50 – 60s

Events in the 50s 2

• 41 – 54 Claudius — the unexpected emperor Claudius, considered a fool by his family because of his physical disabilities (a limp and a stammer), proves a capable and reforming emperor. He conquers Britain in 43 AD — the first Roman landing since Caesar's raids — annexes Mauretania and Thrace, extends citizenship rights and reforms the bureaucracy. His fourth wife Agrippina the Younger poisons him with mushrooms in 54 AD to secure the succession for her son Nero. His Histories and Etruscan studies are lost; his memoirs survive only in fragments.
• 54 – 68 Nero — art, fire and the end of the Julio-Claudians Nero, last of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, begins well under the guidance of Seneca and Burrus but deteriorates into a tyrant who murders his mother Agrippina (59 AD), his wife Octavia, and the philosopher Seneca. He fancies himself a great artist and performer — shameful for a Roman aristocrat. The Great Fire of Rome burns for six days in 64 AD; Nero blames the Christians, inaugurating the first persecution. He is deposed by the Senate in 68 AD and kills himself: "What an artist dies in me!"