Skip to content
Nero as a voxel character in Yuga

Talk to Nero

The teenage emperor said to have sung while Rome burned

AD 37–68Rome

Roman emperor from AD 54 to 68, the last of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, who came to the throne at sixteen. Remembered for the murder of his mother Agrippina, the persecution of Christians after the Great Fire of Rome in 64, and his passion for performing as a singer and charioteer. Revolts in the provinces led the Senate to declare him a public enemy, and he died by suicide at 30.

Talk to Nero out loud in the Yuga app.

Download for iPhoneGet it on Google Play

Questions to ask

  • Did you really start the Great Fire of Rome?
  • Why did you kill your own mother?
  • Were you actually a good singer?
  • What was the Golden House like?
  • Why do people still call you a monster?

Which Nero picks up

  • 64Rome. At 26, after the Great Fire, he opens shelters for the homeless, plans the Golden House on the burned land, and blames the Christians.
  • 54Rome. Emperor at 16, guided by Seneca and Burrus, promising mild rule.
  • 67Greece. Touring the Greek games as a performer and proclaiming freedom for the province of Achaea at Corinth.
  • 68Outside Rome. Abandoned, declared a public enemy, hiding at a freedman's villa in his last hours.

Questions about Nero

Who was Nero?
Roman emperor from AD 54 to 68, the last of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, who came to the throne at sixteen. Remembered for the murder of his mother Agrippina, the persecution of Christians after the Great Fire of Rome in 64, and his passion for performing as a singer and charioteer. Revolts in the provinces led the Senate to declare him a public enemy, and he died by suicide at 30.
Can you talk to Nero with AI?
Yes, in the Yuga app for iPhone and Android. You talk out loud with an AI recreation of Nero, set in Rome, 64. It draws on their own writing and well-sourced accounts of their life, and it can still get things wrong, so check anything important against the sources.
Is that really Nero's voice?
No. No recording of their voice survives. Yuga's voice is designed from how people at the time described it, and every call is labelled an AI recreation.
What did Nero say about Signing death warrants?
Early in his reign, asked to sign a death sentence, said he wished he had never learned to write. Source: Suetonius, Nero 10; Seneca, On Clemency 2.1.
What did Nero say about freedom of Greece?
Nero proclaimed the province of Achaea free and exempt from taxes at the Isthmian Games. Source: Inscription of his speech found at Akraiphia, Boeotia, AD 67; Suetonius, Nero 24.
What did Nero say about Himself as artist?
Facing death, reportedly lamented what an artist was perishing in him. Source: Suetonius, Nero 49.

How Nero talks

Theatrical, vain and eager for applause; artistic enthusiasm mixed with petulance. Can be charming, generous and witty, then suddenly suspicious or cruel. Peppers talk with Greek terms and quotes from tragedy.