Nero

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life of Nero (37-68 AD) who became Emperor at the age of 16. At first he was largely praised for his generosity yet became known for his debauched lifestyle, with allegations he started the Fire of Rome, watching the flames as he played the lyre. Christians saw him as their persecutor, an anti-Christ, and the number of the Beast in the Book of Revelation was thought to indicate Nero. He had confidence in his own artistry, took up acting (which then had a very low status) and, as revolts in the empire grew, killed himself after the Senate condemned him to die as a slave, on a cross.

→ Listen on BBC Sounds website

Guests

• Maria Wyke 8 episodes
  Professor of Latin at University College London
• Matthew Nicholls 5 episodes
  Fellow and Senior Tutor at St John's College, University of Oxford
• Shushma Malik 2 episodes
  Lecturer in Classics at the University of Roehampton

Reading list

• The Domus Aurea and the Roman Architectural Revolution
  Larry F. Ball (Cambridge University Press, 2003) Google Books →
• The Emperor Nero: A Guide to the Ancient Sources
  A.A. Barrett, E. Fantham, and J. C. Yardley (Princeton University Press, 2016) Google Books →
• The Cambridge Companion to the Neronian Age
  S. Bartsch, K. Freudenburg, and C. Littlewood (eds.) (Cambridge University Press, 2017)
• A Companion to the Neronian Age
  E. Buckley and M. Dinter (eds.) (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013) Google Books →
• Nero
  E. Champlin (Harvard University Press, 2003) Google Books →
• Nero: Emperor and Court
  J. Drinkwater (Cambridge University Press, 2019) Google Books →
• Reflections of Nero: Culture, History, and Representation
  J. Elsner and J. Masters (eds.) (University of North Carolina Press, 1994) Google Books →
• Nero: The End of a Dynasty
  M. Griffin (Routledge, 1987) Google Books →
• Nero
  Jurgen Malitz (Wiley-Blackwell, 2005) Google Books →
• 69 A.D.: The Year of Four Emperors
  Gwyn Morgan (Oxford University Press, 2007) Google Books →
• Political Dissidence under Nero: The Price of Dissimulation
  V. Rudich (Routledge, 2014) Google Books →
• Dissidence and Literature under Nero: The Prize of Rhetoricization
  V. Rudich (Routledge, 2013) Google Books →
• Religious Dissent in the Roman Empire: Violence in Judaea at the Time of Nero
  V. Rudich (Routledge, 2018) Google Books →
• Nero
  David Shotter (Routledge, 2005) Google Books →
• Nero Caesar Augustus: Emperor of Rome
  David Shotter (Routledge, 2017) Google Books →

Related episodes

• Seneca the Younger
  
  23 Feb, 2017 800 Literature, rhetoric and criticism
• Tiberius
  
  14 Dec, 2023 930 History of the Ancient World
• Tacitus and the Decadence of Rome
  
  10 Jul, 2008 930 History of the Ancient World
• Julian the Apostate
  
  21 Mar, 2024 930 History of the Ancient World
• Agrippina the Younger
  
  31 Mar, 2016 930 History of the Ancient World
• The Augustan Age
  
  11 Jun, 2009 930 History of the Ancient World
• Constantine the Great
  
  5 Oct, 2017 930 History of the Ancient World
• Julius Caesar
  
  2 Oct, 2014 930 History of the Ancient World
• The Sack of Rome 1527
  
  22 Feb, 2024 940 History of Europe
• The Roman Republic
  
  30 Dec, 2004 930 History of the Ancient World

Experimental. For more related episodes, visit the visual explorer.

---

Programme ID: m0004cp7

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0004cp7

Auto-category: 937 (Ancient Rome)

Hello (First sentence from this episode)

Hello. In 54 AD, Nero became the ruler of the Roman Empire, aged 16.