Nero – The Most Evil Emperor

Let's talk about Emperor Nero, probably one of the most infamous rulers in Roman history. Ancient writers really didn't hold back when it came to talking about him. Pliny the Elder called him pestis generis humani, the plague of the human race. Tacitus described his cruelty and corruption with the word monstrum, a monster. Cassius Dio said he looked like a man but acted like a wild beast, and Suetonius wrote at length about the moral decay and tyranny during Nero's reign. And Christian writers even went as far as calling him the Antichrist. But the strange thing is, Nero didn't start out that way. At the beginning of his reign, he was seen as a fresh hope for Rome. So how did he go from golden boy to one of history's greatest villains? Let's take a closer look. The future Emperor Nero was born in December of AD 37 in the coastal town of Antium, just nine months into the reign of his infamous uncle Caligula. Tiberius' body was barely cold on Capri, Caligula had only just claimed the throne in Rome, and at that very moment in Antium, Nero was conceived, a child who would one day surpass even his uncle in infamy. He was the son of Natius Domitius Ahenobarbus and Agrippina the Younger, Caligula's sister. At birth, he was named Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, and through his veins ran blood of some of Rome's greatest names, Germanicus, Mark Antony, and Augustus. But Lucius had anything but a peaceful childhood. When he was just two years old, Caligula accused Agrippina of plotting against him and had her exiled. A year later, his father died, likely of edema, leaving the boy effectively orphaned. He was taken in by his aunt Domitia. Things began to change in AD 41 when Caligula was assassinated. Agrippina returned to Rome and with her return began a new chapter in her son's life, one that would eventually change the fate of the Roman Empire. To most people's surprise, the throne ended up in the hands of Claudius, Agrippina's uncle and young Lucius' great-uncle. Under Caligula, Claudius had been written off as a fool, maybe even insane, but against all expectations, his reign turned out to be fairly successful, especially compared to the chaos of the emperors before him. There was just one problem, Claudius already had a son from his marriage to Messalina. His name was Britannicus, and he was a little younger than Lucius. Messalina, known for her cruelty and ambition, saw Lucius as a threat to her son's future. She tried more than once to have him killed, but every attempt failed. At the same time, Agrippina and her son were gaining more and more influence. That rise in power pushed Messalina to take drastic action. Along with her lover, Gaius Silius, she hatched a plot to assassinate Claudius and put the young Britannicus on the throne, with herself pulling the strings as regent. But the plot was uncovered, and both Messalina and Silius were executed. That twist of fate may as well have saved Lucius' life. Even so, one major obstacle still stood in his way, Britannicus, the emperor's legitimate heir. After Messalina's death, Claudius didn't stay single for very long. Less than a year after, he married Agrippina, a move that immediately shifted the balance of power in the battle over who would succeed him. Within a year, Agrippina convinced Claudius to formally adopt her son Lucius, and later to name him heir to the throne. That's when Lucius took on a new name, Nero, which comes from the Sabine language and means strong or manly. When Nero was 16, Agrippina arranged for him to marry Claudius' 13-year-old daughter Octavia. The marriage further strengthened his position. After that, Claudius had served his purpose. On the night of October 12, 54 AD, he suddenly died. The timing, so perfect for Agrippina and Nero, sparked a flurry of rumors. Some claimed Agrippina had poisoned Claudius by slipping something into his favorite dish, porcini mushrooms. But there's no way to confirm or really disprove it. Claudius was 64, in poor health, and a heavy drinker. He could have died of natural causes, certainly. Still, Nero would later make pointed jokes about mushrooms, hinting that the rumors might have some truth to them. Whatever the case, Agrippina acted fast. She secured the support of the Praetorian Guard commander, Sextus Afranius Burrus, and made sure power passed smoothly onto Nero. Claudius' biological son, Britannicus, was too young and too politically isolated to challenge him. With no strong allies behind him, he didn't stand a chance against Agrippina's ambition and experience in palace politics. The Senate declared Nero emperor. His rise was met with high hopes. He was popular among ordinary Romans, and his first speech as emperor left a great impression on the Senate. Though like all of his speeches, it had actually been written by his tutor, the philosopher Seneca. There's an old legend about Agrippina. As a young woman, she supposedly heard a prophecy. She would give birth to a son who would one day rule Rome, but he would also kill her. Her response? Let him kill me, as long as he becomes emperor. Whether she actually said it is up to anyone's guess. Like many ancient prophecies, it was probably made up after the fact to add drama to the story. But what we do know is that Agrippina was driven by ambition, mostly for herself. After Nero was declared emperor, she essentially ruled