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Home / People / Nero

Historical person

Nero

37–68

Nero became Roman emperor in AD 54 at the age of sixteen. His early government relied on Seneca, Burrus and his mother Agrippina, but he later asserted personal control, ordered killings within the dynasty and cultivated performance and spectacle. The Great Fire of Rome in 64 led to rebuilding and the persecution of Christians. Revolts by provincial governors and loss of military support forced Nero to flee and take his own life in AD 68.

Margaret George’s The Confessions of Young Nero and The Splendor Before the Dark offer an extended fictional portrait, while Henryk Sienkiewicz’s Quo Vadis presents the Christian tradition of Neronian persecution. Fiction often repeats stories of the emperor singing while Rome burned, though the details are uncertain. Modern novels increasingly examine how hostile elite sources constructed the monster without excusing the violence of his rule.

In non-fiction, Nero is discussed in Mary Beard’s Confronting the Classics, Mary Beard’s Twelve Caesars, Mary Beard’s Emperor of Rome, and Seneca’s Letters from a Stoic. In Mary Beard’s Confronting the Classics, its subjects range from Greek drama, Roman humour and the palace at Knossos to Alexander the Great, Cleopatra, Nero, Boudica and the lives of enslaved people.

Historical context

Historical periods linked to Nero

Apostolic Age and Early Christianity c. 30–100 CE Flavian Dynasty 69–96 CE Julio-Claudian Dynasty 27 BCE–68 CE Reign of Claudius 41–54 CE Reign of Nero 54–68 CE Reign of Vespasian 69–79 CE Year of the Four Emperors 69 CE

Series

Series featuring Nero (17 series)

Eagles of the Empire in Order

by Simon Scarrow 24 books 4.5

The Eagles of the Empire series follows Roman soldiers Macro and Cato from the reign of Claudius into that of Nero. Their service takes them through the invasion and occupation of Britain, Mediterranean piracy, revolt, imperial court intrigue and Rome’s eastern wars, combining military campaigning with the politics…

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Legion of the Damned Roman Thrillers in Order

by Jeff Jones 5 books 4.5

The Legion of the Damned Roman Thrillers follows Marcus Corvo, a young centurion given command of a disposable unit recruited from slaves, prisoners, deserters and former gladiators. During Nero’s reign, the improvised legion is sent wherever conventional troops or imperial officials cannot afford to fail, from the Armenian…

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Vespasian in Order

by Robert Fabbri 9 books 4.4

The Vespasian series follows Titus Flavius Vespasianus from obscure young nobleman and soldier to the imperial contender who will found the Flavian dynasty. The novels use Vespasian’s career to move through the Julio-Claudian court, frontier warfare, Britain, Armenia, North Africa, Judaea and the civil-war crisis of AD 69.…

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Agricola in Order

by Simon Turney 4 books 4.5

The Agricola series follows Gnaeus Julius Agricola from an ambitious young military tribune to the governor who carried Roman campaigning into northern Britain. His career unfolds through the Boudican Revolt, Nero’s final years, the civil wars of AD 69 and the consolidation of Flavian rule. Alongside battlefield command,…

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Gaius Valerius Verrens in Order

by Douglas Jackson 9 books 4.4

The Gaius Valerius Verrens series follows a Roman officer whose career begins during the Boudican Revolt and carries him through the violent final years of Nero’s reign, the Year of the Four Emperors and the consolidation of Flavian rule. Valerius moves between Britain, Rome, the eastern frontier, Judaea…

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Boudica Trilogy in Order

by M.C. Scott 4 books 4.5

Manda Scott’s four-volume Boudica sequence follows Breaca, the Eceni warrior who becomes Boudica, from childhood in pre-conquest Britain to the uprising against Roman occupation. The novels combine tribal politics, military conflict and the spiritual world of warriors and dreamers, presenting Roman expansion through the lives of people whose…

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The Nero Trilogy in Order

by Conn Iggulden 3 books 4.4

The Nero Trilogy recounts the rise and fall of Nero through the ambitions of his mother Agrippina and the lethal politics of the Julio-Claudian court. It begins with Nero’s childhood, follows his elevation over Britannicus and ends with revolt, imperial collapse and his death.

