Nero: Rome’s Antichrist
Imagine, for a moment, that you could travel backwards through time andgive your sixteen year old self the powers of a God.
Imagine placing the lives and fates of millionsinto your trembling teenage hands.
Would the result be a happier world, a utopia? Or would the result be catastrophe for everyoneinvolved, including your younger self? In October, 54 AD, the Roman Empire made thislittle thought experiment a terrifying reality.
They elevated an emotionally unstable 16 yearold boy to the position of emperor.
That boy’s name? Nero.
The last of the Julio-Claudian emperors, Nerotransformed the greatest empire the world had ever seen into a playground for his darkestdesires.
He had his own mother murdered, ordered Christiansburned alive for entertainment, and indulged in perversions so shocking they’d make theMarquis de Sade blush.
Yet he died beloved by Rome’s commoners, and convinced he was the greatest artist who had ever lived.
Join us today as we investigate the life ofthe most infamous Roman of all.
Family TiesIf you were to take a quick glance at the background of Nero, you might assume the emperorhad a childhood of unparalleled luxury.
Born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus on December15, 37 AD, Nero was a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty: AKA the dudes who had been rulingRome for decades.
His mother, Julia Agrippina –commonly knownas Agrippina the Younger – was a direct descendant of the first emperor, Augustus.
His uncle was the current emperor, Caligula.
His great-uncle was Claudius.
But while that might sound like a ticket tolife on Roman easy street, Nero’s mother Agrippina could have told him differently.
The Julio-Claudians enjoyed nothing more thanfratricide.
The rot had started way, way back when Agrippinaherself was just a girl, growing up with her brother Caligula.
As you’ll know if you’ve already watchedour Caligula video, Agrippina’s dad was a popular general who was in line for theimperial throne.
So, naturally, Agrippina’s adopted grandfather, the emperor Tiberius, had him poisoned in 19 AD.
It was just the first in a long line of Julio-Claudianfamily murders.
Jump ahead to 37 AD.
Tiberius is dead and Agrippina’s brotherCaligula inherits the throne.
At first, things were fine.
It was during this period of calm Agrippinagave birth to Nero.
But then Caligula had one of his trademarkcuckoo moments and decided Agrippina was plotting to kill him.
So he took all her property and banished herto a tiny island where she could have no contact with her son.
Dumped with a random aunt, young Nero wasforced to make do with a dancer as a tutor.
If that sounds actually kinda OK, jut knowthat dancers, actors and poets were considered the lowest of the low in Roman society, nobetter than prostitutes.
It seems likely Nero’s aunt felt there wasno point wasting good money on a boy who might not live long anyway.
Knowing Caligula’s paranoia, it’d be amiracle if Nero reached his fifth birthday.
Thank Jupiter, that miracle happened.
On 24 January, 41 AD, the elite PraetorianGuard assassinated Caligula, stabbing him to death outside the Palatine Games.
They then marched straight to Claudius anddeclared him the new emperor.
There was a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’moment at the start of this video where we mentioned that Claudius was Nero’s greatuncle.
Well, that meant Agrippina was Claudius’sniece.
And, unlike Tiberius or Caligula, EmperorClaudius was all about not killing his relatives.
No sooner had Claudius taken the throne thenhe recalled Agrippina from her exile.
At last reunited with her son Nero, Agrippinaswore she would never again be left at the mercy of her cruel and capricious relatives.
That meant getting her wealth back.
That meant building her own powerbase.
But how was a penniless widow meant to dothat in a patriarchal society like Rome? You leave that to Agrippina.
First, Agrippina pressured her uncle to findher a husband, so Claudius forced a consul to marry her.
Next, Agrippina poisoned that consul and inheritedall his wealth.
Then came 48 AD, and Claudius’s executionof his wife.
Barely was her body cold than Agrippina wasseducing the emperor’s advisor and giving him an excellent plan.
Why didn’t Claudius just marry Agrippina? The proposal was dressed up as a way of unitingthe two Julio-Claudian branches and ending fratricides once and for all.
But really, it was just an excuse for Agrippinato get closer to power while Claudius got to live out his creepy incest fantasies.
