6. Nero’s Gay Marriage
Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus AKA Nero (37 – 68 AD) ruled from 54 to 68, and was the final emperor of the Julio-Claudian Dynasty. Dominated by his mother Agrippina early in his rule, he decided to end her. He resorted to elaborate means to make it look accidental, such as a roof designed to collapse and crush her, and a pleasure barge designed to sink. She survived the roof collapse, and swam from the sinking barge to shore. Exasperated, he sent his henchmen to club her to death with oars. Once freed of his mother, and with the resources of an empire at his disposal, he gave free rein to his impulses.
Nero was not gay, but bisexual. In 64 BC, he married a former slave named Pythagoras, in a public ceremony in which the emperor took the part of the bride. As Tacitus described it: “The bridal veil was put over the emperor; people saw the witnesses of the ceremony, the wedding dower, the couch and the nuptial torches; everything in a word was plainly visible, which, even when a woman weds, darkness hides“. Nero also fancied himself a musician, and gave long concerts in which he sang while playing lyre. Few dared show boredom. Women reportedly faked labor in order to leave, and men faked heart attacks or death so they could get carried out.