Ran across this announcement while surfing the Internet today: ONE OF THE MOST MISUNDERSTOOD FIGURES IN HISTORY. Who's going to do the book review? TIF?
Hmm. Well I don't know about a Doug-quality book report but I do like Nero and imagine that he wasn't the monster many believe. I've lost track of which contemporary and modern biographies I've read, but the net result was my feeling that he was an artist at heart, perhaps not really good enough to be a professional musician/poet/actor (and of course he had the whole emperor thing going ), but that he was more of a hanger-on who tried to be an artist. Kinda like the rich guy guitar player who hangs out with musicians in the recording studio, financing various projects so they'll tolerate his presence and maybe allow him to contribute a track or two . I wasn't aware of the book but just did the Amazon one-click thing. Maybe I'll start it this weekend .
Interesting ... I didn't know that Nero was still writing? I'm definitely buying his latest work (sure, I've only read quickly through his older stuff, but he is obviously an interesting character and surely misunderstood) Thanks for the heads-up ($14 at Walmart)
Interesting...I will pick up a copy this weekend. In the meantime here is a portrait of the young Nero.
Looks interesting. I will most likely get it when I'm finished with the four series' I'm currently reading. I believe he was a nasty character, maybe because of necessity, but still nasty.
Blasphemy! Nero was a good Emperor and the proof is that decades after his death, people were still pretending to be Nero and using his image to lead rebellions. Even 200 years after his death there was a thriving cult that believed Nero would come back from the dead (like a Roman messiah of sorts). It is also recorded that even a hundred years after Nero's death, many thousands of people were flocking to his tomb to lay flowers. Maybe Nero wasn't popular with the rich and wealthy senators, and they arranged to overthrow him, and tarnished his reputation by paying writers to write nasty gossip about him, but the average Romans (ie. the great majority of Romans) absolutely loved Nero.
Didn't he almost bankrupt Rome to rebuild homes and feed the people after the fire that destroyed most of the city? There was certainly much cruelty but he can't be blamed for the times he lived. I will certainly get the book. Looks like a good read.
