Original version

BBC World Service South Asia

The Forum

Documentaries

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

The programme that explains the present by exploring the past

The programme that explains the present by exploring the past.

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

The Forum: Emperor Nero: Bad boy of Ancient Rome

Coloured woodcut of Nero watching the burning of Rome, July 18 - 27, 64 A.D

28/04/2022 GMT

Emperor Nero: Bad boy of Ancient Rome

BBC World Service - The Forum, Emperor Nero: Bad boy of Ancient Rome

Historical accounts of the notorious Roman emperor skew our interpretation of his legacy

Historians sought to paint Nero in as bad a light as possible. Rajan Datar and guests examine his crimes and ask if recent scholarship can shed light on his redeeming features.

Nero fiddled while Rome burned, didn’t he?  At least, that’s what the history books tell us. Nero’s image as a depraved tyrant has been handed down to us by three biased sources, written after the emperor’s suicide in 68AD. These sources have informed interpretations of Nero’s legacy ever since, so much so that his involvement in the Great Fire of Rome has become a meme.

Recent scholarship has sought to rehabilitate Nero to a certain extent, to try to understand him in the context of his time. He was indeed a man who succeeded in shocking the Roman elite, but also someone who could strike a chord with the public and was well thought of outside the centre of political intrigue.

Rajan Datar attempts to separate fact from fiction, with guests Dr Ginna Closs, Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the US and author of While Rome Burned: Fire, Leadership, and Urban Disaster in the Roman Cultural Imagination which was published in 2020; and Dr Evan Jewell, Assistant Professor of History at Rutgers University, Camden. He’s writing a book entitled Youth and Power: Acting Your Age in the Roman Empire; and Dr Shushma Malik, Senior Lecturer in Classics at the University of Roehampton. She’s the author of The Nero-Antichrist: Founding and Fashioning a Paradigm.

Produced by Fiona Clampin for BBC World Service.

(Image: Nero and the burning of Rome, July 18-27, 64 A.D. Coloured woodcut by Conti. Credit: Fototeca Gilardi/Getty Images)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Forum

Emperor Nero: Bad boy of Ancient Rome

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service South Asia

About BBC World Service