This short book is an excerpt from The Annals of Imperial Rome.

Summary

After the death of Burrus, Nero forces Seneca to retire from public life. Nero then begins to assassinate his political enemies. He divorces Octavia and marries Poppea, then has Octavia killed.

In 64AD, much of Rome is destroyed by fire. Tacitus implies Nero's depravity angered the gods; Nero blames the fire on the Christians.

In 65AD, a large conspiracy forms to kill Nero, but it is betrayed and the many conspriators executed. Seneca is not implicated, but Nero orders his death anyway.

Favorite passages

"Nero was already corrupted by every lust, natural and unnatural. But now he refuted any surmises that no further degradation was possible for him. For a few days later he went through a formal wedding ceremony with one of the perverted gang called Pythagoras. The emperor, in the presence of witnesses, put on the bridal veil. Dowry, marriage bed, wedding torches, all were there. Indeed, everything was public which even in a natural union is veiled by night."

"...Nero fabricated scapegoats -- and punished with every refinement the notoriously depraved Christians (as they were popularly called). Their originator, Christ, had been executed in Tiberius' reign by the governor of Judea, Pontius Pilatus. But in spte of this temporary setback the deadly superstition had broken out afresh, not only in Judea (where the mischief had started) but even in Rome. All degraded and shameful practices collect and flourish in the capital."