While Rome Burned

Here are mine

 

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Well, this is a mystery solved:

 

Wonderful posts everyone!!!

My examples are far more pedestrian-----especially when compared to TIF's gorgeous example.

AE-AS, Dupondius and Tet.....

 

Ustinov's portrayal of Nero was, perhaps, the best ever (even if a lot of the movie was a yawner); Dom Deluise's Nero (History of the World Part I), was the most hilarious.

 

Here's my Nero coin, struck in 64 AD, Rome mint.

Æ Semis 2.86gm - 18mm
Obv: NERO CAES AVG IMP Laureate head right
Rev: CER QVINQ ROM CO S C, mark of value, urn, and wreath on table; two griffins facing each other on front panel, round shield resting below against leg.

 

@ancientcoinguru that's a fabulous reverse.

 

No one among the writers of history liked Nero. Senators, Christians, Flavians and Romans from the fire are all had more to gain from his departure. Not all that long ago a tornado destroyed the old downtown of a small town near where I lived. The mayor, like Nero, used the opportunity to rebuild a modern district outpricing the old merchants who were displaced. Some people found his happiness and statements about how the tornado did good for the city rather like history treats Nero for benefiting from the fire. If any of you are in government, take my advice and act sad when a natural disaster hits your town. Otherwise someone will accuse you of being Nero. 2 dupondii and two asses:

The last two are not duplicates but both favorites of mine.

 

Love the patina on the last one, great coins Doug.

 

I have a worn Nero ARA PACIS but still a little bit of detail on the enclosure, I often wonder if this is the one on the banks of the Tiber river that I visited recently.

 

Alexandria, Egypt. Nero. 54-68 AD. Æ Dichalkon
Obv: Anepigraphic; laureate head right.
Rev: Large I within wreath.
12mm. and 1.1gm.
RPC I 5262.


Lydia, Magnesia ad Sipylum. Nero AE22
Obv: Bust of Nero r.
Rev: Turreted head of Tyche l.
RPC 2460

 

Something to remember, Nero was not in Rome when the fire started. The summer was hot and Rome stank worse then normal, so Nero had packed it up and gone to a villa on the coast to catch some cool sea air. He returned after word of the fire reached him.

 

I'm not saying you are wrong, but I would like to know the reference for this information.

 

Bing, that was something I ran into 50 years ago while doing my Masters work at UTA. That also tells you that it was hard copy,a book. Only IMB had puters.

 

Tacitus indicates that Nero was in Antium when the fire began and only returned when the fire approached his house. He mentions that some authors considered the fire an accident and others blamed Nero. He also reports the rumour that "the emperor appeared on a private stage and sang of the destruction of Troy, comparing present misfortunes with the calamities of antiquity".

Tacitus Annals Book 15, 38-39

 

I came back online foe this. I "think" it was in the Collected Works of Flavious Josephus. Not the Jewish War book but one of the others. That was hard thinking for an old man.

 

Poor Nero...he got such a bad wrap just because he wanted to sing and act for his people. Sure, he liked to see people tied up to stakes and have wild beasts released upon them to savage the victim's private parts, but which Emperor wasn't guilty of enjoying and holding such public executions back then? The crowds ate that stuff up. I don't think Nero was worse than any of them, he just happened to tick off the senate because of his flamboyant personality, and the Flavians did the rest by slandering Nero after his death to make Vespasian look like a night in shinning armor. The fact that hundreds of years after his death people still left flowers at Nero's grave and tokens of his were popular says a lot more about Nero than the slanders of Flavian historians.