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Friday, May 28, 2021

"Nero got a bad rap" – NYT

EXHIBITION REVIEW: Rehabilitating Nero, an Emperor With a Bad Rap. He is known as a cruel tyrant who played his lyre while Rome burned. That’s exactly what his enemies wanted you to think, the curators of a new exhibition argue (Farah Nayeri, New York Times).

Background here and links.

This review may hint at an answer to a question I raised at the above link:

Nero also had to “find culprits” for the fire, so he went after a “Jewish subgroup,” later known as Christians, Mr. Opper explained. Nero became “the anti-Christ” to followers of what would become the West’s dominant faith, Christianity.
Does this paragraph imply that the exhibition also deals with the post-mortem Nero mythology? Or is that last sentence just a comment by the reviewer? Again, drop me a note if you see the exhibition and find out.

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