On January 1, 49 AD, Agrippina became empress.
One year later, Claudius adopted her son, Nero.
In ten short years, Agrippina had taken herselfand Nero from pariahs to the heart of imperial Rome.
They had money, power.
But never forget that Agrippina was from afamily that prided itself on killing useless members.
And what use did empress Agrippina now havefor her uncle Claudius? Where the Monster was NurturedCome 51 AD, all was not well in Rome’s imperial palace.
That same year, Agrippina had pressured Claudiusinto naming Nero his co-heir, alongside the emperor’s natural son Britannicus.
With Nero suddenly in line for half the throne, Claudius’s advisors were taking a closer look at him.
They didn’t like what they saw.
By now a teenager, Nero was a sulky, spoiledbrat who would rather spend his time learning to play the lyre than learning how to rule.
Worse still, the boy was developing a cruelstreak.
One by one, people started to wonder if theymight not have another Caligula on their hands.
Yet they were powerless to stop Agrippinabuilding her son’s powerbase.
In 53 AD, Agrippina forced Nero into marriagewith Claudia Octavia, a daughter of Claudius.
When we say “forced”, we really mean it.
Claudia Octavia was being perused by anothersuitor at the time.
Agrippina wrecked that courtship and drovethe suitor to suicide.
Yet even this marriage of convenience wasn’tenough to convince Agrippina that she was safe, that another Caligula wouldn’t comealong and drive her into poverty again.
The only way to do that would be to make herselfanswerable to no-one.
On 13 October, 54 AD, Emperor Claudius suddenlydied.
Ancient sources speculate that Agrippina bribedthe emperor’s taster and slipped him poisoned mushrooms.
Whether that’s true or not, the resultswere the same.
Control of the empire went to Claudius’sheirs: Nero and Britannicus.
Or rather, it should have.
At the moment Claudius died, only Nero wasold enough to be considered an adult.
Britannicus was still a child, legally incapableof ruling.
So when Agrippina presented Nero alone tothe Praetorian Guard and asked them to salute their new emperor, there was nothing Britannicuscould do.
Aged only 16, Nero was elevated to sole rulerof the world’s most powerful empire.
Let’s take a second to imagine how Agrippinamust have felt that day.
Against all the odds, she’d overcome a childhoodof tragedy and an adulthood of exile to install herself at the heart of Rome.
She’d murdered her second husband.
She’d manipulated and killed an emperor.
And now her son was on the throne.
We hope Agrippina savored that moment.
Really, we do.
Because it wasn’t destined to last long.
Just as his mother had started to wonder ifshe really needed Claudius, the new Emperor Nero was starting to wonder if he really neededAgrippina.
Before long, Agrippina found herself beingslowly pushed out the corridors of power.
Determined to fight, the wily murderess triedto ally herself with Britannicus, only for Nero to have his stepbrother poisoned.
Not long after, Agrippina was moved out thepalace to a little villa on the outskirts of Rome.
Even the precious marriage she’d securedfor Nero with Claudia Octavia was destroyed, as Nero took up instead with Poppaea Sabina.
As a last ditch effort, Agrippina made overturesto Nero’s cousin, suggesting they could depose the teenage emperor together.
But Agrippina’s luck had already run out.
In early 59 AD, Nero had Agrippina board aboat that was designed to sink and drown her.
When she managed to survive the grueling swimto shore, her son simply ordered her stabbed to death.
It’s said that as she realized what wasabout to happen, Agrippina pointed at her womb and screamed “Stab me there, wherethe monster had been nurtured!” Julia Agrippina died on March 23, 59 AD.
After the news leaked out, Nero half-assedlytried to tell everyone it had been a suicide.
But no-one in Rome was under any illusions.
The young emperor had broken the greatesttaboo, killing his own mother.
Claudius’s advisors had been wrong.
Nero wasn’t the next Caligula.
He was something much, much worse.
The Artistic EmperorYou probably have a mental checklist prepared for the rest of this video.
Fiddling as Rome burns: check.
Persecuting the Christians: check.
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