68

Events in 68 1

• 54 – 68 Nero — art, fire and the end of the Julio-Claudians Nero, last of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, begins well under the guidance of Seneca and Burrus but deteriorates into a tyrant who murders his mother Agrippina (59 AD), his wife Octavia, and the philosopher Seneca. He fancies himself a great artist and performer — shameful for a Roman aristocrat. The Great Fire of Rome burns for six days in 64 AD; Nero blames the Christians, inaugurating the first persecution. He is deposed by the Senate in 68 AD and kills himself: "What an artist dies in me!"