A ROMAN IRON AGE EMPEROR ON THE GREEK BRONZE AGE STAGE. 5/8: Nero: Matricide, Music, and Murder in Imperial Rome by Anthony Everitt (Author), Roddy Ashworth (Author)
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 13 May 2024
⏱️ 14 minutes
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Summary
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There are many infamous stories about the Roman emperor Nero: He set fire to Rome and thrummed his lyre as it burned. Cruel, vain, and incompetent, he then cleared the charred ruins and built a vast palace. He committed incest with his mother, who had schemed and killed to place him on the throne, and later murdered her. Nero has long been the very image of a bad ruler, a legacy left behind by the historians of his day, who despised him.
But there is a mystery. For a long time after his death, anonymous hands laid flowers on his grave. The monster was loved. In this nuanced biography, Anthony Everitt, the celebrated biographer of classical Greece and Rome, and investigative journalist Roddy Ashworth reveal the contradictions inherent in Nero and offer a reappraisal of his life. Contrary to popular memory, the empire was well managed during his reign. He presided over diplomatic triumphs and Rome’s epic conquest of Britain and British queen Boudica’s doomed revolt against Nero’s legions. He was also a champion of arts and culture who loved music, and he won the loyalty of the lower classes with fantastic spectacles. He did not set fire to Rome.
1718 ROME
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| 0:38.0 | This is CBS Eye on the World. Here's John Bachelor |
| 0:40.0 | Anthony Everett and Roddy Ashworth continuing the story of Nero, |
| 0:45.0 | Matricide, music and murder in Imperial Rome. |
| 0:49.0 | We moved from the stage set of Rome itself across the Roman Empire to Britain, great Britain today, but |
| 0:57.1 | to the Romans this was the far edge of the world, the far edge of the empire, and the capital was Kamaludinum, which modern Colchester, where |
| 1:07.2 | Anthony Everett and Roddy Ashworth speak, these days. 2,000 years ago, however, it was the center of the Roman rule, and the ruler in |
| 1:19.2 | Rome needed money, needed money collected from the barons of the tribes. |
| 1:24.0 | That deal caused upset everywhere across the land, |
| 1:29.0 | especially to the man charged with collecting from the local barons. They changed deals. That's what he did. |
| 1:37.0 | Instead of granting lands, he started taxing the land saying it was just a rental or a lease. |
| 1:43.2 | The British tribes, the Britons, didn't like the deal being changed, didn't want to pay their |
| 1:48.8 | taxes. |
| 1:50.4 | So the Kamaludinum accountant send out some bully boys to collect the taxes. |
| 1:58.8 | They persecuted and then brutalized one particular tribe, the Eichenai. |
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