Murder, Madness, Tyranny, and Perversion in Ancient Rome

Colosseum, Rome

We're re-airing an interview with Classical historian James Romm from March. He tells the story of Seneca, then Rome’s preeminent writer and philosopher, who was appointed as tutor to 12-year-old Nero, the future emperor of Rome. Controlling them both was Nero’s mother, Julia Agrippina the Younger, great-granddaughter of the Emperor Augustus, sister of the Emperor Caligula, niece and fourth wife of Emperor Claudius. Dying Every Day: Seneca at the Court of Nero is about the moral struggles, political intrigue, and bloody vengeance that surrounded Seneca in the twisted imperial family and the perverse, paranoid regime of Emperor Nero, who was a despot and a madman.