Nero AD 54-68 Brass Dupondius Rome

Nero AD 54-68 Brass Dupondius

Radiate head of Nero right/Temple of Janus showing closed double doors and one side wall

The Twelve Caesars

Rome

RCV1965, 27mm, 15.60g

Nero AD 54-68

The last of the Julio Claudian  emperors Nero was born in AD 37 to Gnaeus Ahenobarbus and Agrippina the Younger. Agrippina later married Claudius and having done so campaigned for her son Nero to be recognised as successor to Claudius instead on Britannicus who was his natural son.. When Claudius is alleged to have been poisoned by Agrippina in AD 54 Britannicus was murdered and Nero was declared emperor.

Initially ruling with the help of his mother Agrippina and his tutor Seneca the Younger Nero promised to eliminate the ills of the previous regime and follow the Augustan principles. This made him initially popular as did his wish to abolish taxation by AD 58. However his cultural interests and increasingly bizarre  behaviour alienated the aristocracy as did his prolificacy on building works which included the construction of a massive new palace for himself. Alienated from his mother on account of his affair with Poppaea, who at that time was married to Otho, he arranged to have Agrippina killed.  In AD 62 his adviser Burrus died whilst his tutor Seneca also resigned. Nero further alienated Roman society by arranging a number of treason trials of those who had met with his disapproval. Abandoning all restraint Nero divorced and executed his first wife Octavia before kicking his second wife Poppaea to death whilst she was pregnant.

In AD 64 the Great Fire of Rome decimated much of the city. Nero was held to blame by much of the population and is claimed to have fiddled while Rome burned. In fact he organised various relief efforts and even arranged for the homeless to be accommodated in his various palaces. In AD 68 one of the governors, Vindex rebelled. Although Vindex was soon defeated Nero fled Rome although he later returned. Finding one night that his guard had disappeared he called for a gladiator to kill him. Whilst contemplating suicide Nero is alleged to of called out What an artist the world is losing before killing himself.