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Nero Series in Order

by Margaret George 2 books 4.0

Margaret George’s Nero duology reconstructs the life of Rome’s last Julio-Claudian emperor, beginning with a childhood in which imperial blood makes Nero a target and ending with the collapse of his reign. Told largely through Nero’s own perspective, the series follows his passage through the courts of Caligula…

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Rome in Order

by M.C. Scott 4 books 4.3

M. C. Scott’s Rome series follows Sebastos Pantera, an imperial intelligence agent whose missions take him from Nero’s Rome to the eastern provinces and back into the capital during civil war. Set in the same fictional world as the Boudica novels, the sequence combines espionage with the political…

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The Four Emperors in Order

by L. J. Trafford 4 books 4.4

The Four Emperors quartet follows the collapse of Nero’s government and the successive regimes of Galba, Otho and Vitellius before Vespasian secures power. Rather than treating AD 68–69 only as a contest among generals, the novels remain close to the Palatine household: secretaries, slaves, freedmen, lovers and entertainers…

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Claudius Series in Order

by Robert Graves 2 books 4.4

The Claudius Series is Robert Graves’s two-volume fictional memoir of the Roman emperor Claudius and the Julio-Claudian dynasty. I, Claudius follows the imperial family from Augustus to Caligula through Claudius’s wary, observant voice, while Claudius the God covers his own reign and the forces that undermine it. Together…

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The Centurions in Order

by Anthony Riches 3 books 4.4

The Centurions trilogy is set during the Year of the Four Emperors and the Batavian Revolt. It follows Roman and Batavian officers whose old comradeship collapses when Galba dismisses Nero’s German bodyguard and Julius Civilis turns a frontier grievance into a major rebellion.

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Political Intrigue in Ancient Rome in Order

by Paul Doherty 5 books 4.3

Political Intrigue in Ancient Rome moves between the Julio-Claudian court and the transformed empire of Constantine I. Domina follows Agrippina the Younger’s struggle for influence as wife of Claudius and mother of Nero. The four Claudia mysteries then shift to the early fourth century, where an imperial agent…

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Storycuts in Order

by M.C. Scott 3 books 4.2

The Storycuts group brings together three short digital releases published under the M. C. Scott name in 2011. They move beyond a single continuous setting: one collection links modern archaeology, prehistoric ritual and Pantera’s Roman past; Raven Feeder enters the Norse conversion of Orkney; and The Last Roman…

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Roma Trilogy in Order

by Steven Saylor 3 books 4.0

The Roma Trilogy follows generations of the fictional Pinarius family across the long history of Rome. Roma begins with the city’s legendary foundation and continues through the Republic and the rise of Augustus; Empire carries the family through the Julio-Claudian, Flavian and adoptive-emperor periods; Dominus follows the later…

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Rome Unbound in Order

by Christopher Lee Buckner 4 books 4.2

Rome Unbound follows the Roman centurion Quintus Liberius Verus on the edge of imperial Britain after the Claudian conquest. The sequence moves from the tense aftermath of native revolt to the Flavian advance into northern Britain, then follows Verus after disgrace into slavery, gladiatorial violence and the attempt…

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Gladiatrix in Order

by Faith L. Justice 1 book 3.9

The Gladiatrix series is a first-century Roman historical adventure centred on women from the empire’s frontiers who are enslaved and forced into public combat. It examines the arena not only as entertainment but as an institution built on conquest, trafficking, training and the power of spectators over captive…

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Standalone books

Standalone books featuring Nero (8 books)

Non Fiction

Non Fiction featuring Nero (4 books)

Biographies, histories and other non-fiction are listed separately from the historical novels above.