Nero in the arts and popular culture

As portrayed by Alberto Sordi in Nero's Mistress (1956)

Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus and his reign have featured in music, literature, the arts, and in business.

Literature

  • Sienkiewicz, Henryk. 1896. Quo Vadis: The persecutions of Christians in Nero's Rome.
  • Kosztolányi, Dezső. 1922. Nero, the Bloody Poet: A novel imagining Nero's crimes as the acts of an envious poet.
  • Graves, Robert. 1934. I, Claudius: Nero is depicted prior to the death of his predecessor, Emperor Claudius
  • Gyles, Mary Francis. 1947. "Nero Fiddled While Rome Burned." The Classical Journal: explores the history behind the legend of Nero playing the fiddle as Rome burned.
  • Wishart, David. 1996. Nero: Nero's reign seen through the eyes of Titus Petronius.
  • Massie, Allan. 1999. Nero's Heirs: The death of Nero and the civil war that followed.
  • Holt, Tom. 2003. A Song for Nero: Nero's double is killed, and the real Nero must try to survive as a street musician.
  • Scott, Manda. 2010. The Emperor's Spy: The story of the Great Fire of Rome, featuring Nero as a secondary character.
  • Riordan, Rick. 2016–2020. The Trials of Apollo: Nero and two other evil Roman emperors have survived into modern times because their infamy has essentially made them gods. Nero is known as "the Beast" and serves as the adoptive father of one of the heroes of the series, demigod Meg McCaffrey. Nero is an antagonist in the entire series, but is featured most prominently in the first and last books of the pentalogy. In the first book, The Hidden Oracle, Nero tries to destroy the Grove of Dodona and is thwarted by Meg and Apollo. In the final book, The Tower of Nero, Apollo, Meg, and their friends must have a final showdown with Nero and his minions at his headquarters in New York.
  • Georges, Margaret. 2017. The Confessions of Young Nero: The story of Nero's rise to power as told by the young emperor himself.
  • Georges, Margaret. 2018. The Splendor before the Dark: Continuation of the story to the final years of Nero's reign.

Comics/graphic novels

  • The Adventures of Nero: The title character Nero is named after the Roman emperor. In his debut appearance, the character believes himself to be the emperor himself after drinking poisoned beer. Later he regains his sanity, while all characters keep referring to him as Nero from that moment onwards.[1] In the album De Rode Keizer (The Red Emperor, 1952) Nero travels back in time to Ancient Rome and actually meets the real emperor Nero.
  • The Phantom: Nero is said to have been the original owner of The Phantom's "skull ring"[2]

Art

Statue of Nero by Claudio Valenti, Anzio, Italy (2010)

Software and video games

  • Nero AG and its products Nero, Nero Digital, Nero Burning ROM (add an -E to ROM), Nero ShowTime, and features a pictogram of a burning Rome.[4]
  • Fate/Extra, Fate/Extella and Fate/Grand Order: A female version of Nero serves as a playable character that the players avatar can interact with.
  • Ryse: Son of Rome: Nero plays as the antagonist. His sons portrayed in the game share no kinship with the real-life emperor and were rather based on real emperors Basil I, Basil II, and Commodus.
  • Devil May Cry: Nero is the co-protagonist of Devil May Cry 4 and 5. He is the son of the character half-demon half-human Vergil, as well as the nephew of the series' protagonist Dante, making him grandson of Sparda.
  • Days Gone features the National Emergency Response Organisation (N.E.R.O.). The organisation's name as well as its dormacy during the Freaker plague - which is comparable to Nero's own supposed dormacy as Rome burned - is a reference to the Emperor.

Film

Music

Stage productions

Opera

Plays

Television

  • The 1965 Doctor Who Serial The Romans (Derek Francis)[12]
  • The Time Tunnel episode "The Ghost of Nero" revolves around the ghost of the emperor attempting to kill the descendant of his successor Galba.
  • I, Claudius (Christopher Biggins)
  • Peter and Paul (Julian Fellowes)
  • Nero (Hans Matheson)
  • Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire (Michael Sheen)
  • Horrible Histories (Jim Howick)
  • NCIS: "Rekindled", Gibbs calls arsonist Billy Wayne "Nero" during Wayne's interrogation
  • Succession: In “Lion in the Meadow”, Tom tells Greg about the story of Nero and Sporus, and then tells him he would castrate and marry him. Later in “All the Bells Say”, Tom calls Greg “Sporus” as they discuss partnering up in a business deal
  • Animaniacs: In "Rome, Sweet Rome", Nero is portrayed by Fred Tatasciore and is depicted as a caricature of Donald Trump.

See also: Nero (Character) imdb.com page

References

  1. ^ "Marc Sleen".
  2. ^ The Phantlantis jungle sayings
  3. ^ Draper, Robert (September 2014). "Rethinking Nero". National Geographic. Archived from the original on August 18, 2014. Retrieved April 7, 2015.
  4. ^ "Ahead Software: Nero Burning ROM" IT Reviews Archived 2007-10-21 at the Wayback Machine 2000-04-05
  5. ^ "Quo Vadis (1951) - IMDb". IMDb.
  6. ^ Nero's guests (2009)
  7. ^ "Secrets of the Dead". pbs.org/wnet/secrets/.
  8. ^ "Karel Kryl - Bivoj - text písně - Lyricon.net". Archived from the original on 2011-08-30. Retrieved 2011-08-29.
  9. ^ U2Wanderer.org lyric of Mercy Retrieved 2009 10 19
  10. ^ "Nero Fiddled While Rome Burned" by Mary Francis Gyles The Classical Journal, Jan. 1947 21 April 2010
  11. ^ "...he tells me Nero is an angler in the Lake of Darkness", see Edith Sitwell. Selected Letters. Edited by John Lehman and Derek Parker. Macmillan 1970
  12. ^ "BBC One - Doctor Who".

External links

  • "Nero Fiddled While Rome Burned" by Mary Francis Gyles The Classical Journal, Jan. 1947 explores the history behind the legend of Nero playing the fiddle as Rome burned

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