Dying Every Day by James Romm

A Tale of Murder, Madness, Tyranny, and Perversion in Ancient Rome

The Leonard Lopate Show | Mar 24, 2014

Classical historian James Romm tells the juicy story of of murder, madness, tyranny, and perversion, set in ancient Rome. Seneca, then Rome’s preeminent writer and philosopher, was appointed as tutor to 12-year-old Nero, the future emperor of Rome. Controlling them both was Nero’s mother, Julia Agrippina the Younger, great-granddaughter of the Emperor Augustus, sister of the Emperor Caligula, niece and fourth wife of Emperor Claudius. Dying Every Day: Seneca at the Court of Nero is about the moral struggles, political intrigue, and bloody vengeance that surrounded Seneca in the twisted imperial family and the perverse, paranoid regime of Emperor Nero, who was a despot and a madman.

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