His dream was the stage: 2/8:: 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
🗓️ 17 July 2023
⏱️ 9 minutes
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His dream was the stage: 2/8:: Nero: Matricide, Music, and Murder in Imperial Rome by Anthony Everitt (Author), Roddy Ashworth (Author)
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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.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is CBSI on the World. I'm John Bachelors with Anthony Everett and Rady Ashworth. |
| 0:10.5 | Their new book is Neuro, Maxricide Music and Murder in Imperial Rome. Everything you've |
| 0:15.6 | heard about Neuro needs to be updated because the facts are far more bizarre and unpredictable. |
| 0:22.4 | And a deal of that has to do with his mother, whom he murders when he's 22 years old. |
| 0:28.5 | Let's go back to his breach birth in 37 AD. His father's named Anna Hino Barbus, meaning |
| 0:36.8 | Broadin spirit. Agrippina will explore. Do we need to know anything about his father, |
| 0:41.9 | his father's personality, Anthony? |
| 0:43.9 | The malt really about his father. What we do need to know is about his grandfather, |
| 0:48.3 | Germanicus, who was enormously popular with the population, and in particular with the |
| 0:53.7 | culture. And that is where the protection she liked, that I would be always carried with |
| 1:01.0 | that. There's the prosorians and the soldiers were keen on the family. |
| 1:09.6 | I see. So it was Germanicus, who was the popular figure and that passed Agrippina, his daughter. |
| 1:16.9 | She's born in 15 AD. Neuro is born in 37 AD. It's a breach birth. There's a prophecy. |
| 1:23.6 | Who knows, Anthony? Who knows whether these prophecies were written afterwards before, but |
| 1:28.3 | it's quite convincing. The prophecy is he'll be an emperor and a murderous mother. And his |
| 1:34.4 | mother is said to have responded to the prophet. If he's emperor, I don't care about the rest. |
| 1:39.6 | Well, you will someday, but she's born in 15 AD. Her father, her father's Germanicus, her mother |
| 1:45.8 | is also named Agrippina, but you emphasize that she didn't derive her theory personality |
| 1:52.4 | from her mother. She got her from Libya. What did she get? Oh, Libya was the very wise, |
| 1:59.2 | very astute wife of Augustus, the first emperor. Libya was one of my favorite characters in all |
| 2:09.0 | history. She knew how to get her way, but that's seeming to do so. And for a few years, when |
| 2:17.4 | Agrippina was in her teens, she saved Olivia's house and she sat at Olivia's feet, so to speak. |
... |
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