In ancient Rome, pregnancy was a hazardous affair, and could prove fatal even without an assault. The British Museum seeks to build a less sensationalist account of Nero through the placement and elucidation of objects: statues, busts, coins, inscriptions, graffiti.
A portrait emerges of a young, untested leader at the helm of an unwieldy empire that is under enormous stress. The statue, on loan from the Louvre , depicts Nero on the cusp of manhood, his status indicated by what would at the time have been legible symbols: a bulla, an amulet worn like a locket, confirms that he is a freeborn boy who has not yet come of age.
The statue would originally have been displayed on a high plinth, but at the museum it is presented at ground level, so that the viewer is eye to eye with a child. The lighting design casts a long shadow: an imperial giant looms.
By the time Nero became emperor, in 54 A. Material evidence in the exhibition indicates that when Nero ascended the throne he initially garnered the support of the Senate. Nero asserted his legitimacy by inscribing the coins made for his accession with images of an oak wreath, which was traditionally bestowed as an honor by the Senate. In the year after his accession, a gold coin was minted depicting mother and son in parallel.
A few years after his accession, Nero is depicted alone. By 59 A. Agrippina was dead, at the age of forty-three, and though her demise probably did not involve self-sinking vessels at sea, Nero does seem to have been responsible for having her stabbed to death.
Although matricide was generally regarded as a terrible crime by the ancient Romans, Opper points out that other inconvenient women of the period also met harsh fates: Julia, the only child of the emperor Augustus, was banished by her father and died in exile. Alongside official portraits of the Emperor—the busts and statues—the British Museum includes a digitized reproduction of a graffito scratched into a building on the Palatine Hill.
The image, which matches depictions of Nero on surviving coinage, shows him bearded and full-faced, with an ample double chin, and a hint of a smile on pursed lips. Opper takes the portrait to be admiring, rather than satirical, noting that no graffitied slogan suggests otherwise.
Nero, he reports, was widely seen by the Roman public as youthful and vigorous. Suetonius notes that Nero, after becoming emperor, permitted members of the public to watch him exercise, demonstrating a physical prowess that was in marked contrast to Claudius, who had been ill and frail. Nero enacted tax and currency reforms, steps that may have been unpopular with the wealthy but were welcomed by the broader public.
Trajan did not cite a specific period, but as emperor Nero took various measures that were approved of and, tellingly, retained or built on by later leaders. He erected a new marketplace and a spectacular complex of public baths, which allowed ordinary citizens to indulge ablutionary pleasures previously reserved for the wealthy. At the contests, violence sometimes spilled out of the arena.
Vindex was defeated in battle by troops loyal to Nero, yet Galba started gaining more military support. Abandoned by the people and declared an enemy of the state by the senate, Nero tried to flee Rome and eventually committed suicide. However, Nero was still given an expensive funeral and for a long time people decorated his tomb with flowers, some even believing he was still alive.
Nero was a young ruler trying to negotiate his position within a relatively new and unstable political system, one where monarchical the emperor and republican the senate elements sat side by side. While the emperor surpassed all in terms of power and authority, the outward appearance of monarchy had to be avoided.
Emperors therefore needed to recognise, at least formally, the role of the senate. This traditional council, to which belonged only the members of the aristocracy, had long played an important role in the government of Rome. With the Civil War and the end of the Republic, however, senatorial power was severely weakened. Nero, like other emperors before and after him, often clashed with the senate, his superior authority at odds with the views of this traditional aristocratic assembly that was slowly but irrefutably losing power.
Nero was depicted as a mad tyrant by ancient historians belonging to the senatorial elite, but we should keep in mind that they were far from impartial. It is not surprising that members of this group, when writing about Nero, were keen on representing him in the worst possible light.
However, when we consider the lower classes, quite a different picture emerges. A number of graffiti found in Rome hail Nero and his name is the most commonly found on the walls of the city, more than any other Julio-Claudian emperor or of the Flavians that came after him.
If we turn to Rome, we see how his actions benefited the people of the capital. Nero built magnificent public baths and, through the construction of a grand covered market and the improvement of the connections between Rome and its harbour, he made sure that his people would have had access to food. The new building regulations he introduced after the Great Fire also drastically improved the living conditions of the people of Rome. You can read more about Rome in the first century AD in our historical city travel guide blog.
It is difficult to fully appreciate what common people thought of Nero, as they left very few traces. The partisan views of the Roman elite ended up shaping our understanding of the past. Was it Caligula, who allegedly wanted to make his horse a consul and thought of himself as a god? Or the autocratic Domitian, who feared conspiracies against him and executed or exiled many leading citizens of the time?
Maybe the cruel Commodus, who fancied himself a new Hercules and fought as a gladiator in the arena? Caracalla is also a good candidate: he had his own brother murdered so he could rule alone and he wiped out all of his opponents. The similarity of these allegations should not come as a surprise, considering they were all made by dissatisfied senators to slander their political enemies. Even Augustus, epitome of the good emperor as he might be, did not have a spotless reputation.
His rise to power was a bloody one, as testified by the proscription list he signed with Mark Antony and Lepidus, with whom he governed Rome at the time.
How do we judge then? Is senseless cruelty worse than calculated ruthlessness? And how can we tell fact from fiction, since what we know of these emperors comes from sources that are anything but impartial? Decide for yourself whether Nero was a tyrant or the victim of vicious propaganda in Nero: the man behind the myth 27 May—24 October Buy the beautifully illustrated exhibition book from our online shop.
Become a Member and enjoy access to all our exhibitions over the 12 months. Map Data. Terms of Use. Report a map error. Exhibitions and events Who was Nero? But was he really the tyrant that history has painted him to be? Nero exhibition curator Francesca Bologna goes in search of the real Nero. Yet, despite the numerous charges that have been levelled by ancient writers, there is evidence that Nero enjoyed some level of popular support.
He had a passion for music and the arts, an interest that culminated in a public performance he gave in Rome in A. Also, while he was blamed for starting the fire, he took it upon himself to organize relief efforts, and ancient writers make other allusions to acts of charity that he performed.
Recently, a newly translated poem has been published, and it depicts Nero in a positive light. It tells of the deification of his dead wife Poppaea Sabina, concluding with her watching over Nero from the heavens. Nero was born in Antium, in Italy, on Dec. His father, a former Roman consul, died when he was about 3 years old, and his mother was banished by the Emperor Caligula, leaving him in the care of an aunt.
His name at birth was Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus. After the murder of Caligula in January A. His ambitious mother would go on to marry Claudius who was also her uncle in A. After the death of Claudius in A. Nero and his mother appear to have had a falling out within about two years of his becoming emperor.
Her face stopped appearing on Roman coins after A. Whatever the reasons, Nero knew that he was making a decision that could come back to haunt him. Nero, not trusting his Praetorian Guard to carry out the killing, ordered naval troops to sink a boat that she would be sailing on.
This first attempt failed, with his mother swimming to shore. Nero then ordered the troops to do the job directly. Tacitus A. Nero, much to his relief, found his actions applauded.
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