Rome, but the disaster marks an irreversible downturn in the relationship between the city and Nero, destined to be one of the most reviled and controversial leaders in ancient Rome's fabled history. But with Nero's ascent initially seeming to offer a breath of fresh air after his unpopular predecessor, his is a complicated history. To some, his alleged failings could be more a reflection of an imperial power dogged by instability, where political reputations are forged in the crucible of fake news. And yet, the onslaught of rumors concerning his sexual predilections,
4:19 Speaker 00 debauched behavior, and most seriously, his appetite for murder, led to his name becoming a byword for negligent rule and barbarism. But how did Nero seize the imperial crown while still in his teens? What really happened to ensure his downfall and the ruin of his reputation? And was Nero perhaps not as bad as history has painted him? Or at least, no worse than many of his contemporaries? I'm John Hopkins, from the Noiser Network. This is A Short History of Nero.
5:01 Speaker 00 Nero is born Lucius Demetrius Ahenobarbus on the 15th of December 37 AD in the well-to-do coastal town of Antium, about 40 miles south of Rome.
5:14 Speaker 00 His family have impeccable connections. An only child, his father is a great nephew of the old emperor Augustus. He has enjoyed his own good career in public office, including a stint as consul. Lucius's mother, Agrippina, much younger than her husband, is the daughter of a general who had once been expected to assume the mantle of emperor. But she's also the sister of the current emperor Caligula. Though he has earned a dubious reputation as a fearsomely cruel leader, the Rome over which he rules is thriving.
5:50 Speaker 00 Greg Wolf is Ronald J. Law Professor of Ancient History at the University of California, Los Angeles.
5:57 Speaker 01 This is a very productive age of Roman culture. It's an age in which the city of Rome acquires some really spectacular monuments. Italy is very prosperous. If you go around Italy today and you go and visit the Roman ruins, all the little towns you see, you'll find most of them are done in the middle of the first century AD. So it's a very prosperous time, it's a very peaceful time in the centre of the empire.
6:21 Speaker 00 Nevertheless, there are very few reliable contemporary historical sources for the life of Lucius, soon to be Nero. Sorting fact from fiction is a treacherous task.
6:34 Speaker 00 Many of the stories passed down about him seem to emanate from his political opponents, while the main, often contradictory historical records are written many years after his rule by upper-class Romans with a particular angle to push. Then, there are a few Christian sources which, for reasons that will become obvious, must also be treated judiciously.
6:55 Speaker 01 Nobody who knew Nero is writing, and no one who ever saw him or heard him speak, and there may be some traditional stories passed down. Romans did talk about the past a lot. They thought that the past was just a source of good and bad models for future behaviour. But we're seeing Nero at least at one remove, maybe sometimes at two removes, and everything about Nero is shaped by, well, the tragic arc of his life, I suppose.
7:27 Speaker 00 Even so, it is possible to reliably piece together many aspects of his life that build a compelling picture of the man.
7:35 Speaker 00 There is no doubt, for instance, that, as Lucius, he is born into a high-ranking family.
7:40 Speaker 01 It's a very complicated family tree. And although Nero's got these connections, he's brought up as a member of another family, the Domiti, Ahenobarbe. This is an ancient aristocratic family. We can see them, great war leaders in the 2nd century B.C., powerful figures in the 1st century B.C., but, you know, not the imperial house. They're sort of, you know, blue-bloods aristocrats.
8:05 Speaker 00 From a prestigious family line, Lucius looks well-placed to enjoy a fruitful life. But his seemingly idyllic childhood is soon turned on its head. First, his uncle Caligula accuses his mother Agrippina of infidelity with her brother-in-law and involvement in a plot to overthrow the emperor.
8:26 Speaker 00 She is cast into exile, prompting her husband Domitius to flee Rome with their toddler.
8:34 Speaker 00 Demetrius, sin embargo, es un hombre difícil, con una reputación por la violencia y una excesiva bondad de alcohol, quien nunca ha tomado mucho de su hijo. Dentro del año, muere de todos modos, y Lucius, de tres años, es convertido en el guardia de su tía paternal.
8:52 Speaker 00 Entonces, en el año 41, los acontecimientos lo retiran de nuevo.
8:58 Speaker 00 Caligula es asesinado después de una planificación por miembros del Senado y el Guardia Praetorian, su unidad de seguridad personal. El propio tío de Caligula, Claudius, es elegido por el Senado para sucederle, posiblemente porque se considera algo de suerte, que podría ser controlado. De hecho, se demuestra mucho más inútil en ejercer poder y en poner a los que se mueven en contra de él, lo que la mayoría espera.
9:25 Speaker 00 A pesar de eso, su intelectualismo y tendencia a gobernar desde su palacio le dejan una figura remota a la población.
9:34 Speaker 00 Para Agrippina, sin embargo, el nuevo régimen es una bendición. Ella vuelve de su banición, impulsada por la ambición natural y el sentimiento de que se abre una oportunidad para restaurar algunas de las fortunas de la familia. Reclama a pequeño Lucius de su tía y toma un nuevo esposo, que es su hermano de familia, a través de su primer esposo. Es una figura rica y poderosa en Roma, pero antes de que la década termine, muere, probablemente víctima de la poisonación. Hay whispers de que Agrippina está involucrada.
