The Pseudo-neros

As rumours abounded that he faked his own death, three men claiming to be Nero tried to seize power

A year after Nero’s demise, with many refusing to believe he was really dead, a man described as either a slave from Pontus or an Italian freedman, who looked exactly like Nero, sparked off a sensation in the provinces of Achaia and Asia. With Nero’s whirlwind tour of Greece fresh in their minds, many were thrilled at the prospect of the emperor’s return. A virtuoso singer and citharode, the pretender, who openly claimed to be Nero, began seducing army deserters to his cause with promises of riches.

Sailing to the Cycladic island of Cythnus, he convinced scores of Roman soldiers to declare for him, while executing those who refused. When the rebels turned to piracy, pillaging merchants and arming slaves, one of the centurions in their midst broke free and spread the news of Nero’s re-emergence.

Desperate to nip this threat in the bud, the governor Nonius Calpurnius Asprenas was sent to quash the rebellion. There, while ‘Nero’ tried to convince Asprenas’ men to join him, Asprenas snuck a group of soldiers onto his ship and killed him, parading his corpse back to Rome.

A decade later, during the reign of Titus, another lyre-playing ‘Nero’ emerged in Asia, claiming to have escaped his captors in 68 CE. Joined by a handful of Asian followers, the imposter travelled towards the Euphrates, gathering supporters and seeking refuge with the Persian usurper Artabanus. Artabanus was plotting an attack on Rome and thought having ‘Nero’ on his side would soften his opposition. However, when he learned the man was a fraud he had him killed.

Roughly 20 years after Nero’s death, as Domitian struggled to hold the empire together, a third man of unknown origin emerged in Parthia, where he was treated as if he were Nero himself. He was so revered by the Parthians they refused to surrender him to the desperate Romans, even at the risk of war.