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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;IdesOfMarch01, post: 2845836, member: 39084&quot;]<b>Nero</b></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]674392[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus in 37 AD) was Claudius’ great-nephew and Agrippina Jr.’s son.&nbsp; Nero became emperor in 54 AD at the age of 16, when Claudius died (probably by poisoning) and Nero would be the last of the Julio-Claudians to rule Rome.</p><p><br /></p><p>Agrippina had survived banishment by her brother Caligula in 39 AD, supposedly for plotting to assassinate him, and her son Nero had his inheritance taken from him and was sent to live with his paternal aunt.&nbsp; Caligula’s assassination by the Praetorian Guard in 41 AD cleared the way for Nero’s eventual return, as a potential successor to Claudius alongside Claudius’ own son Britannicus.&nbsp; Agrippina Jr. cemented this arrangement by marrying her uncle Claudius in 49 AD and persuading Claudius to formally adopt Nero as his son.</p><p><br /></p><p>Upon Claudius’ death, Nero was hailed as the new emperor by the Praetorian Guard.&nbsp; Nero (or possibly his mother), worried that Claudius’ biological son Britannicus (whose mother was the disgraced Messalina) might eventually become emperor, arranged to have him poisoned less than a year after being hailed emperor.</p><p><br /></p><p>Agrippina apparently meant to rule through her son, much like Livia had through her son Tiberius, but evidently Nero tired of this quickly, banishing her from Rome shortly after he poisoned Britannicus in 55 AD.&nbsp; In 59 AD, Nero killed his mother for reasons that ancient historians are unable to completely agree upon.&nbsp; Tacitus believes that Nero’s disagreement with his mother over Nero’s affair with Poppaea (both Nero and Poppaea were married to others at the time) was a key factor, but this theory isn’t universally shared.&nbsp; The actual murder was supposed to take place during a shipwreck arranged by Nero, but Agrippina survived the shipwreck, swam to shore, and was promptly killed by one of Nero’s henchmen, who then reported the death as a suicide.</p><p><br /></p><p>Most historians believe that Nero’s reign had been going well before Agrippina’s death.&nbsp; Nero left the management of the Empire to his advisors Seneca and Burrus, under whose stewardship the Empire continued to prosper.&nbsp; But shortly after Nero had his mother murdered, he began engaging in his passion for drinking, singing, acting, music, and sexual depravities of all types.&nbsp; Suetonius describes numerous lurid acts of debauchery and cruelty by Nero, not suitable for general audiences…</p><p><br /></p><p>In 62 AD, his advisor Burrus died, his other advisor Seneca was encouraged to retire, and he divorced his first wife Claudia Octavia and had her executed.&nbsp; He then married his lover Poppaea, formerly the wife of Otho (whom Nero had conveniently assigned to be governor of Lusitania, removing Otho from the immediate vicinity). </p><p><br /></p><p>Unfortunately, Seneca’s and Burrus’ successors were not quite as able in managing the Empire, a task for which Nero himself had little interest or aptitude.&nbsp; He indulged his passions in frequent stage performances as an actor, poet, singer and musician, which the Roman found extremely undignified and not befitting an emperor.&nbsp; At least he didn’t have Twitter at his disposal…</p><p><br /></p><p>In 64 AD, while Nero was at the seaside town of Antium, the great fire of Rome erupted, starting on the slope of the Aventine hill near the Circus Maximus.&nbsp; It burned for over a week, destroying three of Rome’s 14 districts and damaging seven more.&nbsp; Contrary to the myth, Nero probably didn’t fiddle while Rome burned, and in fact did much to help relieve the suffering both during and after the blaze.&nbsp; Nero blamed the fire on the small Christian community in Rome, but many citizens believed Nero purposely had the fire started to clear the land necessary to build his “Golden House” that he had begun to construct a few years previously.</p><p><br /></p><p>Following the fire, Nero’s construction of his new palace prevented the original inhabitants of that area from returning to rebuild, and its expense compounded the financial crisis that had started a few years previously due to a couple costly wars in Britain and Armenia.&nbsp; Not surprisingly, this dissatisfaction fomented a plot against the emperor headed by Calpurnius Piso, who wanted to replace Nero as emperor.&nbsp; But the plot was soon discovered and Nero executed all those involved.</p><p><br /></p><p>In 67 AD Nero went on a grand tour of Greece, competing in the Isthmian, Pythian, Olympic and Nemean Games.&nbsp; He “won” a chariot race at the Olympic Games despite falling out of his chariot midway through the race.&nbsp; During one of Nero’s soporific performances, the future emperor Vespasian fell asleep and was summarily dismissed from Nero’s entourage.</p><p><br /></p><p>The incredibly expensive Greek tour was cut short when Nero was convinced to return to Rome in late 67 AD by his ex-slave Helius, whom Nero had left in charge of Rome during his travels.&nbsp; But this was too little, too late, as Vindex led a revolt in Gaul a few months after Nero’s return to Rome.&nbsp; Although Vindex was defeated in May, he had gained the allegiance of Galba, one of Nero’s best generals.&nbsp; The Rhine legions that had defeated Vindex refused to obey further commands by Nero, and in North Africa Clodius Macer led his own revolt against Nero. </p><p><br /></p><p>All of these events conspired to seriously undermine Nero’s support in Rome.&nbsp; He fled to his villa a few miles from Rome, but was betrayed by his freedman and was confronted in his villa by soldiers who attempted to force him to commit suicide.&nbsp; Unable to perform this particular act by himself, Nero died in 68 AD by a combination of his own hand and a soldier’s sword.&nbsp; This would set in motion The Year of Four Emperors.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>About the Coins</b></p><p><br /></p><p>Nero’s apparently artistic temperament is manifested in the close personal attention he paid to his coinage.&nbsp; His highly individual portraiture is a marked departure from that of his predecessors, and he indulged his penchant for music and the arts in general, typified by an Imperial reverse showing Nero as Apollo playing the lyre.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]674393[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>The financial crises he faced forced him to lower the precious metal content in aurei and denarii, the weight of the aureus dropping by about 2% and the weight of the denarius dropping by about 7%.&nbsp; He reintroduces AES coinage, struck at both Rome and Lugdunum, which hadn’t been issued in almost two decades.&nbsp; Provincial tetradrachms in Egypt and Syria were recalled, melted, and replaced with new coins that dropped the silver content from about 23% to 15%.&nbsp; Some historians believe that this latter reduction in silver freed enough of the metal to fund the rebuilding of Rome.</p><p><br /></p><p>My Nero mint set is a fair representation of the artistry of his coins.&nbsp; The sestertius is a Port of Ostia, slightly double-struck on the reverse, with Nero taking credit for the completion of this project started by Claudius.&nbsp; The Roma aureus comes the closest to being FDC; not only is the strike fresh and all the detail sharp, but the devices are fully on the flan.&nbsp; It doesn’t quite have the mint luster of the Claudius aureus shown previously, but it has no apparent circulation wear.</p><p><br /></p><p>Let&#039;s see everyone&#039;s Neros!</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Next: Galba</b>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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