10:07 Speaker 01 Agrippina solo se ve como muchos otros, acusados de inmoralez sexual, acusados de poisonación, acusados de ambición, acusados de rivalidad por sus hijos sobre los de otras personas. Pero eso es casi lo que una mujer imperial parece en nuestras fuentes. Presumiblemente, son tan diferentes como las mujeres en todas las sociedades, pero son estereotipos superstereotipos.
10:33 Speaker 00 Sin importar las sospechas, nada funciona. Ella tiene otras cosas en su mente, de todos modos. La posición de las mujeres de todas las clases en la sociedad imperial es inestable, aunque realizan muchos roles como madres, sacerdotes, esposas, comerciantes, prostitutas, servidores, esclavos y otros innumerables.
10:54 Speaker 00 No woman, though, has the legal right to vote, nor entitlement to a voice in public affairs. They tend to be judged in terms of how highly regarded they are in any specific field by men, and rely on those same men to make representations for them in the forums of power.
11:13 Speaker 00 Agrippina realizes that her family connections put her in a situation at once advantageous and precarious, since she knows how power can be exercised from behind the throne as a wife and as a mother.
11:26 Speaker 00 Take, for example, Livia, wife of the first emperor Augustus, who wielded enormous influence on Roman affairs several decades ago, with the payoff that her enemies portrayed her as some sort of monster.
11:39 Speaker 00 But having already seen hard times, Agrippina is determined to secure a seat at Rome's top table for herself and her son. She sets her sights on none other than the emperor.
11:54 Speaker 00 Claudius has not long seen his most recent wife and mother to his son and heir Britannicus, executed for allegedly conspiring against him. Her death has left a vacancy that Agrippina is determined to fill. She marries Claudius on the 1st of January 49 A.D.
12:14 Speaker 01 Now Claudius is actually her uncle, so they have to change the law in the senate to make it possible for uncles to marry their nieces. They want her in, and they want her in for particular reasons, because they're worried about Claudius's existing son Britannicus, that maybe he'll take revenge on them, because they disposed of his previous wife Messidius, his whole background is a sort of toxic family come imperial politics.
12:39 Speaker 00 Another legislative sleight of hand allows Lucius to officially come of age when he is just 13. Now, adopted by Claudius, the teenager changes his name to Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus.
12:55 Speaker 00 Nero becomes the emperor's designated heir, usurping Claudius's own natural son, the younger Britannicus. Agrippina looks to further shore up Nero's future claim on the imperial title by arranging his marriage to Claudius's daughter Octavia, who also happens to be both the groom's cousin and stepsister, when he reaches 15.
13:18 Speaker 00 The political and dynastic machinations of the Roman Empire are rarely straightforward.
13:28 Speaker 00 This November, on the Noiser Podcast Network. On Real Dictators, the story of Rafael Trujillo concludes with an epic shootout scene, plucked straight from a mafia movie. On Short History of, join us as we unthor Utsi the Iceman, Europe's oldest-known natural human mummy, and step back into the swinging 60s. On Real Survival Stories, on Ben Nevis, Scotland's highest mountain, a chilling tale plays out in the mist. And after a volcanic eruption in New Zealand, a helicopter pilot scrambles to respond. In Jane Austen stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes' short stories, the tale of hidden treasure and murder continues in The Sign of Four.
14:11 Speaker 00 Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus.
14:20 Speaker 00 This November, on the Noiser Podcast Network. On Real Dictators, the story of Rafael Trujillo concludes with an epic shootout scene, plucked straight from a mafia movie. On Short History of, join us as we unthor Utsi the Iceman, Europe's oldest-known natural human mummy, and step back into the swinging 60s. On Real Survival Stories, on Ben Nevis, Scotland's highest mountain, a chilling tale plays out in the mist. And after a volcanic eruption in New Zealand, a helicopter pilot scrambles to respond. In Jane Austen stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes' short stories, the tale of hidden treasure and murder continues in The Sign of Four.
15:03 Speaker 00 Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus. And for our American listeners, a special offer on Noiser's debut book, A Short History of Ancient Rome. Head to bookshop.org and use the code NONFIC26 for 15% off. Valid for US customers November 1st to 30th. That's bookshop.org and use the code N-O-N-F-I-C-26.
15:34 Speaker 00 In October fifty-four, when Nero is sixteen, Claudius dies. It's said he has fallen ill after a dinner of bad mushrooms. Many in Rome, once again, suspect Agrippina's hand in it all, with Claudius just the latest in a line of those she is alleged to have had murdered or executed. It is no secret that their marriage has been testy for some months, and there have been whispers that, after all, Claudius was looking towards the maturing Britannicus and not Nero to eventually succeed him. Agrippina has now seen two husbands expire at some convenience to herself, but nothing is proven.
