TWO THOUSAND YEARS OF ACTORS AND EMPIRES: 4/8:: 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
🗓️ 23 June 2024
⏱️ 8 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.
1656 ROME
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is |
| 0:03.0 | this is CBSi in the world. I'm John Bachelor with the authors Anthony Everett and Roddy Ashworth. |
| 0:09.0 | This is Nero Matricide, music and murder in Imperial Rome. |
| 0:15.0 | If it appears that the bodies are falling quickly, |
| 0:18.0 | you're correct. |
| 0:19.6 | But the major threat is to anyone close to the family that rules Rome and also people who are |
| 0:26.6 | hangers-on to that families. The succession drama is always the threat. We've seen that with Tiberius who's suffocated by |
| 0:36.1 | Kaleguilla, by Kaleguilla, who's murdered by the guards and perhaps as a plot of his uncle, Claudius, and then Claudius himself |
| 0:49.0 | is poisoned by Agrippina. We now come to the first five years of Nero as a teenager as Emperor of Rome. |
| 0:57.0 | Anthony I get the impression that his escapades at night with his gang, very immature and not especially damaging to the empire. |
| 1:07.0 | At this point, Seneca, Burros, and one other, freedmen, are ruling the empire. And are things going well Anthony? Yes things |
| 1:16.4 | are proceeding quite smoothly quite substantially as long as some |
| 1:22.0 | nearer just an interest in's too much in the details of government. |
| 1:27.0 | And for the time being, he likes having a good time. |
| 1:31.0 | He's a bit like Boris Johnson Johnson if you know what I mean? |
| 1:34.0 | enjoys frivolity and alcohol and |
| 1:41.0 | and Seneca endorses this, Burris endorses this, they put up with it, they don't endorse it so much as they put up with it, |
| 1:48.0 | it leaves them free to run the empire. |
| 1:50.0 | Yes, and he doesn't run the empire, he runs his own life. Now there's a personality division here that we need to emphasize. It's not been obvious up to this point. Agropina's dead in 59, but between 54 and 59 she's co-ruler of the empire. |
| 2:06.2 | She makes a lot of decisions along with Seneca and Burras. |
| 2:09.6 | Her son, however, when he's not being frivolous, is keen on being a performer and he |
| 2:15.4 | trains on musical instruments he trains his voice he he he studies Greek |
... |
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