Nero Episode 2: Over Dramaticus

July 27, 2025 · 1 h 34 min

Show notes

What happens when an emperor becomes so obsessed with power, performance, and being adored that Rome finally decides it has had enough?

In the second and final episode of Torture: A Dark History on Nero, Kevin Young and Dan Hourigan pick up where we left off as Nero’s reign descends into paranoia, violence, excess, and chaos.

We’ll follow the emperor through the Great Fire of Rome, the persecution of Christians, political conspiracies, brutal purges, and the increasingly bizarre world surrounding Nero as his grip on reality and his empire begins to slip.

From Rome to Greece and back again, Nero becomes more obsessed with his identity as an artist, while the people around him pay an increasingly deadly price for failing to play along.

Eventually, the military turns against him, the Senate declares him an enemy of the state, and Nero finds himself running for his life with nowhere left to go.

And because this is Torture: A Dark History, Kevin and Dan bring their own dark and twisted humor to the spectacular collapse of one of Rome’s most infamous emperors.

If you’re interested in Nero, the Great Fire of Rome, Christian persecution, Roman emperors, political conspiracies, ancient Rome, the Year of the Four Emperors, and the spectacular downfall of one of history’s most notorious rulers, this is where Nero’s story finally comes to an end.

And what an ending it is.

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