Latest / Nero: Mad Tyrant or Misunderstood Emperor? — Fexingo History / Nero's Greek Adventure: The Tour That Shocked Rome
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about Nero in Rome — the fire, the Christians, the conspiracy. But in 66 AD, he did something that no Roman emperor had ever done before: he left Italy and went on a year-long tour of Greece. Luna: Wait — he just left Rome for a whole year? Lucas: He did. And it wasn't a military campaign or a diplomatic mission. He went to compete in the Olympic Games, the Pythian Games, and basically every major Greek festival he could find. This was Nero's Grand Tour, and it tells us a lot about how he saw himself — as an artist, a performer, a philhellene. Lucas: Now, Nero had always been fascinated by Greek culture. He spoke Greek fluently, he surrounded himself with Greek advisors, and he had already introduced Greek-style games in Rome, like the Neronia. But this trip was different. He wasn't just sponsoring the games — he was competing in them. Luna: Did he actually win anything, or was it fixed? Lucas: That's the question. According to Suetonius, Nero entered the chariot race at Olympia — but he was thrown from his chariot and failed to finish. Yet the judges still awarded him the victory. So yeah, it was heavily rigged. But the Greeks went along with it because Nero showered them with gifts and privileges. Lucas: And it wasn't just the Olympics. At the Pythian Games in Delphi, he performed as a lyre player and a singer. Cassius Dio says he even entered a tragedy competition, though he broke the rules by performing with his mask off, so the audience could see his face. Luna: So he wanted to be seen. He wasn't just an emperor playing at being an artist — he wanted the recognition. Lucas: Exactly. And the Greeks gave it to him. They adored him. They set up statues, they established cults — in some cities, Nero was worshipped as a god. And Nero responded by doing something unprecedented: at the Isthmian Games in Corinth, in 67 AD, he declared the province of Achaea — that's mainland Greece — free from Roman taxation and self-governing. Luna: He freed Greece? That's huge. What did the Senate think? Lucas: They were horrified. To the Roman aristocracy, Greece was a conquered province — it was supposed to be ruled, not freed. Nero's decree was seen as a betrayal of Roman tradition. But for the Greeks, it was a golden moment. The historian Pausanias, writing a century later, still remembered Nero's gift with gratitude. Lucas: And Nero didn't stop there. He also started digging the Corinth Canal — a project that had been attempted by Periander and Julius Caesar. He personally broke ground with a golden pickaxe, and he had thousands of Jewish prisoners brought in as labor. But the project was abandoned after his death, and wouldn't be completed until the 1890s. Luna: So he was actually trying to leave a physical monument in Greece, not just a political one. Lucas: Right. He wanted to be remembered as a benefactor of Hellenic civilization. And in many ways, he succeeded. Greek cities minted coins with his image, and he was honored with the title 'the Greatest Emperor, Friend of Greece.' But back in Rome, the elite saw it differently. They saw a emperor who had abandoned his capital, drained the treasury, and debased himself by performing on stage. Lucas: And that's the paradox of Nero's Greek adventure. It was probably the most genuinely happy period of his reign — he was doing what he loved, and the people he cared about appreciated him. But it also accelerated his downfall. While he was in Greece, the conspiracy of Vindex was brewing in Gaul, and the treasury was running dry. Luna: So the tour was both a triumph and a disaster. It showed his best side, but also his worst — at least from the Senate's point of view. Lucas: Exactly. And it's another example of how Nero's personality shaped his reign in ways that traditional Roman historians couldn't accept. He wasn't just a tyrant — he was an artist who wanted to be loved, and he found that love in Greece. Lucas: You know, one of the reasons we keep coming back to Nero is that the sources are so one-sided. Suetonius, Tacitus, Cassius Dio — they all wrote from the senatorial perspective, and they all loathed him. But when you look at the epigraphic evidence from Greece — the inscriptions, the coins — you see a very different picture. Luna: And that's exactly why this show exists. To dig past the propaganda. Lucas: Right. And if you've been following these conversations episode by episode, you know we deliberately don't run ads on Fexingo. We want the content to speak for itself. If you'd like to support that choice, the link is buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It helps us keep digging into these stories. Luna: Yeah, it really does. Every bit helps. Lucas: So back to Greece. After Nero's death, the freedom of Achaea was revoked by Vespasian. But the memory of Nero's generosity lingered. In fact, some Greeks later claimed that Nero had actually returned from the dead, like a messiah, to lead them against Rome. Luna: Wait — there was a Nero redivivus legend? Lucas: There were at least three false Neros who appeared in the eastern provinces in the decades after his death. One of them even got as far as raising an army and attacking a Roman governor. It shows you how powerful his image was in the Greek-speaking world. Lucas: So in a way, Nero's Greek tour was the most successful thing he did — at least in terms of winning popular affection. But it also sealed his fate with the Roman establishment. It's a perfect example of how Nero the man and Nero the emperor were at war with each other. Luna: And that's the question we'll keep asking. Was he a mad tyrant or a misunderstood emperor? Maybe he was both. Lucas: Maybe. And maybe that's what makes him endlessly fascinating.