Hidden Musicians of History Month: Nero

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝗺𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗼𝗿 𝗪𝗵𝗼 𝗦𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗱 𝗪𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗲 𝗥𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗕𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗱: Nero

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝗺𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗼𝗿 𝗪𝗵𝗼 "𝗦𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗱" 𝗪𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗲 𝗥𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗕𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗱: Nero

Nero. Rome’s most unhinged emperor, part-time tyrant, full-time wannabe rockstar.

Most people know him for the fire of AD 64, the executions, the paranoia, the spectacularly high body count…

 But fewer people know that Nero had one overwhelming passion:

Music.

Not as a patron.

 Not as a casual plucker of strings.

 But as a performer.

 A man who believed — with breathtaking confidence — that he was the greatest musician Rome had ever produced.

His instrument of choice?

 The cithara, a kind of Greek lyre.

 And Nero didn’t just dabble. He practised obsessively, hired the best teachers, and forced every noble in Rome to attend his long, painful recitals.

 (Critics were… let’s say… “discouraged.” In the sense that disagreeing with him could shorten your life expectancy.)

There’s even a story that during one of his marathon performances, the audience wasn’t allowed to leave — not for illness, not for childbirth, not even for death.

 Imagine a concert so unbearable you’d rather fake your own funeral to get out of it.

As for the famous “fiddled while Rome burned”:

 He didn’t play a fiddle — that didn’t exist yet — but he did reportedly sing a dramatic epic about the fall of Troy while the city was in flames.

 Because nothing says leadership like treating a crisis as an open-mic night.

Nero wanted applause.

 He got a revolution.

So today’s hidden musician is history’s most infamous performer — a man whose passion for music was eclipsed only by his talent for chaos.

Nero:

 Emperor.

 Cithara player.

 Catastrophically committed to his own stage career.

🎶 𝗜’𝗺 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗻 𝗢’𝗡𝗲𝗶𝗹𝗹 — 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗠𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗰 𝗞𝗶𝗱𝘀 𝗔𝗰𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗺𝘆

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