the empire behind the scenes, relying on the support of the Praetorian Guard commander Burrus and the philosopher Seneca. With their help, she pulled the strings, and Nero, still a teenager at this point, was more a puppet than a ruler. At first, Nero was very attached to his mother. He even called her Optima Mater, the best of mothers. But Seneca, who believed Agrippina's influence was very dangerous for Rome, quietly pushed Nero to pull away from her. He even encouraged Nero's affair with a former slave named Acti, hoping he would help loosen his mother's grip. Things really came to a head when Agrippina tried to interfere in that relationship. As long as Acti was just a mistress, Agrippina didn't seem too bothered. But when she found out Nero was thinking about divorcing Octavia and marrying Acti, she stepped in immediately. Octavia was the daughter of Claudius, and the marriage carried major political weight. Agrippina wasn't about to let her son throw that away. Nero was furious, but in the end, he backed down. Still, the issue wasn't just about Acti. Nero had grown tired of being controlled. With Seneca's help, he won over Burrus, and from that point on, started asserting himself more as emperor. Agrippina saw this as a betrayal. She threatened to strip Nero of power and put Britannicus, Claudius' biological son, on the throne instead. That threat pushed Nero to act fast. Just days later, Britannicus, only 14 years old, was poisoned during a banquet. The murder shocked Rome's political elite and shattered Agrippina's standing. Her former allies realized that opposing the new emperor could be deadly, and with her influence gone, Agrippina lost her grip on power and faded into the background. As a child, Nero received an exceptional education thanks to his tutor, the philosopher Seneca. He spoke fluent Greek, had a deep appreciation for classical literature, and developed a lifelong passion for the arts, especially theater, poetry, sculpture, and music. These weren't just passing interests. Later in life, Nero would take the stage himself, performing as a poet, musician, and actor. But the arts weren't his only obsession. Nero was also fascinated by chariot racing, a dangerous sport where drivers regularly risked serious injury or death. He was a die-hard fan and loved discussing race results at the Circus Maximus with those around him. Eventually, he decided to get behind the reins himself, training at Caligula's old circus, located on the grounds of what is now the Vatican. He went on to compete in races, and during a trip to Greece in AD 67, he even survived a serious fall from his chariot, escaping with only minor injuries. Nero also trained in wrestling from a young age and was said to be quite skilled. In his youth, he was in excellent shape, tall, strong, and athletic. While he put on weight later in life, young Nero was known for combining physical strength, agility, and good looks. Today, these interests might seem completely normal, but in ancient Rome, they were seen as wildly inappropriate, especially for someone of Nero's social status. Playing music, acting on stage, or racing chariots was considered shameful behavior for an aristocrat. Roman society expected young nobles to focus on rhetoric, law, and military training, skills meant to prepare them for leadership. Nero, however, clearly had other ideas. In 60 AD, a major rebellion broke out in far-off Britain. Prasutagus, king of the Iceni and a longtime ally of Rome, had left his kingdom jointly to Emperor Nero and his daughters, hoping the compromise would protect his family's future. The idea was that his daughters would rule under Roman authority, keeping the dynasty alive. But things quickly went off the rails. As soon as Prasutagus died, Roman officials began seizing Iceni land and enslaving its people. They claimed the tribe owed huge debts to Roman moneylenders, among them Seneca himself, who issued a loan of 10 million sesterces. While Prasutagus had managed to hold the Romans in check during his lifetime, his death opened the floodgates. His widow, Boudicca, tried to intervene, but the response was brutal. Roman soldiers publicly whipped her and raped her daughters in front of her. That horrific act became the immediate trigger for an uprising. But the anger had been building for years, fueled by heavy taxation, corruption, and the abusive behavior of Roman officials. Boudicca quickly united several neighboring tribes who had also suffered under Roman rule. The revolt caught Rome completely off guard. Its scale and ferocity shocked the empire. In just a few months, the rebels destroyed major Roman settlements like Camulodunum and Londinium, killing around 70,000 Romans and Romanized Britons. Rome didn't manage to regain control until the following year. In 61 AD, the Roman general Gaius Suetonius Paulinus defeated Boudicca's forces at the Battle of Watling Street, despite being heavily outnumbered. After the victory, Paulinus launched a series of harsh crackdowns to stamp out any further resistance. But Nero, worried that such extreme measures would only fuel more unrest, removed Paulinus and appointed a new governor tasked with restoring peace through diplomacy. Meanwhile, Rome was facing another challenge, this time in the east. The Parthian king Vologases was trying to place his cousin Tiradeses in the throne of Armenia, a region traditionally under