Nero: Artist on the Throne, Rome in Flames

Nero: Artist on the Throne, Rome in Flames (A sixteen-year-old on the throne, a mother who knows he will be her death, the fire of Rome and the words of his last night: what an artist dies in me. Seven chapters, films and decisions to make.) — lesson 9 of the course: 7 parts, about 33 min of reading.

The episode begins at noon on October 13, AD 54, as sixteen-year-old Nero walks out of the palace gates as emperor. It moves through the joint rule with Agrippina, the death of Britannicus, the ship that was meant to fall apart, the night of his mother’s murder, the fire of Rome and the question of whether Nero really played while the city burned, and on to the revolt in Gaul and Hispania and the last night at Phaon’s villa. The episode closes the first season and sets up the Year of the Four Emperors.

Films

• Claudius’s mushrooms: murder or dinner? — October AD 54: Emperor Claudius eats his favorite mushrooms. Tacitus sees poison in them; some historians see the ordinary death of an old man.
• Mother and son: power in a minute — Agrippina rules for her young son, and then Nero, step by step, takes away her lictors, guard, house and guests; in the end a ship awaits.
• Bay of Naples, March AD 59: the ship’s course — On the map of the Bay of Naples: how Nero lured his mother onto a ship that was meant to fall apart, and how Agrippina survived that night.
• Agrippina’s last night in 50 seconds — A villa on Lake Lucrine, March AD 59: Anicetus’s sailors come for Agrippina. The film ends before anything happens.

Articles

• Sixteen Years and Ten Months — Nero: Artist on the Throne, Rome in Flames — Sixteen years and ten months. That is the age of the boy who will walk out of the palace gates on October 13, AD 54, as master of half the world.
• Two Rulers — Nero: Artist on the Throne, Rome in Flames — For a few months Rome has two rulers, and the second is sixteen. The Senate grants Agrippina two lictors, an escort with rods like a magistrate of the state, and the priesthood of her deified husband.
• The Ship — Nero: Artist on the Throne, Rome in Flames — AD 58. Nero is twenty and has two faces.
• Strike the Womb — Nero: Artist on the Throne, Rome in Flames — The same night, Baiae. The emperor cannot sleep.
• Rome Burns — Nero: Artist on the Throne, Rome in Flames — After his mother’s death no one restrains Nero. He has dreamed of the stage since childhood, so he begins with the games “of the youth,” which anyone may enter, and performs in them himself with the kithara.
• The Artist — Nero: Artist on the Throne, Rome in Flames — For the senators, this is the end of patience. In AD 65 a conspiracy forms: senators, equestrians, officers of the Guard, even a few women.
• What an Artist Dies in Me — Nero: Artist on the Throne, Rome in Flames — March AD 68, Naples. Nero is watching athletic contests when word comes: in Gaul the governor Julius Vindex has rebelled.