Description Roman Empire. Twelve Caesars. Provincial series. Nero (r. 54-68 AD) AR (Silver) hemidrachm. Mint of Caesarea, Cappadocia. VF; a fine portrait. Lightly toned. Design: Laureate head of Nero right / Victory seated right on globe, holding wreath with both hands Reference: RPC I 3645. BMC 409. Dimensions: 16 mm / 1.62 gm Condition: VF; minor marks. Nero One of the more famous names from Roman history, Nero was controversial in his own time and remains so. If anything, he has enjoyed something of a renaissance among modern scholars, who have illuminated the obvious biases of many of the negative accounts against him. He was the last emperor of the family of Augustus (his great-great-grandfather) and the son of Agrippina the Younger, an astute political maneuverer who managed to ensure Nero’s succession over her husband Claudius’ blood son, Britannicus. Nero’s reign saw the flourishing of the Silver Age of Latin literature – the Stoic philosopher Seneca was Nero’s personal tutor and later a key advisor. During his reign, Nero fought two major wars at opposite ends of Roman territory. One was a five-year stalemate with Parthia over the Armenian borderlands; the other was the revolt of the British queen Boudicca in 61 AD, which was quelled with great difficulty. But Nero himself did not participate in either of these wars, delegating them to his generals Corbulo and Suetonius (unrelated to the later author). He preferred to live a comfortable life in Rome, spending much time putting on games for the people, as well as personally appearing in the contests as a charioteer. He also loved the arts, patronizing them extensively as well as frequently performing as an actor, poet, and musician. For all these passions, the aristocratic Roman Senate loathed him, seeing him as weak and effeminate. However, though our sources for their voices are limited, it seems that the people of Rome loved him. He levied higher taxes on the rich to help fund his generous games and handouts to the common people in Rome, which by now was home to a million people. Once again, this earned him the hatred of the aristocrats who wrote all the histories of his reign. Nero is criticized above all for his conduct surrounding the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD, which burned for six days in July and destroyed 70% of the city’s dwellings. The legend that Nero “fiddled while Rome burned,” comes from Cassius Dio, and Dio is joined by Suetonius and Tacitus in the claim that Nero deliberately started the fires to clear an area for a new palace, the Domus Aurea (Golden House). That may be true, but we must remember that all three of these authors were the same aristocrats that Nero taxed highly to fund public games and social welfare programs and who were offended by Nero’s fondness for the arts. What is certain is that Nero blamed the fire on a new religious sect, the Christians, whom he began to persecute. Among the early Christian martyrs killed in Nero’s persecutions were St. Peter and St. Paul. This has understandably earned Nero a bad reputation among Christian historians, which compounded his already sour press from the Roman aristocrats of his time. The true Nero may be difficult for us to understand today, but it is worth spending time to discern the character of the last of the Julio-Claudians.
