Tacitus, a Roman senator writing about a century later, wrote the Annals, a history of emperors from Tiberius through Nero. This is Book 14. In the years just before, Nero still looked capable of government: Seneca and Burrus, his tutor and the commander of the imperial Guard, steered him, while his mother Agrippina lost her hold and Britannicus died by poison at a banquet.

On the Bay of Naples Nero tries to drown Agrippina in a collapsible boat. She swims away, then is killed with a sword in a villa when the fake accident fails. Her death frees him for Poppaea and worse counselors: Burrus dies, Seneca's influence fades, and Tigellinus rises. Octavia, daughter of the late emperor Claudius, is divorced, exiled, and killed so the new marriage can stand. In Britain, Boudica burns Camulodunum (Colchester) and Londinium (London) after her house is robbed and outraged; the general Suetonius Paulinus crushes the revolt in a slaughter. Nero begins to perform on stage. The decent years are over.