Latest / Nero: Mad Tyrant or Misunderstood Emperor? — Fexingo History / Nero and the Plague of 65 AD: The Epidemic That Shook Rome
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about Nero's fires, his building projects, his family murders. But there's another disaster that hit Rome during his reign, one that's often overlooked — a major plague in 65 AD. Luna: Wait, a plague? I don't remember that from our earlier episodes. Lucas: Exactly — it tends to get buried under the Great Fire and the Pisonian Conspiracy. But Tacitus and Suetonius both mention it, and it was serious. Tacitus says it struck Rome and Italy so hard that entire houses were left empty, and dead bodies piled up in the streets. Lucas: Cassius Dio gives a number — 30,000 deaths in Rome alone during the autumn of 65 AD. That's huge for a city of maybe a million. And we know from other sources — like the medical writer Galen, who was active later — that plague was a recurring threat in Rome, especially in crowded insulae with poor sanitation. Luna: So this was before the Antonine Plague of the 160s? Different outbreak? Lucas: Yes, different. The Antonine Plague was smallpox, probably. This one — we don't know the disease. But it hit right when Nero was already paranoid after the Pisonian Conspiracy. He'd executed Seneca and the poet Lucan, and he was leaning heavily on Tigellinus. The plague just made everything worse. Lucas: Think about the timing. The Great Fire had been in 64 AD. Nero was building his Domus Aurea and blaming Christians. Then in 65, the conspiracy, then the plague. It's a cascade of crises. And the plague disrupted the grain supply, because ships from Alexandria were quarantined or delayed. The annona — the grain dole — was already strained. Luna: So the population was already traumatized by the fire, then they see disease on top of it. That must have felt like the gods had abandoned Rome. Lucas: Exactly. And Nero's response didn't help. Tacitus says he ordered mass burials, but also that he fled to Antium — his birthplace — and left Tigellinus in charge. That looks bad. People want to see their emperor in a crisis. Instead, they see him hiding and building his golden palace. Lucas: There's also a religious angle. The Romans believed that plague was a sign of divine displeasure — a rupture in the pax deorum. So there were expiatory ceremonies, sacrifices, and appeals to Apollo. Nero actually staged some of these, but they felt hollow to many because they saw him as impious. Luna: Right — he'd killed his mother, his wife, and now this. The people must have seen him as cursed. Lucas: Absolutely. And the plague gave his enemies — like the conspirators who survived — another talking point. It's not hard to imagine that the crisis undermined his authority. By 66, when the Jewish revolt broke out, morale in Rome was low. Some historians think the plague contributed to a demographic dip that lasted years. Lucas: We also have archaeological hints. There are mass graves from this period outside the Esquiline gate, and a spike in lead pollution from cremations. And the jurist Gaius wrote about legal problems arising from inheritance disputes when whole families died without heirs. That's a real echo of the plague's social impact. Luna: So it wasn't just a medical event — it changed Roman society. Lucas: Exactly. And it's one more piece of the puzzle for understanding Nero's reign. He wasn't just a mad tyrant; he was an emperor facing one catastrophe after another, and his responses — often selfish or ineffective — made him look worse. Lucas: If today's conversation has been useful to you — and I hope it has — just a quick note: the reason we can spend time on these deep dives without ads is listener support. If you want to help keep it that way, you can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, just if it's worth something to you. Luna: Yeah, it's a small way to keep these conversations going. And we really appreciate those who do. Lucas: So back to the plague — one detail I love: Suetonius mentions that during the epidemic, Nero supposedly said he wished the Roman people had only one neck, so he could strike it all at once. It's probably apocryphal, but it shows how his reputation was shaped. Even if he didn't say it, people believed he could. Luna: That's chilling. But it's also a reminder that history is written by those who survive. Lucas: Exactly. And the plague survivors — those who lived through 65 AD — would have carried that memory into Galba's coup and Nero's suicide. It's a thread that connects the crises. We'll pick up on the aftermath next time, but for now, I think the plague of 65 AD deserves a place in the story.