Nero

Claudius left behind a stable and well governed empire. Nero was well served in his early advisors, Seneca and Burrus, the Praetorian Prefect. Between them, they forced Agrippina out of the imperial palace and Seneca made conciliatory speeches to the Senate which helped to smooth relations there. In contrast with what was to come, these were looked back upon as the golden years.

The hopes that Seneca would ensure stability of government proved an illusion. Nero was still young, inexperienced and had experienced a childhood rife with the morbid tensions and rivalries of the imperial family. Some of his behavior, escapades through the streets of Rome at night, could probably be put down as no more than adolescent high spirits. Gradually however, Nero's activities took on a more sinister turn. In 59 CE, encouraged by his mistress Poppaea, he decided to murder his mother. After the first attempt to drown her in a collapsible boat ended in a farce, she was beaten to death. In a sense, this was Nero's coming of age. Soon a reign of terror began. Nero's wife, Octavia, and probably Burrus were among the victims. Seneca was dismissed and later forced to commit suicide. When a fire destroyed most of Rome in 64 CE, the blame was laid at the feet of Nero.

It is improbable that Nero started the fire as he was in Actium at the time of the fire and only returned to the city when the fire was approaching the mansion he had build to link the Gardens of Maecenas to the Palantine. But he used as a scapegoat the small Christian community of the city and persecuted them so brutally that in the end, he damaged his own reputation. As Tacitus reports, "Despite their guilt as Christians, and the ruthless punishment it deserved, the victims were pitied. For it was felt that they were being sacrificed to one man's brutality rather than to the national interest." (Annals 15.44)

Though Nero responded to the fire by opening the Field of Mars to provide for the relief of the homeless and constructed emergency accommodation, brought in food from Ostia and cut the price of grain, his main response to the devastated center of Rome was the building of a vast imperial palace, the Domus Aurea, or the 'Golden House', which covered the center of Rome and was fronted by an immense statue of the emperor. The coinage was debased to help pay for the costs. Archaeologists working on the German border have found that coin hoarders preferred the pre Neronian coins.

By now, the lax control at the center of the empire was having its impact on the provinces. Britain saw the uprising by the Iceni tribe under the helm of Boudicca. Control was gained only at the cost of terrible retribution. In 62 CE, a Roman army was once again humiliated by the Parthians and it took a major show of force to achieve a compromise where Armenia was stabilized as a buffer state between Rome and the Parthian empire. But most formidable of all was a Jewish revolt, set off in 64 CE by the clumsy behavior of a Greek governor who had been appointed under the influence of Poppaea. A million died in the following years as it was suppressed.

Within Rome the pressure on Nero was increasing. Several plots were hatched, many involving respectable senators. Nero managed to foil them all but also eliminated many of his finest administrators in the process. One of the most effective commanders of the age was Domitius Corbulo who had kept order on the German frontier and also managed a brilliant campaign in Armenia which restored Roman prestige there. In 67 CE, Nero, jealous of his success, ordered him to commit suicide. It was also said that he had the six richest men in Africa killed so he could gain their land, allegedly half the province.

Nero must have sensed how vulnerable his lack of military experience left him and it may have been to escape the atmosphere of hatred that caused him to decide to head east in an effort to find an audience which would respond to his need for applause. Throughout 67 CE, Nero toured Greece, attending the ancient games and performing as a charioteer, orator or lyre player. Much of this tour was farcial but it was also the first time that an emperor had taken a personal interest in Greek culture. When he returned to Rome, laden with the crowns of his victories, Nero celebrated his return with a show staged as a military triumph. Any residual loyalty in the army must have been seriously undermined by this desecration of the most prestigious ceremony in Roman political life.

There was an increasing revulsion among the provincial aristocrats which was fueled by discontent over high taxes imposed to finance his rebuilding of Rome. In 68 CE, a revolt broke out in Gaul and Galba was proclaimed imperator by his troops. According to Suetonius, Nero heard about the revolt on the anniversary of his mother's death. Firm action may have saved him, however he panicked and set off towards the east. The senate and Praetorian Guard rallied to Galba and proclaimed him the new emperor. Nero, waiting in a suburban villa for a boat to take him from Italy, killed himself and lives on in legend as a capricious tyrant.

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Chronicle of the Roman Emperors, Chris Scarre, Thames and Hudson, 1995

The Oxford History of the Classical World, John Boardman, Jasper Griffin, Oswyn Murray. Oxford University Press, 1986

Egypt, Greece and Rome, Civilizations of the Ancient Medierranean, Charles Freeman, Oxford University Press, 1996