Nero’s suicide and the end of the dynasty

The revolt in the provinces erased Rome’s illusion of invulnerability. In early June 68, the Senate abandoned Nero, declaring him hostis, a public enemy, while Galba’s troops in Spain and Gaul closed ranks. The Praetorians, offered rewards, shifted their loyalties. In a villa outside the city—far from the Palatine’s gilded halls—Nero faced the sum of his choices [2][14].

Accounts relate his fear and hesitation, his request for someone to show him how to die. When the moment came, he drove a blade into his throat—some say with help from a freedman—ending a reign that had begun with promises of mercy and music. The sound was a single gasp. The dynasty that started in 27 BCE with a Senate’s applause ended on a quiet floor, without trumpets or lictors [9][14].

Back in Rome, the Senate moved to normalize the abnormal. Messages went to Galba; decrees framed the transition as a restoration of order. In the castra praetoria, officers recalculated. On the Via Flaminia and roads from Spain, columns of men in armor advanced, their standards bright against June light. The city braced: new emperor, old uncertainties [14].

Nero’s body, once displayed in purple before roaring crowds, was carried away and buried with less ceremony than he had once demanded. The Domus Aurea glinted; the Forum’s white marble shone; the man who ordered them was gone. The machine had outlived the family that built it [10][14].