The Death of Nero Narrated by Suetonius

Death of Nero

The last moments of the life of Nero told by the pen of Suetonius they describe grotesque aspects in full harmony with the character, but also points of dignity, culminating in a suicide, although, according to the historian, it was due more to fear than courage.

This is the final part of the writer-biographer's story:

"Since each of his companions invited him to escape without delay the outrages that awaited him, he ordered a pit as long as his body to be dug in front of him, to arrange some pieces of marble around it if they could be found. and to bring water and wood to render the last honors to his corpse shortly. At each of these preparations he cried and repeated continuously: " “He then asked what this kind of torture was and they told him that the condemned man was stripped, his head was passed in a gallows and he was beaten with rods to death. Then, frightened, he took two daggers that he had brought with him, then tried the tips and then put them back in their scabbard protesting that the hour marked by fate had not yet arrived ".

When he heard the pawing of the horses of the men approaching to capture him, he uttered a famous verse of in Greek. ’ Iliad: “. Then he planted a blade in his throat with the help of Epaphroditus, the man assigned to supplications.

And finally:

“He was still breathing when a centurion broke in and, as if to rescue him, he applied his cloak to the wound. Nero simply told him:, and again:. As he pronounced these words he expired and his eyes, prominent and fixed, took on such an expression that they inspired horror and fear in those who looked at them. "

This was the end, at times even bitterly comic, of the Emperor who for years had terrorized Rome and the Romans with his own manias.