Lissa Oliver's Blog, page 5

Royal racing

I am currently working long, full days at Royal Ascot, these posts coming to you live from the press room, but mainly “Ballydoyle Corner” at the saddling boxes used by Aidan O’Brien, which affords the best view of the horses once racing starts. My job this week is to assess the horses, “paddock judge”, and only French colleague Dominique Boeuf ever joins me to do so, absent so far and much-missed. We get 30 minutes to assess from six up to 20 or so runners, generally before any numbers appear. You need to be able to recognise and remember equine faces, which I find easy. I’m hopeless with human ones, though!
Nero loved his racing, as did most Romans, and it was the fashion to display a portrait of a favourite charioteer in pride of place in every home. Frankie Dettori today would be like “the green lady” of the 1970s! Driving chariots at racing speed was a dangerous occupation and few charioteers lived to enjoy retirement. They amassed vast fortunes, but the most important part of their equipment was the knife on their belt, to cut the reins (wrapped around them for the race) free if they fell.

Day 18 - Nero, charioteer!

As well as entering drama competitions, Nero competed publicly in chariot races. When the public had flocked into the Palace to watch his private races, the Senate could do little to prevent him from racing competitively outside of the Palace. While touring Greece, he competed successfully in the Olympiad, driving a 10-horse chariot, and was awarded the race despite falling from the chariot before the finish. Until that moment, he had believed all his cherished prizes had been won on merit – his own personal accomplishment, with nothing to do with his hated office. His prizes, and self-belief, were rendered instantly worthless. Within less than a year, he was dead. His final months were corrupted, not by power, but by the lack of power; with the realisation that he could never escape his title, nor use it for the better good.

Nero - The Last Caesar

Performer of the Arts

Day 17, and I’m of course forgetting Nero’s greatest sin of all – performing in public! It was one thing to enjoy the Arts, theatre and chariot racing, but quite another to participate. The stage itself was the preserve of the lower classes and though charioteers were the pin-ups in every home and earned huge amounts, it was no career for a nobleman. Nero had always yearned to be a charioteer, so set up a private course in the Palace grounds, soon opened to the public. His passion for theatre took him to the stage, too, and he invited fellow noblemen and women to act alongside him, which shocked and appalled many. He took his love of the Arts very seriously and entered singing and drama competitions; suffering from severe nerves at each contest and always surprised by his victories. It didn’t occur to him that he was awarded prizes simply because he was Emperor. When he found out the truth, it destroyed him.

Nero - The Last Caesar

Banning deaths in the arena

One of Nero’s greatest “crimes” came early in his reign, as a teenager who hated bloodshed. He had always been disgusted by Claudius’ passion for the amphitheatre, so one of his first acts as Emperor was to ban all deaths in the arena. Gladiatorial combats were reduced to “mere ballet performances”, according to the outraged nobility. Criminals were set to work on public projects instead of condemned to the arena. This really was seen as a threat to society. The people of Rome were taught to value and respect life by the life and death battles they witnessed in the arena. How better to understand the value of life than see a man fight for that very life? When Nero banned the killings, the fear for many was that future generations would have no respect for life. How different our perceptions have become.

Nero - The Last Caesar

Enemy of the State?

What did Nero do to become Enemy of the State? He allowed the destitute to take shelter in the Palace, as I recalled in 10th June’s Diary. He sold corn at a subsidised price to all citizens, averting a famine. And he nationalised the legal system; nationalisation still being a dirty word to the ruling classes even today. His good friend and Arbiter of Taste was the satirical author Petronius (I recommend his surviving book The Satyricon, an hilarious laddish adventure), who wrote the lines “what uses are laws when money is king, when poverty’s helpless and can’t win a thing. There’s no justice at law, it’s the bidding that counts, and the job of the judge is to fix the amounts.” Nero’s solution was to put all lawyers on a set State fee, so their services were freely available to rich and poor alike. By now, even his childhood friend Senecio was plotting against his life; Nero was a menace to decent society!

Nero - The Last Caesar

But was it murder?

