Nero: A Compelling Dive into Ancient Rome's Infamous Emperor

by Stephen Phillips

As can be guessed from the title, this is a book about Nero—or more specifically, it is his biography. He was the fifth Roman emperor and final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. He was adopted by the Roman emperor Claudius at the age of 13 and succeeded him on the throne. Nero was popular with the members of his Praetorian Guard and lower-class commoners in Rome and its provinces, but he was deeply resented by the Roman aristocracy. Most contemporary sources describe him as tyrannical, self-indulgent, and debauched. After being declared a public enemy by the Roman Senate, he committed suicide at age 30.

55 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 7, 2012

Reviews

[David Sarkies · Rating 2 out of 5]

An ordinary play about Emperor Nero
19 November 2009

Basically this is a four act play based on the life of Nero beginning with his ascension to the throne and ending with the great fire of Rome. Nothing truly amazing on the scale of Bernard Shaw, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. However, I must admit that I do prefer Shakespeare's standard of a five act play, and while it ended at the great fire, this is not the whole story of Nero, and a final act could have been added which dealt with the aftermath of the fire and his eventual downfall.

Further, it is difficult to call this play a tragedy. It does not deal with a fatal flaw (and Nero did have fatal flaws) nor does it end badly. It ends with him accepting that the great fire was punishment for his murder of his mother, though there are suggestions that he planned the fire so that he could rebuild Rome. Obviously there is still a lot of scholarly debate as to whether Nero was the cause of the fire or not, but my understanding is that while he did not start the fire, he did not act to stop it, and one of the reasons is that because he wanted to remodel Rome. There is the saying that Nero fiddled while Rome burned, and it may have been more entertaining if he was actually playing a fiddle at the time.

[Anita Hargreaves · Rating 4 out of 5]

Play

Well written play. If you wanted to play this out with friends, great fun. I had a general understanding of the narcissistic Agrippina from reading Robert Graves and found this easy to understand unlike some of Shakespeare plays. The homicidal nut jobs that governed hasn't much changed in todays geographic.

[Jeremy Maddux · Rating 1 out of 5]

So fucking tired of thinking I'm about to read a story only to find out I've purchased or downloaded a short book of poetry or verse or a play, this being a play about Nero, I guess. Couldn't finish it. There aren't enough straight fiction or nonfiction books written about Ancient Rome.

[Gian Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

A four act play based on the life of the (in)famous roman the emperor Nero, that sees his life through the beginning until the event he's arguably more remembered for, the Great Fire of Rome.