The Fall and suicide of Nero ends his rule not with a final public performance but with the sudden discovery that the institutions and followers on which he depended have deserted him. After Galba is proclaimed emperor in Rome, Nero flees to Phaon’s villa outside the Nomentan Gate. Faced with the Senate’s sentence and the prospect of capture, he dies by suicide; the next day Acte arranges his cremation. The episode turns the emperor’s theatrical self-image against him: even as his power disappears, he tries to script how his death will be remembered.

Causes and the Collapse of Power

The immediate crisis follows a reversal in the rebellion’s fortunes. The death of Vindex and discord among the rebellious legions had seemed to shift events back in Nero’s favor. Feasts, triumphs, and sentences resumed in Rome, but that brief appearance of restored control ended when a messenger reported that soldiers in the city had revolted and proclaimed Galba emperor.

Nero was asleep when the news arrived. On waking, he called for the night guard and found the palace empty; slaves were already plundering whatever they could carry. His isolation is made visible through the emptied building: the emperor who had commanded a court now wandered alone through it, crying out in fear and despair. The revolt had not merely challenged his claim to rule; it had stripped away the people and protections that made that claim seem enforceable.

His freedmen Phaon, Sporus, and Epaphroditus urged him to flee. Nero initially imagined that he might still appeal to the Senate through mourning, eloquence, and performance, perhaps even obtain the prefecture of Egypt. The freedmen did not directly contradict him, but warned that the people would tear him apart before he could reach the Forum and threatened to leave if he delayed. Their warning marks the distance between Nero’s belief in his persuasive power and the danger now surrounding him.

Flight to Phaon’s Villa

Phaon offered refuge at his villa beyond the Nomentan Gate. Nero and the freedmen left on horseback, covering his head with a mantle. Their departure was not a triumphal progress but a furtive escape through a city unsettled by the revolt. Soldiers appeared singly or in small groups; when a corpse startled Nero’s horse, the mantle slipped, and a soldier recognized the emperor and gave him the military salute. Passing the Praetorian camp, Nero heard soldiers shouting for Galba. At last, the evidence of his displacement could no longer be mistaken for rumor.

The route brought the party near Ostrianum, where Peter had taught and baptized. The place connects Nero’s flight to the Christian story that has developed under his reign, though the immediate action remains focused on the emperor’s effort to escape. At Phaon’s villa, his freedmen told him plainly that he had to die. Nero ordered a grave dug and lay down so that it could be measured, but the sight of the earth made him recoil. He delayed, shifting between fear and theatrical declarations, and asked that his body be burned.

Sentence and Suicide

A messenger from Phaon brought news that the Senate had sentenced the parricide to punishment according to ancient custom. When Nero asked what that meant, Epaphroditus explained that he would be fixed in a fork, flogged to death, and thrown into the Tiber. The sentence made the choice immediate: capture would expose him to a public punishment imposed by the state he had once personified.

Nero drew aside his robe and again declared, “What an artist is perishing!” The arrival of a centurion and soldiers seeking the emperor’s head closed off further delay. Nero placed a knife to his neck but could not drive it in himself. Epaphroditus pushed his hand, and the wound proved fatal. The centurion entered with the announcement, “I bring thee life!” Nero answered, “Too late!” and then, “Here is faithfulness!” The exchange gives his last moments the structure of a final scene, but the attempted performance cannot restore his authority or control its outcome.

Aftermath and Narrative Significance

Nero died in the garden. On the following day, Acte wrapped his body in costly fabrics and burned it on a pyre supplied with perfumes. The funeral care contrasts with the collapse of his public power: after the palace’s emptiness, the Senate’s sentence, and the centurion’s arrival, his burial depends on the loyalty of a former companion.

The closing perspective sets the transience of Nero’s reign against the endurance of Christianity. The narrative describes him as passing like a whirlwind, storm, fire, war, or death, then turns to the basilica of Peter, which continues to rule the city and the world from the Vatican heights. The fall is therefore both a political ending and a final reversal in the novel’s opposition between imperial force and Christian continuity: Nero’s rule ends in flight and suicide, while the faith he persecuted is associated with a future beyond his reach.