Books on nero emperor of rome

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Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Start your review of Nero the Singing Emperor of Rome. Jun 28, Michelle rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorites , recommendations. I read this for a paper, but found it so interesting that I couldn't put it down and read parts that didn't even pertain to my topic I read this for a paper, but found it so interesting that I couldn't put it down and read parts that didn't even pertain to my topic Feb 09, Ricky Carrigan rated it really liked it.

A fascinating, and completely engrossing biography of the Emperor Nero. This book is nearly years old but feels fresh, and is as accessible as ever. It should be said that this a sympathetic profile of Nero, and Weigall does probably take some liberties with some facts that may be hard to dispute since these events took place nearly 2, years ago.

He challenges the notion of Nero being evil incarnate, and places the emperor in the context of his time. He does this well, and I recommend thi A fascinating, and completely engrossing biography of the Emperor Nero. He does this well, and I recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of the Roman Empire. Weigall is a great storyteller, and his narrative of Roman rule, and the palace intrigue therein is rich in detail and captivating from start to finish.

Lisa Tsilker rated it did not like it Nov 18, Dragos rated it it was amazing Nov 09, Madalina rated it really liked it Jul 21, Raluca rated it liked it Jun 05, Alexandra rated it really liked it Nov 18, Nessie rated it it was amazing Jun 13, Iustin rated it liked it Oct 11, Daniel C. Charles rated it it was amazing Feb 22, Goodwin rated it really liked it Feb 07, I rated it liked it Dec 02, Bogdan rated it really liked it Sep 06, Eric rated it it was amazing Aug 12, Gabriela rated it it was amazing Mar 16, Don rated it liked it Mar 31, Silvy Demon rated it it was amazing May 12, Claudiu-Mihai Dumitrescu rated it it was amazing Jul 01, At least they could warn people to get out of the buildings.

I didn't know about Nero's disaster relief efforts after the Fire and his visionary building project of the Corinth Canal, started but abandoned after his death. The canal project was finally completed in the s. After the Fire, Nero instituted a building code of sorts, so I wouldn't call the man evil incarnate.

Fascinating and thought-provoking reading but much was theoretical and was author's reconstruction of events. Feb 08, Heather rated it really liked it. An exceptionally detailed account of one of the major events to shape the path of ancient Roman history. Some information about the fires but generally an overview of Nero's reign up to his death. May 28, Justin Tapp rated it liked it Shelves: history , church , international , politics. The book is not greatly detailed, it focuses pretty narrowly on a four-year period.

Despite the record of two non-Christian historians Tacitus, Suetonius that Nero persecuted Christians, Dando-Collins maintains that it was likely not Christians who were blamed and persecuted for the fire of Rome, but rather members of the cult of Isis.

Burning them in effigy would have added insult to the cult. There is evidence that the cult was suppressed in the years following the fire, even though Dando-Collins writes that Nero had a fascination with the cult and all things Egyptian. While there were Christians in Rome, they were not numerous enough to be blamed widely for events.

D-C seems to accept Christian tradition in regards to some aspects of the lives of the Apostles Peter and Paul persecution, but rejects others. Christians could have been treated harshly by Romans for many reasons, as recorded in Luke's Book of Acts, but the biggest persecution was likely after the revolt of the Jews in Palestine in 66 A. The narrative begins in January, 64 A. There is some attention given to its geography, how fires were traditionally fought, and how commerce was conducted.

There is much information on the politics of the time, including all of the infidelities and corruption of Rome's senators and other officials. The descriptions of Rome make it helpful in order to see what the early Christians would have seen. However, there is not much information given from the perspective of commoners or travelers, though I do not know how much of that type of material survives. Nero was not exactly "fiddling" while Rome burned, but he was on tour competing in American Idol-like singing competitions-- which he always won.

While he was swift to return to the city, dole out aid, and made good, modern plans for the rebuilding of the city, he was always rumored to have been the fire's cause. Nero liked to compete in chariot races, dress like a gladiator, and competed in the games of 67 A.

Nero was also a bisexual adultering, thieving, lying murderer. His many exploits eventually led those around him to conspire against him in 65 A. The conspirators were then all arrested and put to death.

If you've seen the movie Gladiator you can get a visual sense of how plots against crazy emperors were stamped out by those who had much to gain by remaining loyal. In 68 A. The author shifts perspective to give the views of Flavius Josephus, who was a Pharisee who traveled to Rome in 64 to negotiate the release of several priests and Pharisees who, like Paul, had appealed to Ceasar and were sent by Felix to make their case.

