Agrippina and Messalina: Women Whom Men Desired But Who Loved Power More

In 64AD the city of Rome was set ablaze and the greater part of it burned to the ground. Though Nero probably played no part in this and he did his best to provide relief for the poor and dispossessed he was held to blame. Nero, it was said, had fiddled while Rome had burned. He had to find a scapegoat. He lighted upon the Christians, a recently formed and deeply unpopular religious sect. Deemed the culprits, Nero unleashed an orgy of violence upon them. They were rounded up, tortured, crucified, burned to death, and eaten alive by wild animals in the arena for the entertainment of the masses. Two of his victims were the Apostles Peter and Paul. So cruel were the punishments inflicted on the Christians that it actually elicited sympathy from a populace that had previously held them in deep contempt. When his rebuilding plans for the city revealed that he intended to construct a giant palace to his own glory, the so-called Golden House, his popularity plummeted to rock bottom.

In the summer of 65AD he arrived home late from a night at the theatre. His wife, the vain, arrogant, bisexual Poppaea, whose great beauty was belied by an unpleasantness of character, was less than pleased and let loose a torrent of verbal abuse. In a fit of temper Nero kicked his wife and their as yet unborn child to death

In the same year a vast conspiracy to overthrow and kill Nero was uncovered. At that time Nero was still able to wield enough authority to eliminate this threat. But his support was dissipating with every day that passed. A Praetorian Guard, Subrius Flavius, arrested at the time told him, “I hated you, yet not a soldier was more loyal to you while you deserved to be loved. I began to hate you when you became the murderer of your mother and your wife, a charioteer, an actor, and an incendiary”. It was a warning Nero would have done well to have heeded.

In 66AD the province of Judea exploded into rebellion. It was a serious challenge to Roman rule and could only be crushed by a huge muster of military forces under the command of the then little known future Emperor Vespasian.

Despite these threats to his reign and the Empire, Nero continued to indulge his artistic fantasies. He would pose as the great charioteer even performing in the arena where he would invariably win even when he lost. He would put on theatrical performances with himself as the star turn, and give recitals that went on for so long that women pretended to give birth, and men feigned death, simply to escape them.

Following a series of failed attempts to topple him, in 68AD, Galba, the Governor of Spain, declared himself Emperor and marched on Rome. Nero was in a panic about what to do. With his friends deserting him and believing himself unable to muster sufficient forces for his defence he fled Rome. It was now just a matter of time. He decided, after much procrastination, to commit suicide, but he could not bring himself to do it. Instead a servant ran him through with a sword. His last words were “Qualis artefex pereo ” (What an artist dies in me).