16:15 Speaker 01 And people love to psychologize, particularly, I mean, with a character like Nero and Agrippina, who are such sort of, you know, larger-than-life figures. She is one of a large number of imperial women in this period, who are at least regarded by the people who write about them, who are all of them senatorial, equestrian men, as being... trying to rule in the background, trying to sort of, you know, pull the strings.
16:43 Speaker 00 What matters is that Nero, thanks to the maneuverings of his mother, is now ruler of half the world.
16:52 Speaker 00 The young emperor hits the ground running. His mother has seen to it that he has a good team around him. The head of the powerful Praetorian Guard is a man called Borus, with personal loyalty to Nero and his mother. And she has also secured the brilliant, liberal-minded Stoic philosopher Seneca as the emperor's tutor come advisor. Under his guidance, Nero grants greater powers to the Senate, begins to tackle corruption, and introduces a slew of liberally progressive laws around crime and punishment and the rights of slaves. He reduces the tax burden on Rome's poorest too, and opens new gymnasiums and bathhouses. In these early days, he happily acknowledges his debt to Agrippina.
17:37 Speaker 00 He ensures that her image is equal with his own on newly minted coins. And the password he uses with his guards even translates as "most excellent mother."
17:51 Speaker 00 His focus, however, is never solely on ruling. He is utterly convinced of his preternatural abilities as a musician, poet and actor, and is equally confident as a chariot racer. Though he doubtless has talent, especially as a musician, whether his skills quite justify his extreme self-assurance is less clear. Certainly, no one is in a rush to criticize him, regardless of his level of performance. But unlike his predecessors, he shows little inclination to prove himself as a military leader.
18:25 Speaker 01 Normally, when you're a Roman aristocrat, about the age of 14, you take on what is called the toga of manhood, the toga of ironists. Then you become a man. And then sometime in the next 10 years, you spend a lot of time as a soldier. And only then do you start your political career in your early twenties, and that's when you get married as well. That's the traditional Roman path. And most of the previous emperors had done that in one form or another. Nero is the first one of those, the first emperor of that dynasty, who doesn't have strong links with the army.
18:59 Speaker 00 For now, however, the people do not seem to mind. When he goes to the races, he chats to them like any other knowledgeable punter. He focuses on providing them with bread and sport, as the Roman poet Juvenal famously terms the people's prerequisites for contentment. In other words, enough to eat and entertainment to distract them. It makes a welcome change from his predecessor.
19:24 Speaker 01 It does look a little bit like there's a determined effort by Nero to distance himself from Claudius, because Claudius had been very unpopular, because he didn't get out much. He was a scholar, he wrote books. He made decisions not in the public gaze. And so maybe when we see Nero making speeches and holding games and so on, it's represented now as being a little bit flippant and lightweight. But maybe there's a real reason he wanted to, you know, correct, maybe overcorrect if the sort of sinister, vicious old man in the palace making decisions.
20:06 Speaker 00 In public, Nero might be Rome's young darling, but privately, there is a very different side to him.
20:14 Speaker 00 He has decadent tastes, and spends his evenings carousing with friends, stumbling from drinking den to brothel. He makes sure to disguise himself, but this brings its own problems. His unruly behaviour brings him into regular confrontation with fellow revelers, and he is forever getting caught up in brawls with young men who have no idea who it is they are fighting. On one occasion, a man of senatorial rank is forced to commit suicide after he bests the emperor in a fistfight before he recognizes who his opponent is.
20:49 Speaker 00 It's far from the behaviour that Agrippina expects from her son, and soon, it sets Nero on a collision course with her.
20:57 Speaker 01 And then what happens is, well, it seems to be the case that he stretches his wings, he wants to do other stuff. He wants to form stronger relationships with girls his own age. He wants to rule as well as reign.
21:11 Speaker 00 Nero falls for a girl, a Greek slave girl by the name of Acti. He entertains the idea of marrying her, even having a genealogy fabricated to suggest the girl is linked to the royal line. Though he has never felt much in the way of chemistry with his wife, Octavia, as far as Agrippina is concerned, he could hardly have found a more unsuitable candidate to whom to give his heart. Barely a year into his reign, Nero and his mother are rowing ferociously. He is growing tired of her interference and her criticism of his new romance, while she can feel her influence giving way to that of Boris and Seneca.
21:54 Speaker 00 To make things more perilous, he has inherited his mother's ruthless streak.
22:01 Speaker 00 It is coming up to the fourteenth birthday of Britannicus, his most obvious rival for power, and Nero is paranoid that Agrippina will transfer her support to him. At his own celebration banquet, Britannicus falls ill and dies. It is said that he has suffered from epilepsy, but others are not so sure.
22:24 Speaker 00 Suspicion falls on the teenage emperor with the suggestion that he has resorted to that apparent old family favorite: poison.
22:33 Speaker 00 It hardly fits with Nero's popular image as the young reformer. But while stories of his private antics might be swirling around Rome's patrician class, most ordinary people—soldiers, traders, slaves—all mostly illiterate likely have no idea of these behind-the-scenes goings-on.
