Nero is one of the more recognizable names among Roman emperors. Due to the efforts of a wealthy senatorial class that hated him for his populist measures, that recognition is almost invariably negative. Nero is remembered as the emperor who “fiddled while Rome burned” and the man who led the first great persecution of the Christians, which claimed, among thousands of other victims, the first Pope, St. Paul.

But the truth is probably more complicated. Nero was a populist, and therefore was quite popular with the commoners of Rome! He put on splendid games and was incredibly generous with distributions to the poor. The people generally appreciated his unorthodox behavior and exciting personality. He was certainly a far cry from earlier emperors of his dynasty in terms of excitement. Augustus, his great-grandfather, was revered and admired, but was a rather serious man with a strong sense of duty and pious moral code. His successor Tiberius was morose and remote, spending very little time in Rome later in life. The young Caligula did provide some excitement, but the wrong kind in the form of disturbingly erratic behavior, including mass executions and animal cruelty. Claudius was competent but shy and reserved. Nero was an emperor that relished being in the public eye and loved to party, something the capital had not seen in decades.

Above: Denarius of Nero as a young price of 14 years old (51 AD), struck in Lyon, France, under the emperor Claudius (his stepfather). Coins of Nero as Caesar (50-54 AD) usually sell for a sizable premium over his issues as Augustus (54-68)

But the libertine era of hedonism that Nero allowed in Rome took its toll on the emperor himself. When he ascended to the throne in 54, he was widely acclaimed as a handsome prince. As it often does, however, absolute power corrupted him and his appearance. Nero took to heavy drinking, which had an effect on both body and mind. The affable young prince became unpleasant and degenerate as his reign progressed.

Below: Denarius of Nero struck in Rome around the middle of his reign (60-61 AD). While not distastefully unattractive, Nero’s portrait reflects his age compared with the coin above.

In many ways, the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD was the turning point. The fire almost certainly started naturally, but the authorities and particularly Nero’s slow response to the crisis cost the city of Rome dearly. Contemporary Roman aristocrats and later Christian writers were quick to propagate the narrative of Nero fiddling on the roof of his palace while the capital lay in flames, but this is likely propaganda. The aristocracy of the day hated him; first, because he levied high taxes on the rich to fund public games and welfare distributions to those less fortunate, and second, because Nero appeared in the theaters and games as an actor, poet, and musician, which they saw as degrading the position of emperor and the Roman state itself. Old-fashioned nobleman Pliny the Elder later referred to Nero as an “enemy of mankind,” reflecting the typical aristocratic hatred for the unconventional emperor.

But it would be unfair to leave Nero free from criticism. Like other Julio-Claudian emperors before him, he was paranoid about others gaining enough popularity to unseat him. He ordered the execution of his own mother when he falsely believed she was plotting against him, and ordered his greatest general Corbulo to commit suicide after his successful campaign in Armenia. And Nero did in fact initiate a persecution of the Christians, though on a much smaller scale than those of Decius or Diocletian in the third century. There are just arguments for and against Nero, but one thing seems to be clear: everyone has an opinion, and thus a bias. The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus put it well: “for there have been a great many who have composed the history of Nero; some of which have departed from the truth of facts out of favor, as having received benefits from him; while others, out of hatred to him, and the great ill-will which they bore him, have so impudently raved against him with their lies, that they justly deserve to be condemned.” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XX.8.3)

Above: Denarius from the very end of Nero’s reign, struck 66-67 AD. The engravers opted for full realism in their depiction of the emperor; his unseemly nose and neck beard are prominent. Sold by Leu Numismatik for $500 in December 2023.

By the end of his reign, most people had tired of the increasingly erratic Nero’s antics. He committed suicide at the age of 31 in 68 AD, setting off one of the most chaotic periods in Roman history. 69 AD would come to be known as the “Year of the Four Emperors,” from which a stable Flavian dynasty would emerge. Vespasian, a successful, traditional commander and the first of the Flavians, sought to restore stability and normalcy to the Roman state after fourteen years of unpredictability under Nero followed by a year of civil war. In this endeavor, he was successful.