Whereas, I think the empire was running great under Nero, the armies were
very satisfied, but he did kill a lot of very high ranking senators and
so, in this case, the losers write the history books.
And so you have this senatorial elite, who's not going to forgive him for that.
And Nero's performances were, for
one thing the kinds of performing that he would do were seen as anathema for
the Romans, getting up on stage, dancing, singing.
These are things that slaves did, or freed people.
These are not things that freed citizens, let alone senators,
let alone an emperor, would do.
He also apparently had a huge desire to drive chariots.
He wanted to be a professional charioteer,
in addition to a professional singer and a professional actor.
One of the things that he would do, actually with his acting, this is what
showed up a lot in Suetonius, that people would make comments about this stuff,
is that he would perform as an actor the most un-PC, un-appropriate topics.
He would enact Hercules Furens, in which Hercules, in that part of the myth,
kills his wife and children, shortly after killing his own wife and child.
So with Nero, I think later on in his reign, began to live increasingly
in a world of make believe, reality is make believe is reality.
Nero, infamously, also would have guards throughout the audience.
And so, if you're falling asleep while the emperor is singing,
the guards will notice you and you could be arrested or killed for that.
So there's the idea, which Shadi Bartsch has made famous in her
Actors in the Audience, this is what the Roman people became.
They became professional audience goers for this professional performer.
Rome had never seen anything like it before.