22:51 Speaker 01 The Roman Empire's a big place. It's, you know, it's got eighty million people in it. There's no mass media. I don't think you'd know any of these bad stories if you if you lived outside Italy. Probably many parts of Italy didn't hear them.
23:06 Speaker 00 Agrippina, however, continues as perhaps her son's fiercest critic. Until now, utterly reliant on each other, mother and son are trapped in toxic interdependence. But over the next couple of years, she becomes increasingly peripheral and eventually moves out of the imperial palace.
23:28 Speaker 00 By the year 59, Nero is in his early twenties and wants a more permanent solution. Inspiration strikes one night at the theater as he watches a drama involving a memorable boat scene. Shortly after that, he invites her to visit during the spring festival of Quinquatria.
23:51 Speaker 00 It's a balmy evening, a little after mid-March, in the prosperous resort town of Baya, on the Bay of Naples. Agrippina and Nero are walking down to the shore from his villa with its glorious views of the bay.
24:07 Speaker 00 Their unusually carefree chatter is punctuated by the seabird squawking in the calm skies above.
24:15 Speaker 00 The air is pungent with sulphur from the local hot springs. Starlight dapples the bay's pristine water while its golden beaches pulsate with music and dance as well-oiled revelers make the most of the five-day celebration dedicated to the goddess Minerva.
24:33 Speaker 00 A roar goes up as a group of partygoers rip off their togas and launch themselves into the sea.
24:41 Speaker 00 Tonight, nothing is off-bounds. Certainly, up in the palatial villas that dot the hillsides, there are even more salacious goings-on.
24:52 Speaker 00 But Agrippina's evening is rather more demure. As she ambles down to the shore, she has her arm interlocked with that of her son, their bellies tight from feasting. She tips her head back and laughs at her jokey mix. After all the recent bad blood, it has been a happy evening, a chance to reconnect. Before she knows it, they're at the water's edge.
25:17 Speaker 00 After sharing and embrace, he helps her onto the compact wooden ferryboat back to her home across the bay. As the captain sets sail and the vessel's small crew sweep their oars effortlessly through the water, she looks back at her son one last time and waves. As a woman of great importance, she sits on what amounts to a wooden throne on the boat, overhung by a lead canopy. But just moments after setting off, she is thrown out of her contemplations as the heavy, leaden structure crashes down around her. The high back and strong arms of her seat somehow protect her from serious injury, but the wooden deck violently cracks and splits beneath the sudden impact.
26:04 Speaker 00 Now comes the ominous gush of water coming on board. The boat is falling apart around her. Booby-trapped, just like the one Nero saw in that show.
26:16 Speaker 00 This is no accident. It's an assassination attempt.
26:21 Speaker 00 The captain barks orders as desperate crewmen try to bail out the inundation. But they're taking on water much faster than they can respond. Agrippina's ears fill with the terrified screams of crew and fellow passengers launched into the bay's depths. The vessel, tilting dangerously, she attempts to dodge flying debris, but she loses her footing.
26:46 Speaker 00 Thrown into the sea, she goes under, emerging a moment later amid the wreckage.
26:53 Speaker 00 Sucking in deep lungfuls of breath, she begins to swim for safety. An ability of hers to which her treacherous son is apparently oblivious. She drags her weary body all the way to shore, crawling onto the land in front of a crowd of astonished onlookers.
27:16 Speaker 00 It is, however, just a brief reprieve. When news reaches Nero of the failed scheme, he sends assassins to her villa to see the job through. Ambushed, it is said that she faces her sword-wielding attackers and points to her belly, telling them, "Strike here, for this bore Nero."
27:41 Speaker 00 This November, on the Noiser Podcast Network. On Real Dictators, the story of Rafael Trujillo concludes with an epic shootout scene, plucked straight from a mafia movie. On Short History of, join us as we unthor Utsi the Iceman, Europe's oldest-known natural human mummy, and step back into the swinging 60s. On Real Survival Stories, on Ben Nevis, Scotland's highest mountain, a chilling tale plays out in the mist. And after a volcanic eruption in New Zealand, a helicopter pilot scrambles to respond. In Jane Austen Stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes' Short Stories, the tale of hidden treasure and murder continues in The Sign of Four.
28:24 Speaker 00 Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus.
28:33 Speaker 00 This November, on the Noiser Podcast Network. On Real Dictators, the story of Rafael Trujillo concludes with an epic shootout scene, plucked straight from a mafia movie. On Short History of, join us as we unthor Utzi the Iceman, Europe's oldest-known natural human mummy, and step back into the swinging 60s. On Real Survival Stories, on Ben Nevis, Scotland's highest mountain, a chilling tale plays out in the mist. And after a volcanic eruption in New Zealand, a helicopter pilot scrambles to respond. In Jane Austen Stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes' short stories, the tale of hidden treasure and murder continues in The Sign of Four.
