Nero in popular culture

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Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (37 – 68), was the fifth and last Roman Emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty (54–68).

Contents

[edit] References in popular culture

[edit] Literature and film/TV adaptations

[edit] History books

  • Nero's life, times and death are chronicled in Richard Holland's book of the same name—NERO The Man Behind The Myth.

[edit] Other TV and film

Be it ever so crumbly, there's no place like Rome.
Nero, he was the emperor, and the palace was his home.
But he liked to play with matches and for the fire yearned;
So, he burned Rome to ashes and fiddled while it burned.
  • In 1955's Roman Legion-Hare, Yosemite Sam is cast as a centurion ordered by Nero to round up a victim to feed to the lions. He then sets about trying to capture Bugs.
  • In the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer entitled Once More with Feeling, the musical demon claims: "Something's cooking, I'm at the griddle. I bought Nero his very first fiddle." This line is a reference to Nero's playing a fiddle while Rome burned (and the demon's ability to cause chaos through music).

[edit] Other literature

  • Anthony Burgess' book The Kingdom of the Wicked covers a similar period including Nero's reign and his relationship with the early Christians.
  • Nero and his contemporaries appear in the historical novel The Roman by Mika Waltari.
  • In The Austere Academy, the fifth book of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, the evil school vice principal is called Nero. He is a harsh and uncompromising despot who forces his students to listen to his violin concerts, and continues to play as the school burns down, a clear allusion to the apocryphal tale of Nero playing the fiddle while Rome burned.
  • The fateful role of astrology in Nero's life is the theme of Humphry Knipe's novel The Nero prediction.
  • Thomas Holt, "A Song for Nero", 2003, London: A charming novel claiming that it was not Nero who died in 68CE but his double. Nero teams up with the delinquent brother of the dead double and roams the Roman Empire in persuit of adventure, love, treasure and a bit of food... A witty novel with amusing and rather accurate descriptions of Roman life.

[edit] Other popular culture

  • Nero was the original owner of the Skull Ring of famed comic book hero The Phantom.
  • In the Bad Religion song, Materialist, it says: "Like Rome under Nero/Our future's one big zero/Recycling the past to meet immediate needs".
  • In the unreleased U2 song, Mercy, a lyric is "You wanted violins and you got Nero."
  • Nero is also the name of a Belgian comic character by Marc Sleen. In his first appearance he was a character who thought he was the Roman Emperor after drinking a certain type of beer. Later, when he became the protagonist of the comic series, other characters started calling him Nero. He also wears laurel leaves behind his ears since his first appearance. (See Nero (Flemish Comics))
  • A 1940s comic book title Leading Comics featured an anthropomorphic fox named "Nero Fox," who was shown playing a saxophone instead of a fiddle (as other fictional parodies of Nero often show). Nero Fox later appeared again in the 1980s comic series Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew, when several members of the Zoo Crew superhero team were sent back in time to ancient Rome. Nero also played a prominent role in issue 2 of the DC comics "Armageddon The Alien Agenda" miniseries. (This may also be a reference to the fictional private detective Nero Wolfe).
  • Nero Burning ROM is a popular CD-RW burning program; the name is a play on the traditional idea that he burned Rome. One of the icons for the program shows the Colosseum in Rome with flames around it. It should be noted that this is historically inaccurate as the Colosseum was built by the emperors Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian close to Nero's Domus Aurea.
  • Nero is an avatar of the Eddorian Gharlane in E.E. (Doc) Smith's Lensman novel Triplanetary.
  • He is mentioned, though in the wrong period, in Ivor Novello's song If you wonder what a duke should be, heard in the film Gosford Park:
In B.C. 33 Ah, me! That's a dash long time ago.
There lived a Roman hero who had shaken hands with Nero.
And the history you shall know.
He was introduced to the king of Gaul, whoever that might be.
And crossing in galley with a Norman wench got pally
They went and founded me.
  • Also, as a convenient rhyme for hero, in a Satchmo song
  • In the episode "Once More, With Feeling", of the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the singing and dancing demon "Sweet" makes a reference to him being the one who bought Nero "his very first fiddle". In addition, fire has an important role in the episode, since people burst into flames because of the singing and dancing.
  • Nero is the name of the main protagonist of the upcoming videogame Devil May Cry 4 for PS3 and X-Box 360. In it he is a devil hunter (similar to previous series protagonist Dante) belonging to the organization "Order of the Sword".
  • The Austere Academy, the fifth volume of the A Series of Unfortunate Events junior fiction books, includes a character called Vice Principal Nero, who believes himself to be a master violinist (but is, in fact, not).
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