Sensing that the Great Fire of Rome in 64 (though entertaining) was damaging his public image, the Emperor Nero looked around for someone to blame.
In 64, a terrible fire swept Rome, and in little over a week two thirds of the city had been destroyed. The whole spectacle had been watched with fascination by the Emperor Nero, from a place of safety of course, strumming on his harp as he sang an epic lay of his own about the Fall of Troy. There were those who said that the whole catastrophe had been Nero’s idea of performance art.
Agricola, tasked with subduing the people of Britain to Roman colonial government, persuaded them to wear servitude as a badge of refinement.
Gnaeus Julius Agricola took over as Roman Governor of Britannia in 78, and remained there for six very successful years. Having applied the stick, so his son-in-law Cornelius Tacitus tells us, he was eager to offer carrots: taxes were cut, corrupt officials were weeded out, and investment was poured in. The coddled and cozened tribal leaders thought they had got a fine bargain for their liberties.
A proud British king, taken to Rome as a trophy of Empire, refused to plead for his life.
Caratacus, King of the Catuvellauni, led the British resistance to Roman invasion in the AD 40s, but he was betrayed and taken to Rome. The Emperor Claudius asked him why his life should be spared, and this was the King’s reply.