The Death of Nero
After years of abusing Rome and its citizens, the people finally had
had enough. In 68AD Nero fled to the House of Freedom, four miles from Rome.
When he awoke one day, he heard the Senate's soldiers quoting a verse of
poetry - "Hark! Now strikes upon my ear the trampling of swift couriers"
- and Nero drove a dagger into his own throat because he knew they were
going to kill him anyway. Earlier he had tried to kill himself, but he had
tested the sharpness of the blade and had been too cowardly to kill himself.
Nero was the last Julio-Claudian emperor.
Nero's life was one of great tragedy because he had had the capacity
to do some good things and squandered his life on meaningless things instead.
His major contribution was in the arts. Vanity had led him to seek distinction
as a poet, philosopher, actor, musician, and charioteer, and he achieved
some success in these areas. Weakness of character and bad examples from
his parents prohibited him from achieving truly great things. Those qualities
also enabled him to kill people without reason or conscience. He apparently
did not learn anything from the great philosophers who surrounded him, or
the culture of the time was too deteriorated for any of them to act really
well. Although he did make some contributions to Rome, he remains primarily
known for his debauchery and his willingness to do anything, including murdering
people, to get his own way.