Nero, when he first became the emperor of Rome, was a young man who liked the theater, music and horse racing. His manipulative and controlling mother, Agrippina, had murdered Emperor Claudius just to see her own son on the throne. She also soon after poisoned Nero’s main rival, Claudius’ son, Britannicus.
But Nero didn’t want to be controlled by Agrippa. Encouraged by his old tutor, the writer and philosopher Seneca, he began to make his own decisions. Relations with his mother became distant and in 56 AD she was forced by Nero into retirement.
Nero started off well. He ended all secret trials and gave the Senate more independence and power. He banned capital punishment, reduced taxes, and also allowed slaves to sue unjust owners. He provided much needed assistance to the cities that had suffered
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His impulses began as simple extravagance. Before long stories were circulating that he seduced married women and young boys, and that he had even castrated and "married" a male slave. He also apparently liked to wander the streets, murdering innocent people at complete random.
Both Seneca and Agrippina tried to guide and control Nero. Seneca tried to be subtle in his persuasions, but his mother was not subtle in her intentions. Relations between him and his mother grew worse, and worse and Nero eventually decided to kill her.
He invited her to travel by boat to meet him at the seaside resort where he was staying. When their temporary reunion was over, Agrippina left for home. She was never meant to get home, but the murder attempt failed miserably and Agrippina swam to safety.
Frustrated that his plot had failed, Nero abandoned subtlety all together and sent soldiers to complete the job. He claimed that his mother had been plotting against him, but he fooled nobody. Rome was in shock and utterly disgusted. Matricide – the murder of one’s own mother – was among the worst possible