The Pseudo-Nero: When One Nero Isn't Enough

Claudius Divvy Claudius, Philius Caesar, Augustus Germanicus. And that's times three. It's a busy episode, it is, and it's a good thing. You have to read that times three. Polly's right, there are three documented pseudo neuros, and it's very likely there were many others who weren't successful enough to make it into the legend. Taking on the story of Nero is really it's really quite a big task, and to know why people pretended to be him, we need to know him.

But I also want to give everybody a quick heads up here that it won't be a surprise. Really, I think in the realm of Roman rulers. But there's going to be some domestic violence in this episode. We're not going to linger over any of it, but there is some mentioned. There is some brutality, particularly the first couple of minutes after our first sponsor break. On December fift in the year thirty seven of the Common era, the man that we most commonly know as Nero was born

as Lucius Dimidius Ahina Barbus. That's the son of Nius Dimidius A. Hino Barbus and Julia Agrippina also known as Agrippina the Younger. Through his mother, Lucius was the only living direct male descendant of Emperor Augustus, the first of the five Roman emperors, in the year forty eight, when he was still quite young and still called Lucius. Nero's biological father, who was a Roman general and politician, died

soon after Emperor Claudius took the own. Julia and Claudius, who was her uncle, married Now I know uncle, but marriage in Roman times, as we've previously talked about, wasn't really how we know it to be today. It was almost never romantic, and it was almost always an agreement between families, and unlike in our modern society. Sometimes that

agreement was within families. So after this marriage, Claudius adopted Lucius, and that is when Julia began to campaign that her son should be the successor to the throne, not Claudius's biological son Britannicus, who was the rightful heir. Not yet finished with her plans for their family, Julia also convinced Claudius that his daughter Octavia should marry her son, which

also helped align Lucius with the throne. Those two were in fact married in the year fifty Claudius died just a few years later, in the year fifty four, and it is widely and I'm using a huge capital letters on that suspected that his wife, Julia had poisoned him with shrooms at a banquet. And so if this sounds familiar, we've actually talked about Julia before. Back in our very first season, we looked at the stories of female poisoners, and one of the first poisoners that we talked about was,

in fact Julia and her mushrooms. In a very ambitious cocktail involving infusing vodka with mushrooms. It was a great idea. Still make it for bloody Mary exactly Upon the Emperor's death, Nero delivered a eulogy in Claudius's honor to the Senate, who then named him Emperor of Rome. This was the moment when Lucius became Nero, and Lucius took the name Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, and he ascended to the

throne on October, just shy of his seventeenth birthday. I think a lot of people would be surprised by this, because what we know, or think we know about Nero is that he was a tyrant. But when he started out, Nero actually wasn't described that way. Nero was a teenager, he was considered sense to historians contemporary to him, such as Sutonius, described him as handsome, with blue gray eyes, freckles, and blonde hair, specifically the yellow of the lion's mane.

His hair color, though, is it's actually a bit debated. Many accounts referred to his blonde hair, but based off of some portraits of the emperor, some experts wonder if his hair actually may have been a little more red in color. He also had a beard, and although he may have tried, it did not cover up his double chin, so this is all important information if you have a

plan on pretending to be calm. Nero. So this teenager who was possibly a strawberry blonde, but liked going to the theater, and he also enjoyed music, and he loved horse racing. As emperor, he established and performed in poetry, drama, and athletic competitions. He also ended secret political trials, and he created a more independent senate. He also banned capital punishment. Despite whether the senate a rooved of him or not, his people actually liked him at this point. There is

actually some pro Nero evidence out there. So he started out quite well, but unfortunately that did not last. When Nero began his rule, he actually preferred to stick to his own interests. He preferred to leave the ruling of matters outside of his areas of interest to his three chief advisors, a major philosophical figure of the time, Seneca who was also his former tutor, Sextis Eprinus Burris, who was a prefect of the Praetorian Guard, and Julia, who

we know was his mother. Julia, wrote historian Cassius Dio quote, managed for him all the business of the empire. She received embassies and sent letter to various communities, governors, and kings. After a falling out of some sort, though or perhaps it was just that Nero reached the age of eighteen, he eventually decided his mother was meddling and he did not want her influencing his rule. Encouraged by his former

