Nero

Nero ruled Rome for fourteen years and was the last of the Julio-Claudians. Born in AD 37 as Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, he was the son of Agrippina the Younger, Caligula's sister, who married her uncle Claudius, had him adopted in AD 50 ahead of Claudius's own son, and secured the succession by methods that probably included poisoning her husband. He became emperor at sixteen in AD 54, and for five years the government was run by Seneca and the praetorian prefect Burrus and was well conducted — provincial administration improved, treason trials stopped, and he refused to sign a death warrant, saying he wished he could not write. He then removed the people who constrained him. Britannicus died at dinner in AD 55. Agrippina was murdered in AD 59 after a collapsing boat failed to drown her. Burrus died in AD 62, Seneca withdrew and was ordered to kill himself in AD 65, and his first wife Octavia was executed. Boudica's revolt in Britain and the Armenian settlement both occurred in his reign, the second handled competently by Corbulo, whom he later destroyed. The fire of July AD 64 burned for six days and devastated ten of Rome's fourteen districts. He was at Antium and returned to organise relief; the story that he sang while it burned is in Tacitus as a rumour. He rebuilt with wider streets and building codes, and took a large area for his own Golden House, which caused lasting resentment. He blamed Christians and had them killed publicly. He fled a revolt in AD 68 and killed himself, saying what an artist dies in him.

• Lived: 37 CE – 68 CE
• Nationality: Roman
• Roles: ruler