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The new exhibition "Nero: The Man Behind the Myth" is on view at the British Museum through October 24, 2021.

He is known as a cruel tyrant who played his lyre while Rome burned. That’s exactly what his enemies wanted you to think, the curators of a new exhibition argue.

IN 2008 THE British Museum hosted a blockbuster exhibition about Hadrian, a Roman emperor whose reign (117-138AD) has never ceased to fascinate. Generations of historians have grappled with his personality and probed his interest in the high culture and mystical rites of Greece, his imperial projects stretching from northern Britain to the Nile and his passion for Antinous, a Greek youth. Marguerite Yourcenar, a French-American writer, claimed to have understood Hadrian better than she knew her...

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Last modified on Mon 24 May 2021 13.25 EDT N ero comes with a lurid reputation. “The main thing we know about him is his infamy,” says Thorsten Opper, curator of the first British exhibition devoted to the Roman emperor. “The glutton, the profligate, the matricide, the megalomaniac.” Also, the pyromaniac: famously, Nero “fiddled while Rome burned”, or at least strummed his kithara to one of his own compositions, The Fall of Troy, while a fire, supposedly begun by him, destroyed thre...

An exhibition on Nero will examine the misogynistic treatment of women in the Roman Empire. The British Museum is hoping to open its exhibition on Nero, who succeeded to the throne aged 16, next month. It is billed as a “fresh look at the Emperor”, who is said to have killed his mother after an incestuous relationship with her, as well as killing his first and second wife and setting fire to Rome. The exhibition will feature more than 200 objects to “question” the traditional depiction ...

British Museum Announces First Major UK Exhibition On Roman Emperor Nero Tickets are available to book today for Nero: the man behind the myth opening 27 May.by BWW News Desk Next month the British Museum will open the first major exhibition in the UK on Nero, one of the most notorious ancient Roman emperors. Nero: the man behind the myth will explore the true story of Romes fifth emperor informed by new research and archaeological evidence from the time, challenging the biased historical acco...

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Hes the emperor infamous for fiddling while Rome burned to the ground. Nero, who killed himself in 69AD, has long been derided as being a corrupt and tyrannical leader who may have deliberately instigated the Great Fire of Rome. But a new British Museum exhibition aims to demonstrate how the negative depiction of Nero is a partly false one. In response to the fire in AD 64, which burned for nine days and destroyed large parts of Rome, Nero in fact led the relief and reconstruction efforts and b...