tutor Seneca, Nero began asserting himself. Julia assumed she was entitled to rule as the mother of an emperor, though, and she began threatening Nero. Nero, though, was completely unfazed. The Emperor Trajan, who came to power thirty years after Nero's death, is said to have spoken about the quinquinium neronis, which means the five good years of Nero's fourteen year rule. There's actually a phrase about it. We're going to take a break for a word from our sponsor. Nero may

have started out strong, but things changed quickly. Welcome back to Criminalia. Now we are reaching that time we spoke of at the top of the show, when Nero's rule became brutal and violent. It most certainly did, and after dispensing with his advisors, the empire became violent under him. Rumors circulated about him, including everything from how he sedue married women to how he wandered the streets at night looking for people to beat or to kill at random.

Nero was at this point considered to be decadent, ineffectual, and tyrannical. He began executing rivals, political rivals, or otherwise so do not cross him, and he started to torture and execute Christians. Nero two had also developed quite a not at all random hit list. It was also in fifty five that Nero's stepbrother, Britannicus, suddenly died under suspicious circumstances. Four years later, in the year fifty nine, after learning his mother was allegedly plotting against him, Nero put a

hit on her. First, the plan was to poison her. Then it was to have her crushed by a falling ceiling, which seems very labor intensive, but they all do. Then he wanted to have her drowned in a self sinking boat. She survived every single attempt. Julia did not, however, survived, being stabbed to death, a murder disguised as suicide at the order of her son. Then, in the year sixty two, Nero exiled then executed his stepsister slash wife Octavia historian

Suetonius wrote that quote. After several vain attempts to strangle her, he divorced her on the ground of barrenness, and when the people took it ill and openly reproached him, he banished her besides, and finally he had her put to death on a charge of adultery that was so shameless and unfounded. With Octavia gone, Nero married Papaia, who was a noble woman who was well known for her beauty. Roman historian Tacitus recorded that in sixty five, Nero kicked

Papia to death. She was pregnant with their child at the time. Tacitus went on to describe the act as and were quoting him here a casual outburst of rage. In April of the year sixty four, a Roman governor named Gaius Julius Decks renounced Nero. The Praetorian Guard remember that is the force that was charged with guarding the emperor himself, renounced their support for him as well. When the Romans finally had enough of Nero's behavior, they revolted.

By early June, the Senate declared Nero an enemy of the people, which basically meant that anyone could kill him without punishment. Tacitus wrote at the time, and we're gonna quote him again. Unlucky birds settled on the capitol houses fell in numerous earthquakes, and the week were trampled by the fleeing crowd. Nero escaped to the country, where on June nine he died by suicide. He did not manage this on his own, though his secretary at Paphroditos assisted him.

Nero was the fifth Emperor of Rome and, following his death, the last in the Julio Claudian dynasty. The line is synonymous with the death of Nero, but it actually wasn't until fifty years after that that historians sweeked Oinous reported that his final words were quote what an artist dies in me. Political impostors, as we've seen this season, often

pop up when they see a specific circumstance happening. A power vacuum, for example, the death of an emperor who had no heir, such as Nero, left the door wide open for people to make all sorts of claims. Claims to being his heir, claims to being the emperor himself, more and more claims. I'm sure The year sixty nine was known as the year of four Emperors, and it was named because four emperors ruled Rome in rapid succession

that year. They were galba Otho, Vitelius, and Vespasian. None of those men were impostors, but this is when the impostors started to come forward. Nero may have been a tyrant, which actually may be attractive to some impersonators, but most of all, he was just a powerful man, for better or for worse. He ruled over the entire Roman Empire for fourteen years. According to the Glaudian census that took place in the year forty seven, the population was just

under seven million people. The Roman Empire was really something to behold, and it's hard to know just how accurate that number really is. There was biased recording, for sure, and we also don't know whether or not the count over the years was limited to male citizens, male citizens and their families, or maybe it included women, freed men, enslaved people, anybody else. Either way, we do know he

ruled over a huge amount of people. Even just scratching the surface, Nero's rule was, let's call it turbulent, but there were some really momentous and historically significant events, both good and bad, mostly bad during his reign, the Great Fire of Rome, which some actually claimed that Nero ignited the rebellion of Buddhica against the Roman conquerors of Britain, the assassination of Nero's mother and his first and second wives, many many other deaths, of course, and as is synonymous

with Nero's brand, there was extravagant excess and that meant tax increases and other unpopular decisions. With that snapshot of the man who was Nero, why would anyone ever really want to pretend to be him? We're going to find out. We're going to take a break for a word from our sponsor, and when we're back where you're going to first talk about Nero as the Antichrist. Welcome back to Criminalia.

