The Roman emperor Nero has long been the very image of a bad ruler-cruel, vain, and incompetent. Historians of his day despised him, and it's their recollections that have been passed down through the ages. But, in all of the horror, there is a mystery. For a long time after his deposition and suicide, anonymous hands laid flowers on his grave. He was loved. In this nuanced biography, Anthony Everitt, the celebrated biographer of classical Greece and Rome, reveals the contradictions inherent in the reign of Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus and offers a reappraisal of his life. Everitt teams up with journalist Roddy Ashworth to tell the epic story of Rome's conquest of Britain and queen Boudica's doomed revolt against Nero's legions.