One of the best known and simultaneously most notorious figures from
Roman history, Nero (r. AD 54-68) is usually characterised as a
tyrannical and ineffectual emperor, a ruler who proverbially 'fiddled
while Rome burnt'. However, as new research demonstrates, this
reputation is crudely reductive and was carefully crafted in antiquity
by hostile elite authors, who envisioned a different form of rule more
mindful of the demands of their own social and political class.
This publication redresses the balance and provides a more nuanced
interpretation of Nero's reign and Roman society of the time, reflecting
on the traditional perceptions of his rule and revealing the substantial
external and internal challenges with which the sixteen-year-old heir to
the Roman empire had to contend.
Nero's rule fell in an extended period of transition and profound social
and economic change. The empire had grown rapidly during previous
centuries, and an astonishing era of peace and prosperity followed the
introduction of one-man rule after decades of bloody civil war under
Nero's great-great-grandfather Augustus. However, political institutions
and elite mindsets were slow to adjust to the resulting rise of former
outsiders, people from the provinces and freed slaves.
The book considers in detail the resulting tensions and the challenging
role of Nero's family within them. Powerful individuals, among them many
women, including Nero's mother Agrippina, and his tutor and advisor
Seneca, come to life against the backdrop of these times, when different
court factions thought to manipulate the young ruler. At the same time,
intriguing evidence - doodles and graffiti - from Rome, Pompeii and
other Vesuvian cities gives voice to often very different attitudes of
common people, completely ignored by the ancient literary sources.
In addition to these internal challenges, Nero inherited a great
conflict with the rival power of the Parthians and unrest in unsettled
newly conquered territories, including Britain. The book examines his
military and diplomatic response and the powerful visual language -
often disregarded - that presented him as a successful young military
leader throughout the empire. Administrative and tax reforms culminated
in 'populist' policies that also saw him embrace enthusiastically the
possibilities offered through public entertainments (the circus, arena
and theater) to communicate directly with his subjects and project a
more direct, charismatic form of rule. Yet his grand building projects
and the beautification of his capital were offset by severe natural
disasters and a devastating fire of Rome.
Popular with the common people to the very end, Nero could not reconcile
the internal contradictions of the principate, the political system
introduced by Augustus. Hostile segments of the elite were behind
military rebellions in AD 68 that quickly drove Nero from power. His
enforced suicide brought to an end the rule of Rome's first imperial
dynasty, the Julio-Claudians. The subsequent vilification of his memory
and the removal and desecration of his image are an enduring, but
misleading, legacy that leave a fascinating reign to be explored anew.