Why would anyone want to be Nero? Well maybe power, money, murder at think list goes on sure murder if you wanted to do that, do you want to call it that?

Despite his marriages and lovers, Nero had no air so almost immediately following his death, rival generals began moving their troops toward Rome to stake they claims, and it also didn't take long before people pretending to be Nero appeared, according to historian sweet Tony, as several imperial edicts were forged under Nero's name after he had died, and with

new evidence who did these forgeries. The signing of those documents actually encouraged Nero's followers, who believed a very persistent prophecy Nero's return was imminent to avenge himself against his enemies. Please let me have a prophecy like this when I passed. This idea of Nero's return was a very popular one. In addition to avenging himself against his enemies, there was also a belief that was known as the Nero read of Eva's. That was a legend that assumed that Nero

was somehow still alive. Depending on who you were and where you sat in society, this would have been either a good or bad prediction. The wealthy, who had plotted against him kind of feared that if Nero returned, he would come for them first. It's kind of part of that avenging himself against his enemies thing. The poor, who had benefited from the emperor's public policies believed that he had fled to Parthia. Today, that's the region known as Corazon in Iran. They are in the seat of an

enemy empire. He would have been welcome to build an army to destroy not just his enemies, but all of Rome. I'm sure that he would have too, because it seems like he was just into destruction. So there's another thing

going on here. We mentioned earlier that Nero really seemed to enjoy his torture of Christians, and Christianity was still new in the first century, and among the Christians who suffered terrible religious persecution under his rule, it was believed Nero was the personification of the Antichrist, as described in the Book of Revelations in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. They believed for centuries, and I believe I read it was into the fifth century, maybe the sixth century.

It was a two hundred years that Nero would return to destroy Christianity. Today, scholars find it debatable whether Emperor Nero was ever portrayed or in some way characterized in the Bible, and they typically agree that the description of the Antichrist in Revelations thirteen is really not similar enough to Nero's legacy to prove or suggest anything. Nero impostors began to appear just a month or two after his death,

and continued until the reign of Emperor Demisian began. The first of the men, known as a pseudo Nero, appeared in sixty We don't know his name, but what we do know is that he appeared in what is modern day Greece. It's speculated by some historians that this first impostor decided to appear in Greece based on a trip that Nero had taken a few years prior. It is said that Nero absolutely loved Greece, which was then part of Imperial Rome, and he took part in several Greek festivals.

The year that he visited, he took home a rumored eight hundred eight breaths of victory for his artistic presentations. Listen, I'm creative. That's a lot to churn out. He should be very proud. Nero also competed in the chariot races, which he also won, even though he fell from his chariot. Nero wins. Nero always wins. But does the fake Nero win?

It's hard to know. The historian Tacitus wrote that this first fake Nero could have been an enslaved person from Pontus which is located in what's modern day Eastern Black Sea region of Turkey or Tacit is considered the man may have been a freedman from Italy. In other writings, because the first pseudo Nero appeared in Greece, he attributed the whole impostor problem too, and I'm going to quote him the gullibility of the Greeks got to get a jab in. I know common Tacitus and Tacitus had more

to say about the not Nero. It is through Tacitus that we know this fake Nero was appealing to Roman soldiers to become part of his own growing armed forces, and Tacitus was onto something. The first pseudo Nero was able to convince a group of army deserters to join up with him, believing that he was the real Nero, and this group set sail, and then this pseudo Nero began his career in piracy. The pseudo Nero's motley group, actually, though, was blown by a storm to an island off the