29:17 Speaker 00 Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus. And for our American listeners, a special offer on Noiser's debut book, A Short History of Ancient Rome. Head to bookshop.org and use the code NONFIC26 for 15% off. Valid for US customers November 1st to 30th. That's bookshop.org and use the code N-O-N-F-I-C-26.
29:48 Speaker 00 Shed of his mother's influence, Nero faces problems in the further reaches of the empire. In particular, there is a troublesome, ongoing conflict with the Parthians over control of Armenia. Then, a rebellion breaks out in Britain, led by Budica, the female head of the Iceni tribe. It is put down by 61, but it's a painful experience for Rome's army there. A year later, Nero loses the counsel of Burus, who dies, and Seneca, who retires. He is suddenly without the two men who have kept his rule on track, at least in the public sphere. By now, he is in a new relationship too, with the widely acclaimed beauty, Papaya Sabina,
30:31 Speaker 00 another lover to add to the imperial roster that still includes Acti, who was established as a royal mistress, but is now out of the running for marriage. Papaya, meanwhile, is already married to an aristocratic friend of Nero, but she is keen for the emperor to divorce Octavia and take her as his new wife. When Papaya falls pregnant by Nero, he seizes his opportunity.
30:57 Speaker 00 His eight years with Octavia have been childless, so he divorces her on the grounds of barrenness and sends her into exile. Just twelve days later, he marries Papaya. But he is not done with Octavia. Aware that his ex carries the sympathy of the Roman populace, he further defames her on trumped-up allegations of adultery and has her executed.
31:23 Speaker 00 He then has her head delivered to his new wife, seemingly as some kind of belated wedding present to confirm his commitment to her.
31:32 Speaker 00 In January 63, his daughter Claudia is born, although the child survives only four months.
31:40 Speaker 00 By now, Nero is becoming increasingly temperamental. In 64, for example, at the festival of Saturnalia, already infamous for its ribald merry-making, he dons a bridal veil and takes part in a wedding ceremony with a freedman called Pythagoras.
31:58 Speaker 01 So, he's doing anything he wants, really, but there are very few restraints on what an emperor can do. But what Nero does is in the public gaze, so there's no sense that there's a dignified Nero in Rome and a slightly loosh Nero in the Bay of Naples. He appears, particularly, more and more over time, to just do what he wants to do. And whether that's shocking or whether it's amazing, I don't know.
32:26 Speaker 00 To Rome's conservative elite, though, such behaviour is not merely unbecoming, it is scandalous. This is the year, too, of the devastating Great Fire.
32:39 Speaker 00 It's unclear how it starts, but for six long days, Rome burns. And then, just as it seems to be subsiding, it catches again for three more. By its finish, much of the city lies in ashes. Only four of its fourteen districts have escaped altogether, and three have been completely razed. Hundreds are dead, and some 200,000 homeless.
33:07 Speaker 00 In its immediate aftermath, Nero, who was at his palace in Antium, many miles south of the capital when the fire broke out, displays a sure touch. He pumps plenty of his own money into rescue operations and into rebuilding projects, and is even seen in the streets, leading search parties for survivors.
33:26 Speaker 00 His plans for redevelopment are encouraging, including building in brick rather than wood, and incorporating fire bricks to avoid a repeat of the disaster.
33:36 Speaker 00 But rumors start to circulate about those looters seen that first night, who said they had been paid to obstruct rescue efforts. Eventually, it will be suggested that Nero played the fiddle as Rome burned, despite the fact that the fiddle does not exist in his lifetime.
33:55 Speaker 00 But mud sticks.
34:02 Speaker 00 Nero doesn't help matters when he begins to build on vast swathes of the land cleared by the conflagration. He spends huge sums on an extraordinary new palace complex known as the Domus Auria, or Golden House, covering hundreds of acres.
34:20 Speaker 00 His decadence is encapsulated in plans for its vast banqueting hall, with a revolving rotunda from which guests will be showered with perfume and flower petals, while outside stands a 100-foot-high statue of himself, the Colossus of Nero.
34:38 Speaker 00 To fund his grandiosity, he imposes higher taxes and claims the valuables of the city's many temples as his own. When that does not prove sufficient, he devalues the currency. It is too much for the citizenry to take.
34:55 Speaker 00 Aware of popular opinion turning against him, Nero searches for someone else to take the heat. He alights on a small community, already unpopular for their denial of Rome's traditional religious beliefs, and regarded by some as a potential danger to the empire itself: the Christians.
35:15 Speaker 00 Blaming them for somehow starting the fire, Nero exacts savage revenge. Certain among them, like their leader, Peter, are crucified. Some, he is said to force into animal skins before setting dogs on them to tear them apart. Still others, so the stories go, he keeps back for soires at his palace, where, to the delight of his guests, he ties them to stakes in the garden, covers them in pitch and tar, and sets them ablaze.
35:47 Speaker 00 But history will show that, in terms of reputational damage, he's picked on the wrong people.
