Ed expands on last week’s interview with Kelsey Museum curator, Elaine Gazda, by highlighting the reign of the emperor Nero (54-68 C.E.). Achievements in art and architecture will be described as well as the Emperor’s own claims to poetic and musical prowess. The disasters of the
reign – military, economic, and natural – will also be reviewed in light of Nero’s profligacy and brutality, such as his persecution of Christians after the Great Fire of Rome.