coast of modern day Greece. It's here where his crew first began acting like pirates. They stole from businesses, they even stole from other pirate crews. They were known for kidnapping the locals. The Romans benefited from piracy during the first century, though from a Nero impostor or otherwise, so this actually wasn't a bad plan for our Not Nero pirates supplied the empire with all kinds of things, but

mostly people they had kidnapped and enslave. During this time, piracy spread through the Mediterranean and that became a problem for a lot of reasons, but mainly because pirate ships made waterways hard or even impossible to navigate, and that caused a stop or slow in trade. And because of the pirates proclivity to steal, then supplies grew scarce. And I feel like I just came full circle here. But hires the in the Mediterranean, it's a self perpetuating system.

According to records of naval captains at the time, it was Roman senator Lucius a Supernus who finally ended this ruse. He ordered his soldiers to storm the ship and kill the pseudo Nero, and when the impostor was apprehended, he was beheaded. The first pseudo Nero, though never broke character

and never stopped using the name Nero. I couldn't find this, but I hope that he used the name pirate Nero instead of emperor in this particular situation, but I will never know, so we have to wait like ten years for the second notable Nero imposter to come on the scene. The second pseudo Nero appeared during the reign of Titus, who was emperor from seventy nine to eighty one, and this not Nero was a man named Tarenthius Maximus, who

was a Roman citizen. Almost certain that was the case, a few things in Tarentius's story get a little jumbled with time, though. He is, although infrequently, described as resembling an Asian man, so this would mean Central Asian in this case. It's written that some of his first supporters were from Asian regions, and the Roman Empire extended into Asian regions at this point. Specifically, we're talking about the area that was once called Asia Minor and is now

modern day Turkey. It's written he resembled Nero in appearance that at least a bit, and perhaps a bit in his manner of speaking too, and as the pretend emperor he as Nero was known to do, also sang and enjoyed playing the lyre, which is basically a small U shaped harp, although they still the time period. He was probably playing the satara, which is a heavy wooden instrument with four to like seven strings, and it's really similar to the liar. Aside from playing music, Tarentius had big

plans as a second pseudo Nero. Tarentius is a pretender who did have real followers, and quite a lot of them, actually spreading across the Euphrates to Parthia. His followers grew large enough that he actually led a rebellion, but that was quickly suppressed by Titus's forces. Ultimately, he was given refuge by Roman rival are Tobanus, the third of Parthia, but he was executed when his true identity was revealed. And here we are with our third and final impostor.

The third pseudo Nero appeared twenty yet twenty years after the real nero is death. He maybe twenty years closer to modern times, but we know the least about this fake Nero. He arrived on the scene during the reign of Misian, the Roman emperor from eight one to ninety six. He was actually just chiefly known for his reign of terror. This not Nero was from Parthia and was backed by

the Parthians and the leaders of the Parthian Empire. The Empire was a major political and cultural power in ancient Iran between two hundred forty seven b c. Two e. The Parthian Empire and the Romans, first as the Roman Republic and then as the Roman Empire ward for if itally it all up roughly seven hundred years. The Parthian Empire stood in the way of the Roman Empire's desire for eastern expansion, but that dynasty was a superpower in

its own right. The Empire stretched from the Mediterranean to India, roughly the region located in northeastern Iran today. They didn't just fight and win battles against Rome. They were also successful at their commercial endeavors. Among other things, they acted as intermediaries between Chinese growers and Roman manufacturers on law the Silk Road. So the third fake Nero was successfully able to convince a large number of people throughout both

the Parthian and Roman empires that he was actually Nero returned. Remember, a lot of them believed this prophecy. They were ready for a Nero to show up exactly ultimately as the other pseudo Neros. This Nero too disappeared by execution, possibly as he was a party in pretending to be a Roman. But here's the sort of disappointing part. History doesn't leave us that answer. We don't know what actually happened to him.

