Latest / Nero: Mad Tyrant or Misunderstood Emperor? — Fexingo History / Nero's Death and the Birth of a Legend
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've spent quite a few episodes on Nero's life — his palaces, his games, his building projects, even his gardening. But there's one moment we haven't really sat with yet: the actual death. And not just the death itself, but what happened after — because Nero's death might be the most debated part of his whole story. Luna: I know he died in 68, but I don't think we've ever dug into the specifics. Lucas: Right. And honestly, if today's episode was worth a coffee to you, we'd be grateful if you considered supporting the show — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. That's the smallest ask we can make, and it keeps these conversations going ad-free. Luna: Yeah, we love making this, and it's nice to know it helps. Lucas: So let's set the scene. By June 68, Nero has been emperor for nearly fourteen years. But the rebellions have finally closed in. Gaius Julius Vindex in Gaul, then Galba in Spain — and when even the Praetorian Guard abandons him, the Senate declares him a public enemy. Nero wakes up in his palace on the Palatine, and there's basically no one left. Lucas: According to Suetonius, he wandered the palace, looking for someone to help him die. No one would. Finally, his secretary Epaphroditus — a freedman — helps him stab himself in the throat. His last words, apparently, were 'Qualis artifex pereo' — 'What an artist dies in me.' Luna: That's such a theatrical exit. But it also feels very Nero. Lucas: Exactly. And that theatricality might be part of why so many people refused to believe he was actually dead. Within months, rumors started circulating that he hadn't died — that he'd escaped to Parthia, or maybe to the east, and would come back with an army. Lucas: This is the Nero Redivivus legend — the idea that Nero would return. It's mentioned by Tacitus, Suetonius, and Cassius Dio, and it's also in the Sibylline Oracles, a collection of prophetic texts that were being written and edited in that same period. Luna: Wait, the Sibylline Oracles were still being written then? I thought those were ancient. Lucas: They were — but they were constantly being updated. The ones we have are a mix of Greek, Jewish, and Christian material, and some sections specifically prophesy Nero's return. One passage says he'll come back as a 'great beast' from the east. So the legend wasn't just a popular rumor — it had a kind of sacred backing. Lucas: And it didn't stay in Rome. The first false Nero appeared in Greece in 69, during the chaos of the Year of the Four Emperors. Another one, named Terentius Maximus, showed up in Parthia around 80 CE. He looked a bit like Nero, he could sing and play the cithara, and he won over a lot of supporters — including, at least for a while, the Parthian king Vologases. Luna: The Parthians backed a fake Nero? That seems like a risky move. Lucas: It was. Vologases was probably using him as a diplomatic tool against Rome. But eventually he handed Terentius Maximus over to the Romans, who executed him. Still, the fact that this happened at all shows how powerful the legend was. Lucas: There's even a later one from around 88, during Domitian's reign — a false Nero who raised an army with the Parthians and only got crushed when the governor of Syria sent troops. So this wasn't a one-off. For decades, people kept expecting Nero to come back. Luna: Why was he so hard to get rid of? I mean, he was widely hated. Lucas: Partly because he was so popular with the lower classes and the eastern provinces. He'd given them grain, games, and tax breaks. And the way he died — alone, abandoned, stabbed in the throat — must have felt anticlimactic for an emperor who'd built a golden palace and sung at the Olympic Games. Lucas: But there's also an apocalyptic angle. For Christians and Jews, Nero was sometimes seen as a kind of antichrist figure. The Sibylline Oracles said he'd return with the Parthians to destroy Rome. So the legend fed into existing anxieties about the empire's end. Luna: So the myth of Nero's return was as much about hope as it was about fear. Lucas: Exactly. For some, he was a hero who'd come back to save them from the chaos after his death. For others, he was a monster who'd come back to finish what he started. Both versions kept him alive. Lucas: Historians debate how much of this was real versus moral panic. Tacitus, writing around 110, treats the rumors with a bit of skepticism, but he still reports them. Cassius Dio, writing a century later, gives us the most detailed account of the false Nero in Parthia. Luna: Do we know what actually happened to Nero's body? Was there a funeral? Lucas: Suetonius says his nurses and the women who'd been his concubines buried him in the family tomb of the Domitii, on the Pincian Hill. There's also a story that his ghost haunted the site — which feels almost too on the nose. Luna: Haunted by Nero's ghost... that's a perfect metaphor for what the empire was dealing with. Lucas: And in a way, the haunting didn't stop. The false Neros were one thing, but the legend also shaped how later emperors were seen. Galba, Otho, and Vitellius all struggled to secure their legitimacy in part because people kept comparing them to the memory of Nero. And when Vespasian finally took power, he had to work hard to distance himself from the Neronian shadow. Lucas: There's a famous bit in Tacitus where he says the secret of empire was out — that emperors could be made outside Rome. That's a direct consequence of Nero's death. The army realized they could make their own emperor. So in a way, Nero's death didn't just end a dynasty — it changed the rules of imperial succession forever. Luna: That's a bigger legacy than I expected. So what do you think — was Nero's death a turning point, or just the end of a bad reign? Lucas: I think it's both. It was definitely the end of the Julio-Claudian line, but it also exposed how fragile the principate had become. The idea that an emperor could be declared a public enemy and killed — and that his death could spawn such wild rumors — says a lot about how unstable the system was. Lucas: The Nero Redivivus legend is really a story about collective memory. Even today, we're still arguing about whether Nero was a monster or a misunderstood artist. That's a testament to his staying power. Luna: I think the ghost story is the best way to end. He literally wouldn't leave. Lucas: And maybe that's the most fitting ending of all — an emperor who loved performance never really left the stage.