35:52 Speaker 01 That was obviously very unpleasant for the Christians, but probably it matters a lot more for the aftermath because once the empire is Christian, then Nero becomes the focus as the Antichrist. Even before then, Christian writers are seeing Nero as the beast in the Book of Revelations and so on. So the fire becomes a place which catalyzes negative reactions. But scapegoating wasn't unusual and torturing people in public wasn't unusual. It's part of the repertoire of Roman games was to get criminals and subject them to awful executions. Sometimes modeled on Greek myth as part of the entertainment.
36:33 Speaker 00 In the year 65, he hosts the second edition of the Neronian Games, having debuted the Olympic-style event five years ago. Its mixture of competitions, equestrian, musical, and gymnastic, has been a smash hit. And this time, he is determined to put himself centre stage. He has been training hard for years, sometimes consuming nothing but oil-soaked chives for the good of his vocal cords, or drinking boar's dung diluted with water to build up his physical strength.
37:07 Speaker 00 His performances, sporting and artistic, are met with fervent acclaim by spectators, even if the more traditional elements of the Rome establishment are less impressed. To them, his love of performance is unsuitable for a man of his position, lacking dignity and disrespectful to the good, martial name of Rome. His compulsion to attend sporting events is not going down well at home either, with the pregnant Papaya reportedly scolding him for spending too much time at the races. But then, suddenly, she miscarries, and herself dies. There is speculation that Nero has kicked her in the stomach during a fit of pique at one of her tirades.
37:52 Speaker 00 Whatever the truth, he is utterly inconsolable at the lavish funeral he puts on for her, where incense equivalent to a year's worth of importations is burned. Soon afterwards, he hits upon another truly peculiar way of paying tribute to his dead wife. He falls for a servant boy, Sporus, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Papaya. Nero has the lad castrated, and then marries him, issuing strict instructions that Sporus from now on should be known as his empress. With Nero increasingly erratic, and his golden house draining Rome's coffers, a cabal of
38:35 Speaker 00 high-ranking officials have had enough. They plot his assassination, to be enacted one day during the races at the Circus Maximus. But their conspiracy is given away to the emperor, and its ringleaders are executed. His old mentor, Seneca, is among those caught up in the scandal, although the extent of the philosopher's involvement is hotly disputed. Nonetheless, Nero compels him to commit suicide, and the old man who had once coached Nero in ruling for the good of the people becomes another victim of his protege's propensity for extreme behavior.
39:18 Speaker 00 In sixty-six, Nero marries once more, this time to Statilia Messalina. She is a relatively low-profile character by the standards of his previous wives, but even so, her consul-husband is forced to commit suicide in order for her to be free to marry. Soon afterwards, Nero takes his leave of Rome for a prolonged tour of Greece, which has been under the Roman yoke since the mid-second century B.C. It is as if he is tired of ruling altogether. Instead, he becomes an itinerant performer, persuading the Greek authorities to postpone the Olympic Games so that he can take part, despite the theoretical ban on non-Greeks.
40:02 Speaker 00 During the build-up, he takes part in festivals across the country and is victorious in every competition he enters. To what extent his success is meritocratic is one more matter for historians to debate.
40:15 Speaker 01 He is so into this stuff that he wants to do it himself. He doesn't just want to be a spectator, he wants to be a player. He wants to be a contender, that's why he goes to Greece. He wants to be a contender in those games. He doesn't just want to watch the Olympic Games, he wants to take part and he wants to win. I know he's a very reputable scholar, so you think that he probably was a pretty serious musician and so on, but by now, I don't see how we could possibly tell, that we'd never expect a dispassionate appraisal of his abilities.
40:43 Speaker 00 In sixty-seven, it's time for the big one: his appearance at the postponed Olympics.
40:56 Speaker 00 It's a sun-parted day at Olympia, on southern Greece's Peloponnese peninsula. Its stadium, a vast, grassy expanse, complete with clay running track, is packed with tens of thousands of spectators, crammed onto raised banks, all either cheering or groaning at the performance of their favorite competitors. At the southern end of the stadium is the hippodrome, the track for the chariot races, stretching hundreds of yards. The crowd reaches a new pitch of excitement as they spy the arrival in the arena of one particularly distinguished competitor for the next race: Nero. He raises an arm to acknowledge their applause
41:37 Speaker 00 as he makes his way in his wooden-wheeled, open-backed one-man chariot to the starting gate.
41:45 Speaker 00 He is entered into the Quadriga, a race for chariots drawn by four horses, taking in twelve arduous laps of the track. But Nero is, as usual, playing by his own rules. He is racing with ten horses, now neighing and whinnying, impatient to start. The crowd gasps as they take in the spectacle. Only the best drivers stand a chance of marshalling four horses, but ten? He stands in his chariot, waiting for the hippodrome's unique starting gate to activate. The horses are held back by a rope until the ceremonial fanfare sounds,
42:26 Speaker 00 and then they're off. Nero cracks his whip, focusing hard to stay in control amid the blur of beast and chariot. In among the racing pack, his muscles tense as he approaches a tight turn, pushing his horses to their limit. Then, for a fraction of a second, his world seems to go into slow motion.
42:49 Speaker 00 He has a feeling of weightlessness as one of the chariot wheels rises off the ground, the vehicle lurching to one side.