Nero didn’t fiddle while Rome burned, but what other villainous acts did he commit, according to myth? Well, of course, he murdered his mother. In fact, she had made several attempts on his life and had tried to overthrow him when her influence over him waned. With every lawyer and judge in her pocket she was beyond the law, but Nero’s Commander of the Fleet devised a plan to drown her, by staging a shipwreck. Her time spent in exile, diving for pearls, stood her well and she was able to swim to shore. She despatched an assassin to the Palace, but he was caught, and Guards were sent to arrest her, with instructions to execute her should she resist. She asked that she be stabbed through the womb. When Nero learned of her death, he remained insensible with grief for several days.

Nero - The Last Caesar

Why choose Nero as a hero?

Lucky for some 13th blog on Nero today, but why? What attracted me to Nero was his Marxist policies, some 1,800 years before Marx. I only knew the Peter Ustinov Nero of Hollywood blockbusters, an insane tyrant, old, fat, bearded. The historical Nero, a young, blonde, clean-shaven socialist, swept me off my feet as I read Tacitus and Suetonius. Why did we not know this real Nero?! I had to tell the world! Of course, when I sat down to research his biography, I found four academic biographies already published, all telling the same thing. The real Nero was there, but not of interest to anyone other than academics. The sensationalism of the myths were what people wanted, not the facts. So I wrote the biography anyway, then used it as a frame for an “I, Claudius”-style novel, bringing Nero and his friends to life through the structure of fiction. Just like Nero, I fell for Marcus Otho, another unexpected nice guy in an otherwise greedy and corrupt imperial household. Only now, as I write these daily pieces, do I see so many connections – love of books, writing, music, horses, horseracing, outsider fashion… and Otho!

Nero - The Last Caesar

Dress to impress?

We’ve seen some of Nero’s policies, but what of the young man himself? Let me draw you a picture. He was described as “pretty, rather than handsome”. He was of average height and build and had “a bull neck” of which he was very self-conscious and was never seen in public without a neck scarf. He had blue eyes and poor eyesight, using a large emerald as a magnifying glass. He was clean shaven, as was the fashion in First Century Rome, but wore his blonde hair set in curls and down to his shoulders, which was not the fashion, in Rome or Greece. Men kept their hair short as soon as they came of age, although certain male slaves were allowed long hair, if it was pleasing on the eye to their masters. Togas were worn only by Senators in the Senate House, the fashion in Rome being for knee-length tunics in plain colours. Nero preferred to dress in Greek style – short tunics in bright colours with bold floral prints. His favourite tunics were adorned with large embroidered poppies and on special occasions he wore fringed tunics.

Nero - The Last Caesar

Averting famine

A drought that wiped out crops for the year was bad news for those faced by famine, but good news for the merchants of Rome, whose grain stores were now about to make them exceptionally wealthy. They intended to sell corn at extortionate prices to those that could afford it. Famine was a regular cleanser of the over-crowded city and welcomed by some. Prevented from using State Treasury funds, Nero instead exhausted his private purse to buy all the grain supplies. To the disgust of all but the commons, he then sold the grain at a subsidised price, rationing it to sustain the hungry until the next crop was harvested. The wealthy therefore suffered alongside the poor and no one went entirely without. This was listed as one of Nero’s worst crimes; and when I read of it I recognised him as a hero and determined to write his biography.

Nero - The Last Caesar

No one fiddled while Rome burned (the violin hadn't been invented!)

Nero didn’t “fiddle while Rome burned”, but he did throw open the grounds of the Palace to the destitute, personally helping in the provision of food, shelter and clothing. The Great Fire began naturally and spread rapidly throughout Rome, destroying 10 of its 14 districts, the Palace included. Nero was not in Rome at the time, but returned from Naples when he heard the news; as all others of his class fled the city to their country estates. Those remaining were the poor of Rome and Nero’s aid was viewed by his peers as a desecration of State property and unnecessary prevention of a much-needed ethnic cleansing of the city. It was yet another black mark against his name, though we wouldn’t view it as such today. He also personally designed the fire-resistant grid system, which now forms modern Rome and so many major cities around the world, including New York. That’s Nero’s own handiwork; though we know him better for “fiddling”.

Nero - The Last Caesar