It's like a choose your inn adventure. You can make it up yourself, which reminds me that sometimes you make choose your own adventure. Cocktails and mocktails, and you probably don't have one today, but I would love to hear about what you do have. I hear there's more than one. There's more than one because there's a chooser and adventure sort of, but not for the mock tail. The mocktail

is very simple. Here is where I started thinking about what we would do as a doneiro, which is what I'm just going to call this one because I really love that phrase. Recently, on another podcast, I Do Stuff You Missed in History Class, we talked about dire Coquinadia, which is the first known cookbook and its recipes from the first to the fourth centuries that were combined by someone possibly named a pick Us in the early you

know stages of our history. Anyway, the pick U says it's known has some good recipes for drinks, and so I went to it first. There are a couple of recipes it has, and I want to get credit for not doing the path and easy to predict for me

thing but I wanted to which is rose wine. This is not the drink for today, but if you're curious, it involves like collecting fresh rose petals and then you steep them in wine for like seven days, and then you strain it and you steep it for another seven days and it I didn't have twenty one days to do the whole process. But also has a recipe for violet wine, and that sounded yummy and delicious, and again

I didn't feel like steeping flowers in wine. But I have a workaround that makes it quick and easy, and that is violet syrup. And if you have never had this, it is a majestic addition to your kitchen. You will start putting it in everything. It goes great on everything from ice cream into ginger ales into like even some teas mixed with a violet syrup are very beautiful. I just love it. So for the mocktail pseudo neuro, you're going to start with three quarters of an ounce of

violet syrup. I didn't go more than that because that is another syrup that will really start to overwhelm. And as I like to say, drive the bus, you're gonna get flower tastes with three quarters of an ounce, I promise you, and then throw that in a glass with ice, add about five ounces of cranberry juice. I like to go with a low sugar cranberry juice because the violet syrup tends to be very sweet. Um, so a low

or no sugar added is a great option here. And then a splash of lime juice just to balance that all out. And then you can garnish it with a lime wedge if you want, or a violet if you have one on hand. And it's just very refreshing and beautiful and you get that lovely, lovely floral flavor. But also you know, the cranberry adds its own element to it and it's very very yummy. So that is the

pseudo nero. Um. There are two alcoholic options. One is very simple, it's basically this exact recipe that we did in the mocktail. And then you're just gonna add one to one point five ounces of a vodka. I know, that's predictable. But this at this point, you have a floral vodka cranberry, right like, which is a fun way to twist up a vodka cran and make it a

little bit something special. Also, you know it. You can vary the amount in any of these of spirit that you add depending on on how strong you want to drink to be. Remember, one point five ounces is about as high as you want to go by most bartending regulation and standards, drink responsibly. The other alcoholic option, though, is a little bit different and more involved, because as you remember, this whole thing started thinking about wine, it's

a very common drink in Rome. They often drank water down wine like people. It's kind of that thing where people are like, oh, they drink all the time. Well it was kind of watered down. It was like they're they're standard bevrage as I like to say, to be silly. So this one is gonna have very similar DNA, but it starts instead with three ounces of ruby ports. And I like this because you can put a ruby port

over a little bit of ice. It's fine. It doesn't follow those don't involve ice rules that that some wines will um. And I would add to that one point five ounces of that low sugar cranberry juice because it brightens it up. The ruby port is very heavy. Naturally, you're gonna also do your three quarters of an ounce of violet syrup in your splash of lime, garnish it with the violet or a lime whichever you prefer. To give it a little stir before you put the garnish it.

It is so shockingly yummy. It is much heavier because that port is just naturally going to be heavier, but it's a very fun one. You can pretend you're a modern Roman, I guess, and you can be like, oh, yes, I I'm practically cooking from a picky use. I'm fancy really, which is you know the street cred that you want to throw out at a party use? Yeah, I do. Some people do, and that's fabulous. But those are your options.

So it also I kind of wanted to do three separate options for the three pseudo neuros, so I'm glad that you did. I bet they appreciate that. Whether you are a drinker or no, whether you want to go a little harder in flavor with the port or keep it a softer, summery vodka cran with a flower flavor. You have all the options you can imagine, and I hope one of those delights you and you enjoy it and it adds to your We're now kind of middle to end of summer at this point, everyone could use

a refreshing libation. Yes, thank you for spending some more time with us this week. We feel so lucky every time you do. And we will be right back here next week with some more Criminalia. Criminalia is a production of Shonda land Audio in partnership with I heart Radio. For more podcasts from Shonda land Audio, please visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,