42:57 Speaker 00 Nero is in the air, the whip thrown from his grasp. Then, as time reverts to its normal rhythm, he is thrown onto the hard ground, horses coming from behind veering to avoid him as his own chariot disappears into the distance in a dust cloud.
43:15 Speaker 00 The audience holds its breath, fearful they have just witnessed the death of their emperor. But then, by some miracle, he lifts himself to his feet and brushes himself down.
43:29 Speaker 00 A huge cheer goes up. Coughing and spluttering, he takes his life in his hands again, navigating a path through the thundering chariots, blindly fumbling through the storm of dust. Winded and pained, he locates his chariot and climbs aboard, urging his horses on once more. The crowd erupts. He carries on for a few more strides, but his body is too weak to continue.
43:55 Speaker 00 Coming to his senses, he accepts the inevitable and retires from the race. The end of his chance of glory, for today at least.
44:06 Speaker 00 But this is Nero, and the rules seem always to bend to his bidding.
44:12 Speaker 00 At the conclusion of the race, he is declared the winner. After all, who is going to object?
44:21 Speaker 00 Over his fifteen months or so away in Greece, he wins over 1,800 first prizes in all. For everything from performing the role of Oedipus to competing in herald contests, in which he would announce his own victories. It seems never to occur to him that his unprecedented scale of success is based on anything but his own talent.
44:45 Speaker 00 Before he leaves the country on a visit to Corinth and without consultation with the Senate in Rome, he proclaims the freedom of Greece, effectively granting them exemption from certain taxes and allowing some self-rule. Then at last, it is time to return to Rome.
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45:37 Speaker 00 This November, on the Noiser Podcast Network. On Real Dictators, the story of Rafael Trujillo concludes with an epic shootout scene, plucked straight from a mafia movie. On Short History of, join us as we unthor Utsi the Iceman, Europe's oldest known natural human mummy, and step back into the swinging 60s. On Real Survival Stories, on Ben Nevis, Scotland's highest mountain, a chilling tale plays out in the mist. And after a volcanic eruption in New Zealand, a helicopter pilot scrambles to respond. In Jane Austen Stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes' Short Stories, the tale of hidden treasure and murder continues in The Sign of Four.
46:20 Speaker 00 Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus. And for our American listeners, a special offer on Noisy's debut book, A Short History of Ancient Rome. Head to bookshop.org and use the code NONFIC26 for 15% off. Valid for US customers November 1st to 30th. That's bookshop.org and use the code N-O-N-F-I-C-26.
46:52 Speaker 00 Back at home, his absence of over a year consolidates the growing resentment against him. It's not helped when news arrives from Greece that he has been performing a poem celebrating the burning of Troy, rather insensitive, given Rome's own recent experience with fire.
47:10 Speaker 00 Although he has shown precious little interest in its concerns, the wider empire has been getting restive too. A revolt by the Jews in Judea is proving particularly tricky to put down.
47:22 Speaker 00 By 68, Nero no longer feels able to rely on the support of the patrician class, nor, crucially, the praetorian guard, whose backing, or lack thereof, has a habit of making or breaking emperors. But what lies behind this dangerous fracturing is perhaps less Nero's unpredictability and absences, and more simple matters of finance.
47:47 Speaker 01 A bit of the story that isn't often told us that, as he began to run out of money with his expenses, he began to take more. He accused people in order to deprive them of their land, that more and more people were expected to hand over large amounts of their inheritance to Nero. They don't care if he kills his brother, but they really care if they lose their land.
48:07 Speaker 00 Increasingly paranoid, and perhaps with good reason, Nero exacts revenge against those senators and other patrician figures in Rome whom he considers his enemies. Many, he forces to endure that most Roman of punishments for the elite: not execution, but enforced suicide.
48:26 Speaker 01 So we get this sort of killing spree. And of course, the more you kill the elite, the more the elite thing, you can't be allowed to carry on.
48:36 Speaker 00 There is also growing disquiet among Nero's officials away from Rome. In Gaul, the Roman governor Vindex rebels at Nero's demands for increased taxation. He is followed in short order by Galba, governor in Spain, who declares himself emperor. Nero's house of cards looks poised to tumble.
48:59 Speaker 00 In June 68, the Senate formally declares him an enemy of the state. Holed up in his imperial palace, Nero ponders his options. He considers making a break for Alexandria in the distant Roman province of Egypt. It is just the sort of cosmopolitan cultural hub that appeals to his artistic side. But as he steals downstairs in the middle of the night, he finds he has been abandoned by his guards and palace servants. Believing the Senate intends to execute him, it is said that he disguises himself as a beggar and makes for the villa of a still loyal freeman.
49:39 Speaker 00 According to legend, at this point, even his horse deserts him, throwing him off and leaving him in the dust.
49:47 Speaker 00 Somehow he makes it to his refuge, but the Senate's horsemen are not far behind. Convinced that death is inevitable, despite evidence that the Senate in fact intends to spare him, Nero orders the few people who have stayed with him, a handful of servants and sporus among them, to dig his grave.