Roman control. Nero responded by sending one of his top generals, Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo, to lead the campaign. The conflict dragged on for years with mixed results. Finally, in 63 AD, a deal was struck. Tiradeses would be allowed to rule Armenia, but only after receiving his crown in person from the Roman emperor, a symbolic nod to Rome's dominance. The war had taken a heavy toll. Pliny the Elder gives a telling example of how corrupt things had become. One imperial slave, in charge of supplying a legion, got so rich during the campaign that he was able to buy his freedom for an eye-watering 13 million sesterces, and that was only a fraction of what he had pocketed. The cost of war had ripple effects across the empire. In Britain, it helped fuel Boudicca's revolt. And in 66 AD, similar frustrations boiled over into Judea. The Roman procurator Jessius Florus seized funds from the treasury of the Jerusalem temple to cover unpaid taxes, sparking mass protests that quickly escalated into open rebellion. The Jewish war would rage until 73 AD, five years after Nero's death. But that is a story for another video. After shaking off his mother's control, Nero turned over responsibilities of running the empire to his tutor, Seneca, and the commander of the Praetorian Guard, Burrus. For the next seven years, the two became the real power behind the throne. Unusually for Roman politics, their partnership wasn't marked by rivalry or backstabbing, they actually worked together smoothly and effectively. Burrus, who had less political clout but strong ties to the military, focused on the army and keeping public order. Seneca, on the other hand, well-respected by the senate and Rome's political elite, handled domestic policy. His approach was moderate and reform-minded, he actually avoided political purges and introduced several key changes to stabilize the empire. One major reform gave tax breaks to grain merchants, helping to end supply shortages and ensure a steady flow of bread to Rome, which kept their population calm. Seneca also restructured customs duties, lowering tariffs on trade between the provinces. He actually wanted to scrap them altogether, but senators opposed the idea, fearing a budget shortfall during the war with Parthia. Still, the reforms did give a big boost to trade, especially in port cities, and helped drive economic growth across the empire. This stretch of Nero's reign was one of stability and prosperity, thanks largely to the steady hands of Burrus and Seneca, who managed the empire while the young emperor took a back seat. Nero himself showed little interest in governing. Instead, he spent most of his time enjoying the good life, immersed in music, theater, and personal pleasures. In 59 AD, Nero murdered his mother Agrippina. He claimed she was plotting to poison him, though whether that was true or not is impossible to say. On one hand, the accusation does fit Agrippina's reputation. She was ambitious, manipulative, and ruthless. But on the other, it may have simply been Nero's way of justifying what would later become the first clear sign of his slide into tyranny. At first, Nero tried to make it look like an accident. Several poisoning attempts failed. In one plot, the ceiling above her bed was rigged to collapse, but Agrippina happened to step out onto the balcony for some fresh air just before the trap was sprung. The most famous attempt came during a boat trip. Nero had a special vessel built that was designed to collapse at sea. The ship did fall apart, but Nero hadn't counted on one thing. Agrippina was a strong swimmer. Years earlier, when Nero was still a baby, Agrippina had been exiled to a Mediterranean island. To survive, she dove for shellfish and became an excellent swimmer. So when the ship went down, she managed to swim ashore and escape. At that point, Nero abandoned subtlety. Frustrated by her survival, he sent a group of soldiers to her villa with orders to kill her. They stabbed her to death on the spot. And so ended the life of one of Rome's most powerful women. But her murder marked a turning point in Nero's reign, the moment when a young emperor's image began to shift from eccentric ruler to dangerous tyrant. It was a stain on his legacy that would never wash away. After Nero had his killed, his behavior changed dramatically. In 62 AD, the Praetorian prefect Burrus died. The official cause was throat cancer, but many suspected he'd been poisoned. Burrus had been one of the few people able to reign Nero in, known for his steady hand and moderate approach. With him gone, Nero lost one of his last restraints. In Burrus' place, Nero appointed Gaius Ophonius Tegillinus, a man known less for competence than for his total loyalty and willingness to carry out the emperor's every whim. Where Burrus had tried to guide Nero, Tegillinus simply enabled him. That same year, Seneca was accused of embezzling state funds. He wasn't formally charged, but the writing was on the wall. Seneca stepped away from public life and, in a show of loyalty, offered to return all of the gifts and estates that he'd received during his years of service. But rather than easing Nero's suspicions, the gesture only made him paranoid. Seneca withdrew into isolation, but his past influence still lingered, and that made Nero uneasy. With Burrus dead and Seneca out of the picture, Rome began to slip into