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Nero was the son of Agrippina, sister of Caligula and fourth wife of Claudius. In AD 50, the weak-minded Claudius
adopted Nero as his son and heir, thereby effectively sentencing his own son, Britannicus, to death. Nero was totally unsuited to the position of emperor. He saw himself principally as an artist and musician. In this he was probaby right, as even his most critical biographers admit that he was a gifted lutanist and had a fine singing voice. He is famous as the emperor who fiddled (actually he played the lute) as Rome burned during the great fire of AD 64. He was almost certainly not the incendiary, though the cleared area of the city was claimed by him in order to build his unfeasably large palace, the Golden House. His compensation to victims of the fire (much from his own pocket) was generous. His bizarre (by Roman terms) behaviour and ever increasing taxation, lead the senate to declare him an enemy of the state in 68, and, unable to take his own life, he ordered one of his household slaves to kill him. His death marked the end of the Julio-Claudian line (the family of Caesar) and sparked the bitter civil war of 68 - 69, out of which emerged the Flavian dynasty, founded by
Vespasian. |
