Sensitive and handsome, Nero (37 – 68 AD / reigned 54 – 68 AD) started out well as emperor. But his early promise gave way to wild extravagance and murder. His rule ended as violently as it ...

The palace is called the Domus Aurea, or Golden House, erected by and for Nero. When the 30-year-old emperor’s crazed world exploded in A.D. 68, and he ordered a subject to drive a knife through ...