50:07 Speaker 00 With his pursuers arriving at the villa, he attempts to stab himself in the throat, crying out, "Like an artist, I die." According to some reports, however, he is incapable of inflicting the fatal wound and calls on a companion to do the job instead.
50:24 Speaker 00 One of the newly arrived horsemen kneels beside him, trying to stem the flow of blood, but it is to no avail.
50:32 Speaker 00 Too late, but ah, what fidelity! He is supposed to have proclaimed as his life ebbs away.
50:45 Speaker 00 It is a suitably confused, violent, messy end to the tumultuous reign of one of Rome's most chaotic rulers.
50:54 Speaker 01 I think what goes wrong is is when his enemies become the property classes, when his enemies are just other members of his family, or where his where his crimes are crimes of taste, or crimes of decorum. It's not what you want for an emperor, but gosh, you lived through Calicula, you could stick it out for this. But once he begins to take on the wealthy, and the fact that he never bothered to cultivate friends among the army, those two things together, I think that's that finishes him off.
51:22 Speaker 00 While the emperor's death is greeted joyously by many in the political class, among the Roman populace and eastwards across the empire, the mood is more restrained. For most ordinary people, Nero is still the man who has given them bread and sport, who showed up for them after the fire, who wowed the crowds with music and theatrical performances. To them, the intrigues of the ruling elite are of no concern.
51:49 Speaker 00 But Nero's fall bookmarks a period of intense instability. Galba is his immediate successor, but the following year, 69 AD, goes down in history as the Year of the Four Emperors. After Galba's brief rule ends in assassination, the next two emperors variously die by suicide and bloody execution, before the throne comes to Vespasian, who successfully founds a new dynasty.
52:20 Speaker 00 Nero's rise to power has been a study in political cunning and ruthlessness. He undoubtedly committed some grievous crimes, and especially later in his reign, was guilty of flawed political judgment. But there were successes, too.
52:38 Speaker 00 The empire was, with a few exceptions, mostly peaceable. And when more serious trouble did break out, Rome largely contained the problems. His personal life was certainly colourful, but not markedly more so than that of other emperors as relayed in the histories. Moreover, he enacted laws and ruled in such a way that the populace seemed well disposed to him.
53:03 Speaker 00 Having fallen foul of historians writing years after his death, might Nero be a victim of his successor's keenness to besmirch the reputation of an earlier dynasty?
53:15 Speaker 00 From our own distance of millennia, it is maybe time to consider him through a different lens.
53:22 Speaker 01 I think the way we understand figures like Nero is we look at the broader context of what's going on. So Nero is an emperor and acts as an emperor with the extraordinary freedom and resources emperors have, but he absolutely doesn't do it in circumstances of his own choosing. He's drawn into these dynastic things when he's so young, you know, he's 13, 14, when he begins to be drawn into all this stuff. And he never gets a chance to follow the kind of formation that an emperor needs. They need to travel, they need to see the empire, they need to get to know the army, they need to understand the finances. None of this happens. So in that sense, I think we can appreciate his dilemma without necessarily sympathising
54:05 Speaker 01 with him and we can accept that some of the stuff we're told is likely the result of a new dynasty trying to blacken their predecessor. But then you ask, why did they feel it was so necessary to blacken their predecessor? And the answer is, because not everybody hated Nero.
54:28 Speaker 00 Next time on Short History, we'll bring you a short history of Bob Marley.
54:34 Speaker 05 His legacy is just an example of how somebody from a very modest background, from a country which is considered, at least it was then Jamaica, part of the developing world, can have a massive impact way out of proportion to the size of the country and the economic and political power it exerts, and also a very positive impact throughout the world, where the best parts of his art are not just appreciated and selling records, but also inspiring people to make them feel better about themselves and in some cases to create their own art that will have a positive effect on others around them, whether it's just a few people or a few million people.
55:18 Speaker 00 That's next time.
55:27 Speaker 00 If you can't wait a week until the next episode, you can listen to it right away by subscribing to Noiser Plus. Head to www.noiser.com/subscriptions for more information. This November, on the Noiser Podcast Network. On Real Dictators, the story of Rafael Trujillo concludes with an epic shootout scene, plucked straight from a mafia movie. On Short History of, join us as we unthor Utsi the Iceman, Europe's oldest known natural human mummy, and step back into the swinging 60s. On Real Survival Stories, on Ben Nevis, Scotland's highest mountain, a chilling tale plays out in the mist, and after a volcanic eruption in New Zealand, a helicopter pilot scrambles to respond.
56:11 Speaker 00 In Jane Austen Stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews, and in Sherlock Holmes' short stories, the tale of hidden treasure and murder continues in The Sign of Fall. Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus. And for our American listeners, a special offer on Noiser's debut book, A Short History of Ancient Rome. Head to bookshop.org and use the code NONFIC26 for 15% off. Valid for US customers November 1st to 30th. That's bookshop.org and use the code N-O-N-F-I-C-26.
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