an atmosphere of fear. Trials for treason, so-called offenses against the emperor's dignity, became a tool to eliminate political opponents. Among the victims were prominent figures like Paulus, Rebellius Plautus, and Faustus Sulla. As Suetonius put it, he executed people without limit or reason, anyone for anything. A wave of informers swept through the city. People were afraid to speak openly, even with their own families. The growing paranoia and climate of suspicion left Nero increasingly isolated, and only pushed him further down the path of cruelty and tyranny. In 58 AD, Nero began an affair with a married woman, Poppaea Sabina. Her husband, Marcus Salvius Otho, who would later become emperor himself, was conveniently sent off by Nero to govern distant Lusitania, clearing the way for the relationship to continue without interference. By 62 AD, Nero had officially divorced his first wife, Claudia Octavia, and married Poppaea, who soon gave birth to a daughter. Nero's marriage to Octavia had been miserable from the start. He never loved her, treated her with contempt, and routinely humiliated her. But the divorce didn't free her, and marked the start of something far worse. As the daughter of the former emperor Claudius, Octavia remained a potential political threat. Anyone who married her could gain a legitimate claim to the throne. Poppaea saw this clearly and persuaded Nero to get rid of her. Octavia was first exiled, then later executed on false charges. According to Tacitus, her death was especially cruel. Her veins were cut, but when she didn't bleed out fast enough, she was shoved into an overheated steam room to finish the job. But Nero's marriage to Poppaea didn't bring lasting happiness either. When she was pregnant with their second child, the couple got into a drunken argument. In a fit of rage, Nero kicked her in the stomach. She lost the baby and died soon after. The deaths of both Octavia and Poppaea further tarnished Nero's reputation. Both women had been popular with the Roman people, and public sympathy quickly turned against the emperor. Even those closest to him began to question whether he was capable of controlling his temper or himself. On the night of July 18th, 64 AD, one of the most catastrophic fires in Rome's history broke out. It started near the Circus Maximus, where warehouses were packed with flammable goods. With hot summer winds and dry conditions, the flames spread rapidly through the city. Rome's narrow streets and tall wooden buildings made it the perfect fuel. The fire raged for nine days and ended up destroying more than half of the city. The Roman historian Tacitus, who lived through the disaster, recorded a vivid and detailed account. At the time, Nero, like many members of the Roman elite during the heat of summer, was staying at a seaside villa. When he received news of the fire, he returned to Rome immediately and personally oversaw the relief efforts. He opened up his palaces, gardens, and public buildings to shelter those who had lost their homes, and dramatically reduced the price of grain to prevent widespread hunger. Reconstruction began almost as soon as the fire was under control. While the old city had been a maze of chaotic, unplanned development, Nero's rebuilding effort followed a much more organized plan. Streets were widened, buildings were lowered in height, and ground floors were required to be built from fire-resistant materials. Officials were also appointed to oversee the water supply, after the fire revealed just how badly it had been compromised by illegal taps into the aqueducts. These reforms significantly improved Rome's infrastructure and helped reduce the risk of future disasters. Still, despite Nero's proactive response, rumors began to swirl that he had started the fire himself. Later, historians like Suetonius and Cassius Dio fueled those suspicions as well. Suetonius even claimed that Nero ordered the blaze so that he could perform his epic poem about the fall of Troy while watching the city burn. But most modern historians consider these accusations unfounded. Nero was not in Rome when the fire began, and much of his own property, including a recently completed palace, was lost in the flames. Rumors that Nero had a hand in starting the Great Fire of Rome just wouldn't go away. To calm the public and shift the blame, the emperor decided to find a scapegoat, and the early Christians, already distrusted and disliked by many Romans, were an easy target. Nero ordered the arrest of those who openly practiced Christianity. They were tortured into confessing to arson and naming others in their community. What followed was a wave of mass executions. We don't know exactly how many people were killed. Tacitus simply says many, but it was likely several hundred. The executions took place mainly in Nero's private circus and gardens on the Vatican Hill. Christians were crucified, burned alive, or torn apart by wild animals. Among the victims were the apostles Peter and Paul. Christians made a convenient target. Their refusal to take part in state religious rituals, their secrecy, and their worship of a man who had been executed as a criminal all made them seem suspicious. Their talk of the end of the world and the worthlessness of earthly achievements didn't sit well with Romans, who took great pride in their civilization. Even Tacitus, who didn't believe that Christians