Latest / Nero: Mad Tyrant or Misunderstood Emperor? — Fexingo History / Nero's Greek Tour: The Emperor as Artist
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've covered Nero's building projects, his coinage, his conspiracies — but there's one chapter that really shows how he saw himself, and it's the one where he actually left Rome. In 66 AD, Nero did something no emperor had done before: he went on a tour of Greece, and he didn't go as a conqueror or a diplomat. He went as a competitor. Luna: Wait, the emperor of Rome competed in the games? Like, in person? Lucas: Exactly. And not just as a spectator. He entered the Olympic Games, the Pythian Games, the Isthmian Games, all the big ones. He raced chariots, he sang, he played the cithara, he gave theatrical performances. And he won every single event he entered. Every one. The judges were basically terrified of him. Luna: That must have been a spectacle. But also, wasn't it a huge deal for an emperor to leave Rome for a whole year? Lucas: It was. And before we get into the chaos of the games themselves, I want to say something about how we keep this show going. If today's episode gives you something useful, something you can tell a friend tomorrow, the reason we can keep doing this without ads is that listeners who find value in it chip in. It's buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: Yeah, it's the little things that keep the history alive for all of us. Lucas: So back to the tour. Nero left Rome with a massive entourage, including his new wife, his mother's old enemy Poppaea — wait, she was already dead by then. He had Sporus with him, the boy he had castrated and married. And he was accompanied by a bunch of courtiers and sycophants, but also by some very capable administrators who would keep the empire running while he was away. Luna: Who was holding the fort in Rome? Lucas: He left the freedman Helius in charge, who had essentially dictatorial powers. And Helius was pragmatic — he kept the peace, but he also executed a few people without trial, which later came back to haunt Nero's reputation. But on the ground in Greece, the key figure was the proconsul of Achaea, a man named Acratus, who was utterly devoted to Nero and arranged the logistics of the whole tour. Lucas: The tour was a mix of genuine artistic passion and political calculation. Nero genuinely loved Greek culture — he spoke the language fluently, he admired Athenian drama, he even started shaving his chin in the Greek style. But he also knew that the Greek East was a wealthy and strategically important region, and that by honoring their traditions, he could secure their loyalty. Lucas: The first big event was at Olympia. Nero had the games postponed by two years so they would coincide with his visit — the ancient equivalent of moving the Super Bowl to fit your schedule. He entered a ten-horse chariot race, which was unprecedented; normally they raced four-horse teams. And during the race, he was thrown from his chariot and had to be helped back in, but he still didn't finish. The judges declared him the winner anyway, saying that he would have won if he had completed the course. Luna: That's ridiculous. Did anyone actually believe that? Lucas: Probably not, but the judges knew what was good for them. Suetonius tells us that Nero gave the judges a huge sum of money and Roman citizenship, so they were happy to play along. He also entered the competitions for actors, singers, and cithara players, and he won those too, even though some of them were apparently fixed. There's a story that when he performed at the Pythian Games at Delphi, the audience was so afraid of him that they applauded in a special rhythmic way that was reserved for the emperor. Luna: So he was basically a tyrant with a stage fright. Lucas: More like a tyrant with an ego the size of the Colossus he built. But there was a method to it. By appearing as a competitor in the Greek games, he was aligning himself with the traditional values of the Greek world. He was saying, 'I am not just a Roman emperor; I am one of you, a true Hellene.' And it worked, at least in the short term. The Greeks loved him for it, and he reciprocated by granting freedom to the province of Achaea — meaning he abolished the Roman governor's authority and restored nominal self-rule. Lucas: But this wasn't pure altruism. He also took the opportunity to confiscate the treasures of Greek temples, including some famous statues, to fund his building projects in Rome. So he was both the liberator and the plunderer of Greece in the same visit. Luna: Wait, he freed Greece and also stole from it? That's a mixed message. