Emperor Nero was never supposed to be a ruler within the Julio-Claudian dynasty, but his mother, Agrippina’s ego, was why he was there. Let’s get real. Agrippina, who was obsessed with money, had this other obsession: ruling Rome. After all, Nero’s family was exiled from Italy, according to History Skills, by Caligula because they wanted to be on the throne.
Agrippina the Younger had an ego on her that would have pushed onto Nero, too, given he is her son. The behaviour of the pair shows their entitled and power-hungry ways. The least surprising part of all of this is that they had to potentially kill and scheme to get to the top of the pecking order.
Nero: The Mama’s Boy
Nero was a mama’s boy who would do anything his mother told him. However, he grew tired of her plotting and tried to kill her – multiple times. A fascinating tidbit about his attempts was that she always survived. One story claims that when Agrippina knew she was at the end, she told her son to stab her through the stomach as that is where she bore him.
Moreover, Nero had other influences besides Agrippina and her huge ego, namely Burrus and Seneca. They served as his aides if you will. As he grew into his role as Emperor, he started thinking for himself, which caused friction with his mother.
Allowed To Have A Voice
Over time, it became too much to deal with, so Nero decided to kill his mother. Nero’s earliest attempt to get away from Agrippina’s influence was when he started rejecting her counsel. At this time, he would lean more on Seneca and Burrus. Agrippina’s ego started to take a beating as she never expected Nero to turn against her.
Agrippina’s ego was fuelled by the idea that women could not rule Rome independently. She was married to her uncle, Claudius as one of his wives, who made her an Empress (consort), but he had more power than she did in public. Behind the scenes, however, she was the one scheming. She wanted complete power.
For the longest time, Nero did as he was told. But when he ended up on the throne, she had too much control, and she had to be put down.
However, Nero didn’t do much initially to placate Agrippina and her ego. If anything, his rejection made her worse.