D-C reports that Agrippa had granted citizenship to various Pharisees such that they could make this appeal. He likely knew Paul, or knew of him. The author does not take Paul at Luke's word that Paul was "born a citizen" of Rome, although it is possible that all citizens of Tarsus were granted citizenship at some point.

Nero was raising an army for a great eastern expedition when he rescheduled various games, which likely would have included public executions of state prisoners by wild animals. This is helpful as it gives an indictation of what Paul might have been expecting when he wrote 2 Timothy from prison. After the Jewish revolt of 66 A. The re-scheduling of Dando-Collins defends Nero as a "visionary," and no more cruel than any other Ceasar or even modern-day rulers who support capital punishment.

That is a little rich, but I think the author is basically just trying to push back against commonly repeated myths about Nero. Critics of the book point out that Dando-Collins makes some major mistakes in his research and his citations, as well as takes liberty with Latin translations of quotes-- including Nero's last words.

He also tends to take disputed hypotheses and run with them as facts to fit his narrative, which I find common among modern writers of history. In all, I give this book 3. I learned a lot of useful information from it.

It could have included more detail and an explanation of how history of Rome prior to A. Jun 19, Jolanda rated it liked it Shelves: ancient-rome , historical-non-fiction.

The Great Fire of Rome was an okay read. I've had better, but I've most certainly had worse. I started this book with no expectations at all, thinking it would probably be awful. After the introduction I was actually surprised, in a good way. The introduction read like one of many scientific monologues I've read over the past year as a part of my Ancient History course. I wish the rest of the book would have been more like the introduction.

I was actually quite confused when I started with the actual story. The introduction had felt like a historian was explaining his latest theory and while some parts of it were a bit outrageous and sounded like mere speculation, other aspects of the theory were genuinely interesting and made me want to look into this matters more Like the part about Christian copyists changing the content of certain passages to add Christian faith in Ancient Greek and Roman writings, based on the fact that while Tacitus refers to Christians in his Annals, but the actual word Christianity hadn't been invented until much later and Tacitus would have been more likely to refer to Christians as being Jewish sect-members.

Now that was genuinely interesting and I'm going to ask my professors if there's any truth in this phenomenon as soon as classes start again in September. Anyway, the actual book was really more of a biography of Nero, it has little to do with the actual fire of Rome. There's is little to no theorizing about certain facts, the things ancient historians have written about this episode in history are repeated and added to a very lively description of life in ancient Rome, full with details that years later you can't possible be certain about, but nonetheless are things that -under the circumstances- might very well have happened.

Ancient Historiography course was very enlightening on that aspect of Roman and Greek works of history. What is this writer trying to write? Scientific theory and an accurate account of what might have happened during Nero's reign, or a semi-historical story packed with details we can't possibly know ascertain years afterwards. Anyway, it was an okay read, it has made me want to look into this period in time myself, so that's a good thing. Nov 18, Rena Sherwood rated it it was amazing Shelves: non-fiction , roman-empire-and-republic.

It's amazing we still don't have some sort of memorial day for the victims of The Great Fire of Rome. There even were conspiracies about who started it. And yet somehow it just doesn't matter to modern day people. The fact is that Rome survived and is still more or less around today. And although at times this book seems to be written by a Nero apologist okay, maybe he did not set the fire or fiddle while it burned , reading of Nero's death never fails to make me happy.

Let's be perfectly clear -- Nero was an asshole, even if he did become a volunteer fireman while Rome burned. Jul 15, Jeff Lanter rated it really liked it Shelves: roman-history. This is quite a good book and an exciting read. Notably, it is also one of the more affordable books on Nero so that is a plus too. Dando-Collins provides a sort of biography and retelling of the later years of Nero's life and rule.

Despite the somewhat sweeping title, there is much more to the downfall of Nero than just the Great Fire and of course, the city persevered for many years after. Ultimately, for me, Nero was a tragic figure. He was highly insecure, controlled by his mother, advisor, and later, Praetorian Prefect, Nero was constantly manipulated and frequently not to his own benefit.

Perhaps the saddest part is that acting, chariot racing, and singing were all heavily looked down upon as lower class activities and yet, these were the things Nero loved and wanted to do the most. Ultimately, his love of these things really hurt his long term viability as emperor and led to the revolts and his downfall. As I read this book, I always felt a mixture of emotions and thoughts about Nero. If you like this kind of complexity in the books you read, I can't recommend this one highly enough.

