Season 1 • Episode 2
LatestAs a young boy, future emperor Nero witnesses the mad Emperor Caligula kill his father and exile his mother. While in exile in the pontine islands, Agrippina, his mother, sees a vision telling her that her son can become emperor, but she will have to die first. She accepts the proposal. Back in Rome, Nero, now being raised by emperor Claudius after Caligula's death, Agrippina returns. She poisons Claudius' food and Nero becomes emperor. At first, Nero cuts taxes and introduces successful programs and invades Brittania. Soon he meets a beautiful slave named Claudia Acte, and marries her, throwing off his engagement with Claudius' daughter, Claudia Octavia, telling her she can marry someone she will be happy with. Heartbroken, she arrives at an island and kills herself. Nero enjoys being married to Claudia Acte, but soon he gradually goes mad with power and sets fire to Rome.
Acting
Laura Morante's Agrippina: Machiavelli in stilettos, ancient Rome edition.
Production
Two-episode miniseries that spends its budget where it counts: togas and tension.
Writing
The prophecy twist: mom sees her own death, signs up anyway. Iconic.
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This 2004 minseries was actually the second in a planned Imperium franchise—only Nero and Augustus got made, making it television's most ambitious abandoned Roman project until HBO said 'hold my wine.'
The show's Nero-Acte romance sanitizes history; the real Acte was a freedwoman Nero abandoned when his mother forced him to marry Octavia, not some grand love story. Hollywood loves a softboi tyrant.
IT
