It's the ancients on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes your host. And in today's podcast

well early June is always an interesting time for deaths in ancient Mediterranean history.

For instance on the 8th of June is the traditional date for the death of the Roman Emperor

McCryness in the early 3rd century AD. Now the 10th or more likely the 11th of June is

the traditional date for the death of Alexander the Great. But on the 9th of June this is

the day when apparently you had the death of the Emperor Nero's first wife Octavia and

also the suicide of the Emperor Nero himself in 68 AD. And Nero he's a quite a popular

figure at the moment shall we say with the opening of the new exhibition at the British

Museum. And so in today's podcast we're going to be focusing in on a particular infamous

or famous aspect of Nero and that is Nero as a performer. Nero taking to the stage Nero

as an artist Nero's theatricality. Now join me to talk through this topic I was delighted

to get back on the show Dr. Shushma Malik. Shushma has been on the podcast once before to

talk about the links between Nero and the figure of the Antichrist how this link was established

by early Christian writers. She is a Nero expert. So that further ado here is Shushma.

Shushma it's wonderful to have you back on the podcast. It's great to be here thank you

for having me. No problem at all Nero the artist Nero's theatricality. I mean Shushma this

is one of the most common aspects tropes that we associate with Nero has been passed down

through generations of Nero being this theatrical this artistic figure. Yeah it's a really

interesting part of his biography I think because there's a lot that we know about Nero

that is very shocking though accusations of murder the persecution all of these things that come

through our sources are there and we still you know bulk those ideas the idea of particularly

murdering members of his family but another big criticism of him of course by the same people

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