May 09, Colin rated it it was amazing Shelves: scholarly-works , teaching-resources. Read via inter-library loan. Like Dando-Collins' other works on Roman history, this is a wonderfully readable history of Nero's reign, focused especially on the Great Fire and its aftermath.

Dando-Collins gives a fairly unbiased view of Nero which seems remarkably sympathetic, but only in contrast to the usual, completely negative view. I caught at least one slip-up where the Second Triumvirate is referred to as the First - and his theory that the references in Tacitus referring to Nero's Read via inter-library loan.

I caught at least one slip-up where the Second Triumvirate is referred to as the First - and his theory that the references in Tacitus referring to Nero's persecution of "Christians" is actually a later, Christian re-tooling of passages originally referring to persecution of followers of Isis is brilliantly articulated and convincing, though I'd like to know more about the scholarly consensus on such a theory if any.

Definitely worth reading, and one I hope to acquire for myself eventually. Jan 09, Skye rated it liked it. I'm glad I "read" this book. Well, I listened to it on audiobook, which has a horrrrrrible narrator who was so bad that at times I thought it was recorded by a computer because it was so emotionless and poorly pronounced.

I learned a lot from this, and found it pretty well researched. I liked that the primary sources were included a lot. Unfortunately, there were a few weaknesses-- at the end, the author suddenly switches gears to say that Nero might have been a fine guy. Which I agree with, but I'm glad I "read" this book. Which I agree with, but maybe that could have been a thread throughout instead of an awkward conclusion.

Also, it wasn't really a book about the fire! It was about Nero. A biography of Nero, with a few chapters on the fire. So since I didn't know much about Nero anyways, that was fine-- but if I already knew about him I would have found it repetitive. May 17, Jenny Brown rated it really liked it. Like other reviewers I found Dando-Collins' speculation that later Christian copyists had interpolated "Christians" into the earlier records where Nero's persecution of the Cult of Isis had been described.

But my problem with so much in this book was that the references which are very slim and refer only to classical authors, most often Tacitus, don't give me much insight into where the author came up with the almost novel-like details he describes. So while I found this a compelling read, I'm n Like other reviewers I found Dando-Collins' speculation that later Christian copyists had interpolated "Christians" into the earlier records where Nero's persecution of the Cult of Isis had been described.

So while I found this a compelling read, I'm not certain how much I can trust it. I also wondered why Dando-Collins brushes off, almost as if they weren't important, Nero's unsavory sex life and his murder of his mother, wife and ex-wife. Jul 27, Martti rated it liked it. Not much about the fire, but more about imperator Nero - an emperor who liked to play lyra and other arts, but Roman nobles despised him for acting and performing, because acting was a lower class work.

It was kind of a hectic book not titled all that well, but I liked how well it illustrated how the Emperor was not all-powerful and there was a large high-class who all intrigued with each other like crazy. Also it's good to read a professional analysis written in popular scientific manner for a Not much about the fire, but more about imperator Nero - an emperor who liked to play lyra and other arts, but Roman nobles despised him for acting and performing, because acting was a lower class work.

Also it's good to read a professional analysis written in popular scientific manner for a broad audience. Jul 24, Margaret Sankey rated it liked it. Although the fire itself occupies a single chapter, this is the lead up and aftermath, with sidelights on the daily bureaucratic work of the Water Commissioner, aqueduct pilfering, persecution of Isis cult members, the origins of St. Paul's Roman citizenship, Nero's artistic pretensions and Australian studies of why fire moves more quickly uphill.

Ending with a half-hearted "reappraisal" of Nero as maybe not such a bad guy, which seems tacked on unnecessarily. May 20, Mike rated it liked it Shelves: historical , non-fiction , on-cd. I didn't like the way this book began; I felt like I was just thrown into a historical, or hysterical debate involving many historians and their differing views. But eventually the story began and I enjoyed knowing something of this time in history. The three main sections are the fire, the attempted assassination, and the eventual fall of Nero.

This book isn't for fun; I'd only recommend it to history buffs. Muy recomendable. Feb 04, Lisa rated it really liked it Shelves: non-fiction. A lot of detailed information. Regardless of what you think of his take on Nero's character, this book gives you a good feel for how Roman life was at this time, including details like the municipal water system. Worth a read if you are interested in this period.

Aug 24, Karlie Ybarra rated it it was ok. Mar 15, Stacie rated it really liked it. Good book.