Story of the famous Nero

Who was Nero, one of the most famous Roman emperors?

You and I have already heard about Nero without knowing who he was and what he did exactly.

There were many ways to become a Roman emperor. It is not necessary to be the son of the previous emperor. Indeed, Romans made adoption very easy and many times the motives were political.

Nero was not the son of the emperor Claude but the son of a scandalous family: the Ahennobarbi. This family was terribly violent and was happy to torture its slaves.

However, Nero's mother was a descendent of the emperor Augusto. Her name was Agrippine. She was very dangerous and manipulative. She persuaded Claude to adopt her son and then she poisoned him when her son turned seventeen.

Although Nero was the new emperor, it was Agrippine who secretly ruled Rome.

On the gold coins, there were both the faces of Nero and Agrippine.

But it was not only Agrippine who influenced her son. The two teachers Sénèque and Burrus tried everything they could to influence the young emperor.

To face these teachers, Agrippine choose a new prey, Britannicus, the blood son of the dead emperor Claude. He was easier to manipulate than her own son. The Agrippine plan was to poison Nero and to place Britannicus in his place. When Britannicus turned fifteen, Agrippine tried to place him as the true heir. Unfortunatly, Nero poisoned Britannicus and expelled his mother. Then as he had no more use of his wife Octavia, he fired (divorced?) her. Their marriage was only political. He decided to divorce Octovia and, to avoid some reprisals, murdered her.

Nero's mother was furious about his divorce so Nero decided to murder his mother too.

Thus when Neon had only four years reign, he had murdered several memebers fo his familly.

Good job! Roman history is crazy