had started the fire, still saw them as socially dangerous. He called them hated for their abominations and described their sect as hostile to mankind. Yet, even he admitted that Nero's brutality stirred sympathy for the Christians among many Romans. In 65 AD, just a year after the Great Fire of Rome, a group of senators and praetorian guard officers conspired to assassinate Nero. The plot was led by Gaius Calpurnius Piso, a powerful senator and charismatic figure whom many saw as a credible alternative to the increasingly unstable and tyrannical emperor. The plan was to kill Nero during a public festival at the Forum. One of the conspirators would approach him under the guise of presenting a petition, then knock him to the ground, giving the others a chance to rush in and stab him. It was a clear nod to the assassination of Julius Caesar. But the conspiracy was uncovered before it could get carried out. The plotters were arrested, and those who didn't manage to take their own lives were brought to trial. Most were sentenced to death. Eighteen were exiled, and lower-level conspirators were stripped of their positions. Shaken by the close call, Nero decided to commemorate his victory. He ordered that April, the month the plot was discovered, to be renamed Neronius, in honor of the god's protection. Among those caught up in the purge was Seneca, Nero's former tutor. Although his involvement in the plot was never proven, he was ordered to take his own life. Nearly 70 years old, Seneca accepted his fate with stoic calm. He had his veins open in his arms and legs, but when the bleeding was too slow, he stepped into a hot bath, where he died, reportedly dedicating his final moments to Jupiter, the liberator. After the conspiracy, Nero grew even more paranoid and brutal. Even senators who had remained loyal no longer felt safe. The wave of repression continued, claiming high-profile victims like Gnaeus Demetrius Corbulo, the hero of the Parthian campaign, whom Nero likely saw as a threat because of his popularity with the army, and the writer Gaius Petronius, author of the Satricon. The failed Piso Conspiracy marked the beginning of the end for Nero's reign. His increasingly erratic and brutal behavior, especially the wave of executions that followed, alienated the Roman elite. The Senate began to distance itself, and worse still, Nero's purge senior military commanders weakened his standing with the Praetorian Guard, once his most loyal supporters. Across the empire, the emperor was no longer seen as a stabilizing force, but as a threat. In his final years, Nero abandoned nearly all interest in governing, and threw himself into a life of spectacle and self-indulgence. He became obsessed with the arts, hosting poetry and music competitions in which he always competed and, unsurprisingly, always won. He loved performing in public, often appearing on stage as an actor and a singer. He also sponsored extravagant gladiator games and athletic contests modeled after the Olympics, and spared no expense on lavish banquets and festivals. When Tiridates, the new king of Armenia, came to Rome to receive his crown, Nero, fascinated by Eastern ceremony and eager to impress, organized a lavish coronation that reportedly cost the state more than a billion sesterces. But these endless displays of grandeur put immense strain on the empire's already overburdened finances. After years of war, rebellion, and the costly rebuilding of Rome, the imperial treasury was nearly empty. To raise funds, Nero began accusing wealthy citizens of treason and confiscating their property, a move that only deepened his rift with the aristocracy. In 68 AD, the simmering unrest finally erupted into open revolt, this time in Gaul. The rebellion was led by a coalition of Gallic tribes under the leadership of Vindex. The man tasked with putting it down was Servius Sulpicius Galba, the governor of Terraconnensis in Spain. But instead of quashing the uprising, Galba joined it and began marching his army toward Rome. When the news reached the capital, the senate turned on Nero. They declared him a public enemy and threw their support behind Galba, even the Praetorian Guard, once Nero's personal protectors had abandoned him. With no allies left, Nero fled the city. He took refuge at the villa of his loyal freedmen. When he had heard that Galba's men were closing in, Nero resolved to end his life. But when that moment came, he couldn't go through with it. Paralyzed by fear, he'd hesitated until one of his freedmen helped guide his hand as he drove a dagger into his throat. Legend says that his final words were, what an artist dies in me, but in reality, he had said those earlier. His actual last words, whispered as those around him tried to stop the bleeding, were, this is loyalty. Nero's body was quietly buried by his former lover, Claudia Actae, with help from two of her maids. By all accounts, she truly loved him. His ashes were interred in the family tomb of the Demeti. With Nero's death, the Julio-Claudian dynasty came to an end, but peace didn't return to Rome. The following year, remembered as the Year of the Four Emperors, plunged the empire into chaos as rival generals battled for control of the Eternal City. You can also leave a super thanks down below if you'd like to give us a little extra boost. It really means a lot and helps us keep going. We hope to see you next time.