When Nero became Roman emperor in AD 54, two months shy of his 17th birthday, he inherited an empire rife with difficulties. The imperial project itself was only 85 years old, and the seismic social and political changes that it heralded had given rise to simmering tensions at home, as the established aristocracy jealously guarded their status, newly rich freedmen chafed against the restrictions that barred them from political life, and ambitious generals jostled for position. Abroad, Nero faced long-running conflicts with neighbouring powers, particularly the Parthians in what today is Armenia, as well as unrest in newly conquered territories – not least in Britain, where discontent erupted into outright insurrection during his reign.
While Nero’s rule was undoubtedly eventful, it was relatively brief, ending in bloodshed after just 13.5 years. The disgraced emperor’s memory was posthumously condemned (a process called damnatio memoriae), and much of our knowledge of his reign comes from a series of unashamedly partisan and strikingly hostile chronicles that were written after his death. From these lurid accounts, a monstrous figure rises, dripping with salacious tales of incest and murder, of persecuted Christians and fiddling while Rome burned. This infamous image has shaped perceptions of Nero for almost 2,000 years. Now, though, the British Museum has set out to present a more nuanced picture of the notorious emperor, drawing together over 200 1st-century objects, some of which have never been displayed in the UK before, in a new exhibition that gives a more objective view of Nero’s life and times.
Among the themes explored in Nero: the man behind the myth (see ‘Further information’ box on p.55) is the impact of his reign on Britain. Nero came to power just 11 years after Claudius’ invasion of AD 43, and the conquest was far from complete. Although southern lands centred on Camulodunum (Colchester) had been recently turned over to civilian administration, large tribal territories remained unsubdued (and would remain so for years after Nero’s death), particularly to the north and west. First-century Britannia was frontier territory, a resource-rich land that offered tempting opportunities to glory-hungry commanders. As exhibition curator Thorsten Opper said: ‘There weren’t many places in the empire where you could still make old-fashioned conquests for booty – Britain provided that kind of opportunity, and many officials seem to have been there purely for profit. It was very unregulated.’
Against the flow