Nero Takes Own Life: Dynasty Ends, Chaos Reigns

Nero drove a dagger into his own throat on June 9, 68 AD, with the help of his secretary Epaphroditus, while a cavalry detachment sent to arrest him pounded on the door of a freedman’s villa outside Rome. His final words, according to the historian Suetonius, were "Qualis artifex pereo" — "What an artist dies in me." Even in death, the last emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty could not resist the performance. Nero’s reign had begun promisingly in 54 AD when he took the throne at sixteen under the guidance of the philosopher Seneca and the Praetorian prefect Burrus. The first five years, the quinquennium Neronis, were remembered as a period of competent governance. Tax reform, judicial improvements, and a relatively restrained foreign policy marked the early reign. The descent began after Burrus died and Seneca retired around 62 AD. Nero murdered his mother Agrippina, executed his first wife Octavia, and kicked his pregnant second wife Poppaea to death, acts that alienated the senatorial class and eroded the loyalty of his generals. The Great Fire of Rome in July 64 AD destroyed ten of the city’s fourteen districts and gave rise to the persistent rumor that Nero had ordered the blaze to clear land for his vast Domus Aurea palace complex. Whether or not Nero started the fire, he exploited the catastrophe, and his scapegoating of Christians as arsonists produced the first organized Roman persecution of the new religion. The subsequent revolt of Gaius Julius Vindex in Gaul in March 68 was poorly organized and quickly suppressed, but it exposed the fragility of Nero’s support. When Servius Sulpicius Galba, the governor of Hispania, declared himself emperor, the Praetorian Guard switched allegiance. The Senate declared Nero a public enemy, and the 30-year-old emperor fled Rome disguised in rags. His death triggered the Year of the Four Emperors, a civil war in which Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian successively seized power. Vespasian prevailed and founded the Flavian dynasty, but the chaos of 69 AD demonstrated how thoroughly Nero had damaged the structures of Roman governance.