Why,one might ask, would modern civilization owe adebt of gratitudeto theunpopular, infamous Roman emperor Nero, dead two thousand yearsago byhis own hand? For those folks not tunedin to their ownhistoricalroots, Nero is an important part of your culture, not just acomputersoftware tool for burning compact disks. Nero gathered amagnificentcollection of classical Greek sculpture from all over theRoman Empire,most of which was lost following his downfall. Why shouldyou careabout Nero's story?--because whathappened to him influences theway youlook at the world every day.

You may have heard the taleof howNero fiddled while Rome burned in 64 A.D. First, let us lay thatstoryto rest. Despite the hatred he engendered in the Roman populacefor hismany atrocities, there is no evidence to support this rumor. Infact,he appears to have been rather helpful to a devastated Rome duringthatperiod. No, we cannot give him credit for the burning of Rome, butNerohad many other monstrous acts with which we can credithim--usingChristians as human torches comes first to mind.

One ofNero'schief failings was vanity. Nero considered himself to beenormouslytalented in all things: art, drama, athletics, and, ofcourse, music, afiddler extraordinaire he claimed. Perhaps he was. Weare told that hewon every single competition he entered, whetherartistic orathletic,from fiddling to chariot racing and every thing inbetween. Weare further told that the reason he always won was becausereallyunpleasant things happened to anyone who bested him.

Neromadegood use of the wide-spread destruction of Rome. The emperor'sownhouse, the Domus Transitoria, was destroyed in the fire, but freespacewas now available in the crowded city, now burned out. Nerotookadvantage of that space to build a pleasure palace, his Domus Aurea, or Golden House. TheDomus Aurea was not a place for sleeping, because Nero had other lodgings for that. Nero outfitted hisDomus Aurea with priceless treasures, including his collection of classical Greek sculpture.

Described by Pliny the Elder, Nero built the Domus Aureaofbricks and stucco, lavishly embellished it with gold-leaf decorationandivory veneer, and he studded the ceilings with semi-previousstones. Oneceiling actuallyrotated and sprinkled perfume, crankedlaboriously byslaves. The Domus Aurea covered350 acres, roughly athird of Rome, spanning fourof the SevenHills of Rome in the heart ofthe city. The grounds of the Domus Aurea featured villas, vineyards, forests, a sacred grove, pastures for livestock, and an artificial lake.

Nero erected a 120 foot bronze statue of himself in the center dressed as the sun god, Sol, his Colossus Neronis. The Colossus would be the sole survivor of Nero's Golden House.In68 A.D. the Roman Senate declared Nero an enemy of the state, adeathsentence, and the emperor committed suicide to avoidexecution.Following his death, the lake was drained, the Colosseum constructed in its place, and Nero's colossal head wasdecapitated from the colossal body of the Neronis, then replacedwith the heads of succeeding emperors. Said to be an embarrassment to the city, the Golden House was denuded of its decorations within tenyears, and subsequently buried beneath new construction within forty years.

That would seem to be the end of Nero's Golden House,butsomething strange happened to bring it back to life at the end ofthefifteenth century. A young Roman was walking on the Aventine hillonlyto fall into a hole into a subterranean wonderland. He landed inthe Domus Aurea, buriedbeneath the Baths of Trajan. There hesaw incredible frescoes, appearingto be freshly painted as if new. Thesite of this accident drew Italianartists from far and wide.

RaphaelandMichelangelo visited the site, and some artists of the timeinscribedtheir names into the walls. From the depths of Nero'spleasure palace,from the frescoes, mosaics, and sculpture, they tookinspiration, aninspiration that would be reflected in the art of theHigh Renaissance.As the Domus Aurea with its new antiquesource material wasexplored, one classical Greek sculpture wasunearthed on a day thatMichelangelo happened to visit. It was the Laocoon, a marble work by famed Greek Hellenistic sculptors, Athanadoros, Hagesandros, and Polydoros of Rhodes.

Laocoon,amythological subject, depicts the Trojan priest Laocoon with histwosons in a struggle against a giant sea snake, a punishment fromthegods for warning the Trojans about the Trojan horse. Itspowerfulemotional content and vigorous muscularity would soon bereflected inthe works of Renaissance giants Michelangelo and Raphael.This work andothers like it from Nero's private collection of classicalGreeksculpture profoundly influenced Italian Renaissance art, and it isfromthis art tha{1}t we have developed our own modernaestheticsensibilities.

Had Nero not been the demented,despotic monsterthat he was, had his Golden House not been entombed,buried beneath theBaths of Trajan for two millennia,his classical Greeksculpturecollection might have been lost like so many other significantartworks of its kind. Without Nero, we might not appreciate beauty whenwesee it.