DOTD For Monday, October 13, 2025

A Drink To Remember Why We Should Have No Kings - Or Emperors

Today’s DOTD - Drink Of The Day - is a cocktail called a Rome With A View, in recognition and warning of the day Nero became Emperor of Rome, which happened on this date, October 13, in 54 CE/AD.

To put it bluntly, Nero was a bit like Barron Trump, only with power - which clearly was a horrible idea. To say Nero’s life was overly dramatic would be a severe understatement, even if you only believe half of what has been written about him. There are those who defend him, much like their ideological descendants in MAGA world today defend Donald Trump. Still, the basic facts show that Nero was a man who was often cruel & clearly not up to the task he was given (also, much like Trump).

Nero became Emperor at the age of 16, immediately upon the death of his adopted father, Emperor Claudius. Nero’s mother, Agrippina the Younger, tried to rule through him, asserting significant control, power, and influence during the early years of his reign. Historians have described some early policies attributed to Nero as “well-meant, but incompetent notions.” His advisors Burrus and Seneca actually get much of the credit for his early administration being seen as good & moderate government - much like certain Republicans get the credit for Donald Trump’s first regime not being as horrible as it could have been.

It took a while, but eventually Nero’s tyrannical brutality came out. When it did, he did things like having his mother executed when she became furious about losing her control over him, and over Rome. Nero also had his first wife Octavia killed because he fell in love with another woman, and he may have also had his second wife and stepbrother killed.

Nero indulged all his childish & scandalous interests as well. He was famous for never wearing the same garment twice, pursued sexual thrills of every kind, and had at least one senator murdered simply for his facial expressions. He had favorite freemen castrated, then married them, and gave them positions of power.

He also made public appearances as an actor, poet, musician, and charioteer, all of which were considered scandalous for the time, as those professions were the domain of slaves, public entertainers, and infamous persons. However, his participation in those kinds of entertainment made Nero popular among lower-class citizens. You can see why so many people see echoes of Nero in Donald Trump.

As emperor, Nero could skew the odds in his favor in contests, and he often did. He once showed up to an Olympic chariot race running ten horses instead of the regulation of four. He crashed, yet was still declared the winner.

Nero became attracted to cults and spent a fortune building an ornate palace. That burnt down, of course, in the great fire that ravaged Rome in 64 CE/AD, though historians now agree that Nero did not set the fire or fiddle while Rome burned, as he wasn’t even in the city when the fire began.

To say that Nero’s abilities as a governing force were sloppy and cruel is also an understatement. By year 68, in the midst of a massive economic collapse, revolt had spread throughout the Roman empire, from Britain, to Spain, to France, to Judea. Nero’s megalomaniacal displays and the revolt of the Roman legions finally pushed the Senate to dethrone him, condemning him to die a slave’s death: On a cross and under the whip. As his Praetorian guard abandoned him, he escaped Rome, still facing a death sentence. Shortly thereafter, he killed himself with a dagger to the neck.

After Nero’s death, civil war ensued, and his memory was publicly condemned, a practice called “damnatio memoriae.” Many of the images of the emperor were destroyed, removed or reworked, and among the educated he was reviled. However, historians have found more recently that among the lower classes, graffiti found in Rome hailed Nero, and his name is the most commonly found ruler’s name on the walls of the city, more than any other emperor who came before or after him.

On that note, we need a drink. So let’s get to the DOTD, the Rome With A View.

Ingredients

Here’s what you’re going to need for this drink: