Life Of Caesar

In our last episode, we finished on June 9, 68. Nero was 30 years and six months old. He had ruled for 13 years and 8 months. On June 10, 68, while he was still in Spain, The Senate declared the governor of Hispania Tarraconensis, northern Spain, 73 year old Servius Sulpicius Galba, to be the new Emperor. He was the first person from outside of the Julio-Claudian family to assume the throne.

News of Galba’s betrayal makes its way to Nero who is shocked into action. He sends troops to stop Galba - but they switch sides and join the conspiracy. Nero goes into hiding with the intent of running away to Alexandria and Greece, but even that plan is betrayed. Finally, he comes to the end of his story. And so do we! This is our last episode ever.

Nero celebrates two official triumphs. Not for military victories, but for singing. It’s the last straw. A new rebellion is formed, lead by Vindex and Galba.

Nero didn’t visit Athens or Sparta while in Greece because he was scared of religious and political retribution. Besides, he was too busy trying to become the periodonikes, the Grand Slam champion of all of the Games. But things weren’t going well back at Rome, so he is finally convinced to return. He had six months left to live.

The year is 67 CE. Nero is still on his 14 month tour of Greece. He dropped into the Temple of Apollo at Delphi and tickled the Omphalos.

It’s 67 CE. Before he sets out for his World Tour of Greece, Nero first needs to insult the Senate, then he needs to deal with a new conspiracy, this one involving Corbulo. While Greece, he becomes unhappy with Vespasian who apparently doesn’t clap loudly enough at Nero’s performances.

Nero gets, not one, but TWO new wives. One of them is a dude.

Nero’s first attempt at building a single property that covered his estates on the Palatine Hill and the Esquiline Hill was The Domus Transitoria, the House of Passage. It burned down in the Great Fire. He replaced it with the Domus Aurea (Golden House), designed by expert engineers Severus and Celer, and it was so revolutionary that it appears to be the stuff of genius.

Nero built his Domus Aurea between 64-68 and, in doing so, revolutionised Roman architecture. He also built a massive statue of himself, because, hey, why not?

Nero was a lover, not a fighter. Not a great leader of armies. He thought of himself as an artist. He wanted to be on stage, not on horseback. He was very proud that he closed his Janus.

If you want to marry a woman, remember to kill her husband first

The Stoics Thrasea and Soranus go on trial. And we run out of Tacitus.

When you’ve been up to no good, and you get caught out, you have two options. Nero, like Ray, is a Number 2 kind of guy. In this episode, he goes after two significant Stoics, Thrasea Paetus and Barea Soranus, with trumped up charges. And we farewell one of our fans and friends, Victor Santochi. RIP mate.

A family commits suicide together to escape Nero’s prosecution, while others just get stabbed to death. But Tacitus’ explanations for Nero’s behaviour still leave us scratching our heads.

Nero launches a series of attacks that result in the demise of certain members of the Roman elite. But why these particular people? And why now? We tease apart Tacitus to try to work out what’s really going on.