ABSTRACT
Nero’s personality has dominated our study so far. It is time to turn to the difficulties inherent in the political system of the Principate, difficulties which this young, vain and insecure Princeps tried but eventually failed to surmount. This programme, outlined at the start, has received preliminary treatment in the context of the early reign, but it embodies presuppositions about Nero’s fall that we are only now in a position to scrutinize.
