A six-episode mini-series covering five centuries of the Roman Empire.
Lucius Claudius Nero (Hans Matheson) is a young boy when his father, Enobarbus, is assassinated for plotting against the mad Emperor Caligula. His mother, Agrippina, is exiled and the boy sent to live in the country among slaves. There he learns to play music and sing, and grows to love Ecte, a slave girl, but is unable to marry her because of his patrician blood. Nero is recalled to the household of Emperor Claudius, where his mother intrigues to obtain the throne for Nero. Under his mother's control, Emperor Nero's idealistic aim to reform Rome is frustrated, and he gradually evolves away from his healthy upbringing and the love of Ecte, becoming enmeshed in palace intrigue and lust, and having both his half-brother and his mother assassinated along the way. When Rome burns in AD68, Nero's grandiose and socialistic rebuilding plans finally alienate the conservative Senate. His adjutant intrigues with General Galba to seize the throne, and Nero flees into the country where he commits suicide at the old trysting place he had frequented with Ecte, who nurses him as he expires.
