A path to power built by his mother
Nero was born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus in 37 CE, the son of Agrippina the Younger — herself a granddaughter of Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder — and Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus. His own father died when he was a child, and his prospects looked poor until his mother, after outliving Caligula’s purges and her own exile, married her uncle the emperor Claudius in 49 CE. She persuaded Claudius to adopt her son the following year, so that the boy took precedence over Claudius’s own son Britannicus, who was three years younger.
An adopted heir comes of age
Nero married Claudius’s daughter Claudia Octavia and was presented publicly ahead of Britannicus in the years before Claudius’s death in 54 CE, probably by poisoning, which put the seventeen-year-old Nero on the throne with his mother’s faction firmly in control. Advisers including the philosopher Seneca and the praetorian prefect Burrus guided the early years of a reign that began, by ancient report, with real promise.
Fire, spectacle, and the end of the line
Nero’s relationship with his mother deteriorated as he asserted independence, and he had her killed in 59 CE. After the Great Fire of Rome in 64 CE, he rebuilt lavishly, including his enormous palace the Domus Aurea, while rumour blamed him for the disaster; his public performances as a singer and actor scandalised the traditional elite. When the provincial revolts of Vindex and Galba exposed his weakening authority, the praetorians abandoned him and the Senate declared him a public enemy. He took his own life in June 68 CE, ending the Julio-Claudian dynasty and opening a year of civil war.
Historical sources
Tacitus, Annals 12–16
Nero’s adoption, accession, the death of Agrippina, and the fire.
Suetonius, Nero 6–9; 40–49
His birth and adoption, and the rebellion, abandonment, and final days.
Portrait: Bibi Saint-Pol / Wikimedia Commons. Public domain. Resized for display.