Nero and the arts
Nero’s obsession with the arts began at the young age with his tutor Seneca fuelling his love for it with knowledge on poets, artists and gladiators inturn leading him to have a kind heart at a very young age (Museums, Capitoline, 2012).Yet as Nero grew up and experienced more and more saddening and frustrating turmoil's he began to rely heavily on the arts. Events like these lead Nero to withdraw more form the senate and throw himself into activities such as acting, poetry and dancing (Barrett, 2008). After his mothers death Nero created two new festivals of athletics and chariot racing while also staging musical contests, all for a chance for Nero to show off his so called talents. The senate and citizens were infuriated by Nero’s acts as arts such as perfmoing were looked down upon by most people during that time (Museums, Capitoline, 2012) . Seeing as Nero was emperor he created a ban on anyone leaving the auditorium during performance for any reason whatsoever with historians such as Suetonius writing of men pretending to die in order to be carried out of the theatre (Museums, Capitoline, 2012). A big example of Nero’s obsession with the arts came through after The Great Fire with the idea of the Golden Palace. Nero had taken a massive area of land destroyed by the fire and planned to turn it into spectacular gardens, zoo and artificial lake (Barrett, 2008). This palace was set to feature a rotating ceiling mimicking the seasons and a park available to the public to watch grand entertainment (Barrett, 2008).