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the paradox of Nero. He could be genuinely generous — he gave gifts to the Greek cities, he built an aqueduct at Corinth, he funded festivals — but he also had this insatiable appetite for money and praise. Cassius Dio records that he even considered cutting off the isthmus of Corinth with a canal, a project that was only started much later. But he abandoned it, maybe because he realized it was too ambitious, or maybe because he was distracted by the performances. Lucas: The highlight of the tour, at least for Nero himself, was his initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries, the secret religious rites of Demeter and Persephone. That was a huge honor, and it showed his deep interest in Greek spirituality. He also visited the oracle at Delphi and consulted the oracle at Dodona. He was clearly trying to connect with the divine. Luna: Did he get any prophetic warnings about what was coming? Lucas: If he did, he ignored them. The tour was a high point of his reign, but it also sowed the seeds of his downfall. While he was away, resentment was building in Rome. Helius wrote to him several times, urging him to come back, because there were plots and conspiracies. But Nero kept delaying, because he was having the time of his life. He even announced that he would extend his tour to Egypt, but that plan fell through when a comet appeared, and he took it as a bad omen. Luna: A comet? That's never good for an emperor. Lucas: No, it's not. So he finally returned to Rome in 68 AD, just in time for the revolt of Vindex in Gaul. But the Greek tour itself was a masterclass in imperial self-fashioning. He didn't just want to be seen as a ruler; he wanted to be seen as an artist, and he used the power of the throne to make that happen. Lucas: One of the more bizarre episodes was his performance at Corinth, where he sang and played the cithara in a theater that had been specially built for him. The theater was so crowded that some spectators were crushed in the rush to get in, which Nero apparently found amusing. And he was so moved by his own performance that he said he was the only one who truly understood the music. It's hard to know if he was genuinely delusional or if he was just playing a role. Luna: Was there any real artistic merit to his performances? I mean, he must have had some talent, right? Lucas: That's a good question. He had been trained by the best musicians in Rome, and he certainly had a trained voice. Suetonius says he was a competent cithara player, though not a great one. But the problem was that he was the emperor. No one could criticize him, and the applause was always orchestrated. So he never got honest feedback, and he probably believed his own hype. Lucas: And then there was the matter of his 'artistic' temperament. At Olympia, when he was announced as the winner of the singing competition, he was so overjoyed that he kissed the herald on the mouth. That's the kind of detail that makes you wonder if he was just a huge child in a toga. Luna: He kissed the herald? That's hilarious. Lucas: It's one of those moments that humanizes him, but also makes him seem completely unhinged. And there's also the story of Vatinius, a former shoemaker who became one of Nero's favorites. He was a notorious sycophant, and he reportedly used to tell Nero that he was the greatest singer since Apollo. That's the kind of court he surrounded himself with. Lucas: The tour also had a darker side. When Nero was in Greece, he ordered the execution of a Roman senator who had been exiled there, and he also had a potential rival, the future emperor Galba, sent to Spain, which was a slight but also a way to keep him out of the way. So even while he was playing at being a Greek, he was still running the empire with an iron fist. Luna: So would you say the tour was a net positive or negative for his legacy? Lucas: In the short term, it was a triumph. He returned to Rome in triumph, with crowns from the games, and he was hailed as a new Apollo. He even held a special festival in Rome to celebrate his victories. But in the long term, it cemented his reputation as a narcissistic buffoon who cared more about applause than governance. The Roman elite, especially the senators, were disgusted by his behavior, and that contributed to the coup that ended his reign. Lucas: And yet, there's something almost admirable about his audacity. He was an emperor who could have done anything, and he chose to spend a year doing what he loved, even if it was an embarrassment. That's a very human choice, even if it was a terrible political one. Luna: I guess even emperors need a vacation. But his vacation changed the course of history. Lucas: It did. Because when he finally came back, he had to face the consequences. The revolt in Gaul was the beginning of the end, and within a year he was dead. So the Greek tour was the last great moment of his life, a bright spot before the fall.