Nero

Name: Nero
Rating: 4.4 (5955 reviews)

by Conn Iggulden Book 1 in the The Nero Trilogy series.

First published 2024

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4.4(5,955)

Agrippina the Younger is born into Rome’s imperial family, where blood provides proximity to power but no protection from exile, execution or dynastic suspicion. Through the reigns of Tiberius and Caligula and the accession of Claudius, she protects her son Lucius and learns to use marriage, lineage and court alliances as political weapons. The novel follows the childhood of the future Nero and the ambition that begins shaping him for the throne.

Agrippina’s strategy depends on the instability of Julio-Claudian succession. Adoption, marriage, inheritance and access to the emperor can be as decisive as formal office, and the young Nero grows up watching power move through the household rather than through any fixed constitutional rule. His mother’s success in positioning him for the throne also creates the future struggle over who will control the ruler she has made.