Top 10 facts about the Roman Emperor Nero
On June 9, AD53, the Roman Emperor Nero married his stepsister Claudia Octavia. On June 9, AD68, he committed suicide.
1. In popular myth, Nero is best known for “fiddling while Rome burnt” but that is impossible. The whole class of fiddle or violin-like instruments did not exist until the 11th century.
2. Nero was born in AD37. His mother, Agrippina the Younger, was the sister of emperor Caligula.
3. His full name at birth was not Nero but Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus.
4. His father died when he was three and Agrippina remarried the Emperor Claudius.
5. Claudius then adopted Agrippina’s son who changed his name to Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus.
6. When Nero was 14, he was proclaimed an adult and when he was 16 he married Claudia Octavia, his father’s daughter from an earlier marriage.
7. Claudius died the following year, possibly after being given poison mushrooms by Agrippina.
8. Nero, then aged 16 or 17, then became Emperor and soon after had his mother killed.
9. He had his wife Claudia Octavia executed too.
10. He competed in the AD67 Olympic Games and won events in chariot racing, singing and acting, probably by bribing the judges.