Suetonius, a Roman writing in the early second century, made The Twelve Caesars: short lives of the rulers from Julius Caesar through Domitian. This is Nero, last of that Julio-Claudian house, who held power from 54 to 68 from the city we still call Rome.

For five years his tutor Seneca and the guard chief Burrus keep the government steady, and Rome dares to hope. Then Nero has his mother Agrippina killed, first by a collapsing boat, then by steel. In 64 fire wrecks the city; he builds a Golden House on the ground. Hostile reports say Christians were burned as night-lamps. He tours Greece for games, prefers the lyre to the sword, and makes the elite watch. Tigellinus enables him. Poppaea’s circle is deadly. A plot named for Piso takes Seneca. Vindex and Galba in the provinces show that armies can unmake a Caesar. Nero dies by suicide in a suburb, with an actor’s last line about an artist dying. The bloodline ends, and 69 opens empty.