His dream was the 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
🗓️ 17 July 2023
⏱️ 14 minutes
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His dream was the stage: 5/8:: 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.
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| 0:44.4 | This is CBS Eye on the World. Here's John Bachelor. Anthony Everett and Rady Ashworth |
| 0:53.2 | continuing the story of Nearow, matricide music and murder in Imperial Rome. We |
| 0:59.3 | moved from the stage set of Rome itself across the Roman Empire to Britain. Great |
| 1:05.6 | Britain today, but to the Romans this was the far edge of the world, the far edge |
| 1:10.3 | of the empire. And the capital was Cameludinum, which modern Colchester where |
| 1:17.0 | Anthony Everett and Rady Ashworth speak these days. Two thousand years ago |
| 1:22.4 | however it was the center of the Roman rule and the ruler in Rome needed money, |
| 1:30.5 | needed money collected from the barons of the tribes. That deal caused upset |
| 1:36.9 | everywhere across the land, especially to the man was charged with collecting from |
| 1:43.7 | the local barons. They changed deals. That's what he did. Instead of granting |
| 1:48.0 | lands he started taxing the land, saying it was just a rental or a lease. The |
| 1:53.6 | British tribes of Britain's didn't like the deal being changed, didn't want to |
| 1:58.4 | pay their taxes. So the Cameludinum accountant send out some bully boys to |
| 2:07.0 | collect the taxes. They persecuted and then brutalized one particular tribe, the |
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