First published 2023
Anthony Everitt challenges the traditional portrait of Nero as history's ultimate tyrant. Working with investigative journalist Roddy Ashworth, Everitt argues that contemporary historians who despised Nero distorted his legacy. The authors present evidence that Nero never burned Rome, that his administration ran the empire effectively, and that his forces successfully defeated major threats like Boudica's British revolt. They show how Nero championed arts and culture while winning support from common citizens through public spectacles. Yet Everitt does not whitewash the emperor's crimes. Nero did murder rivals and family members, driven by paranoia about nobles and relatives plotting against him. The biography reveals a ruler caught between grand ambitions for Rome and fatal insecurities about his position. Everitt places Nero within the violent political world of imperial Rome, where architectural projects competed with deadly court intrigue. This reassessment offers readers a complex view of power, showing how insecurity can undermine even capable leadership.
Genres: biography, history, historical-fiction, ancient-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Setting: Rome
Period: 1st-century
448 pages · Paperback · Random House Trade Paperbacks
Content warnings: murder