When Nero was singing in the theatre, no one was allowed to leave. It was said babies were born between the stalls and spectators played dead so they could be carried out on stretchers. The emperor limited his consumption of fruit (bad for the vocal cords, apparently), but nothing seemed to make the least bit of difference to his insipid little voice. His biographer, Suetonius, claimed that Nero, ruler of Rome AD54-68, never wore the same clothes twice. Between them, the ancient historians counted Nero’s mother, stepbrother, two wives and a constipated aunt among his substantial catalogue of

Source: The Times May 15, 2021 23:03 UTC