Emperor Nero (December 15, 37 AD – June 9, 68 AD)
The face looks right, but the title around the coin says, “Caesar Augustus”. Hmm.
I’ve talked about Nero before (and not always in a positive light). But I haven’t shown you his birth and death charts (and please remember that historical accounts are not always accurate: sometimes they’re symbolic and legendary).
Suetonius, De vita caesarum: “Nero natus est Anti post VIIII. mensem quam Tiberius excessit, XVIII. Kal. Ian. tantum quod exoriente sole, paene ut radiis prius quam terra contingeretur. De genitura eius statim multa et formidulosa multis coiectantibus praesagio fuit”: Nero was born at Antium nine months after the death of Tiberius, on the eighteenth day before the Kalends of January, just as the sun rose, so that he was touched by its rays almost before he could be laid upon the ground. Many people at once made many direful predictions from his horoscope.
atr: Times like this have to be considered cum grano salis*. Actual local sunrise depends on the local horizon, including hills etc towards the south east. On an ideally flat horizon, the first rays appear a few minutes before the center of the Sun is astronomically at the horizon, due to atmospheric refraction and the size of the solar disk. (* with a grain of salt)
from Astro.com
If this is fact and not fiction, then Nero’s chart highlights his bad side: Sun/Mars/Pluto/Ascendant conjunction. This is a lethal combination. But I suspect he was born later in the day, which would mitigate some of this nastiness and explain, perhaps, how he came to be Emperor.
This revised chart (2) has been rectified to show the age of 16 when he became Emperor (Mars) and the age (30) when he committed suicide (Neptune). The same nastiness is there but now part of his history, rather than his personality. His mother figures strongly in his success (Moon in Leo) The resulting double inconjunct from the Sun/Pluto conjunction to his Cancer Rising might help to explain his artistic tendencies.
Sun Inconjunct Ascendant
You may find that no matter how hard you try to show others who you really are, they misunderstand you somehow. This is because the angular relationship between your rising sign and Sun sign indicates that your internal energies are quite different from the energies that you show to the world. You are not intentionally dishonest with the world, you simply present a confusing complex of energies. As you get older, you will learn more about your effect on people, which will enable you to put the two sides of your personality together so that they work smoothly. Be patient and do not hurry. Look at each relationship as an opportunity to learn more about yourself through your effects upon others. You will know you have learned this when you no longer attract people who are psychologically difficult to deal with.
Pluto Inconjunct Ascendant
This can be an indication that through experiences with others, you will be forced to undergo many significant changes in life. At times the crises may be quite unpleasant, but for the most part the results will be very positive, although for some people, they may be less constructive. But you must be very careful about the kind of people you get involved with. Choose your friends with great care and try to find people who have a healthy outlook on life and who seem reasonably well balanced. People who are driven to extreme behavior or who act compulsively, as if they could not plan anything in advance, are not very good for you. They will get you into difficult situations that you do not need.
Sun Conjunct Pluto
You are strong willed and like to get your own way, so you may find it difficult to make compromises with others in order to get along. But that is precisely what you must learn to do; otherwise you will be alone and cut off from people who won’t want to associate with you. You have a strong desire to be a leader, which you can do quite well, as long as you keep other people’s needs in mind along with your own. You are particularly good at leading others in carrying out an important task. You like to take on ambitious projects that test your abilities.
If someone keeps you from getting what you want, you don’t respond right away. Instead, you carefully look for the best way to get around the obstacles and wait for the best time to act. This kind of planning gives people the impression that you are secretive, which may bother them. In fact you do enjoy being mysterious. You must learn to be a bit more open so that people will trust you. If you insist on being mysterious, people may imagine things about you that aren’t true.
Now, honestly, folks, doesn’t all this sound exactly like Donald Trump? Just saying.
Death by Suicide?
Originally, I randomized the timing of this chart (for about 4:30 in the afternoon) and then reviewed the Wikipedia page to see if the narrative matches. It didn’t, so I decided to flip the time to 4:30 in the morning, when the Sun was rising over Rome.
“At the Battle of Vesontio in May 68, Verginius’ forces easily defeated those of Vindex and the latter committed suicide. However, after putting down this one rebel, Verginius’ legions attempted to proclaim their own commander as Emperor. Verginius refused to act against Nero, but the discontent of the legions of Germany and the continued opposition of Galba in Spain did not bode well for him.
“While Nero had retained some control of the situation, support for Galba increased despite his being officially declared a public enemy (“hostis publicus”). The prefect of the Praetorian Guard, Gaius Nymphidius Sabinus, also abandoned his allegiance to the Emperor and came out in support of Galba.
“In response, Nero fled Rome with the intention of going to the port of Ostia and, from there, to take a fleet to one of the still-loyal eastern provinces. According to Suetonius, Nero abandoned the idea when some army officers openly refused to obey his commands, responding with a line from Virgil’s Aeneid: ‘Is it so dreadful a thing then to die?’ Nero then toyed with the idea of fleeing to Parthia, throwing himself upon the mercy of Galba, or appealing to the people and begging them to pardon him for his past offences ‘and if he could not soften their hearts, to entreat them at least to allow him the prefecture of Egypt’. Suetonius reports that the text of this speech was later found in Nero’s writing desk, but that he dared not give it from fear of being torn to pieces before he could reach the Forum.
“Nero returned to Rome and spent the evening in the palace. After sleeping, he awoke at about midnight to find the palace guard had left. Dispatching messages to his friends’ palace chambers for them to come, he received no answers. Upon going to their chambers personally, he found them all abandoned. When he called for a gladiator or anyone else adept with a sword to kill him, no one appeared. He cried, ‘Have I neither friend nor foe?’ and ran out as if to throw himself into the Tiber.[74]
“Returning, Nero sought a place where he could hide and collect his thoughts. An imperial freedman, Phaon, offered his villa, located 4 mi (6.4 km) outside the city. Travelling in disguise, Nero and four loyal freedmen, Epaphroditos, Phaon, Neophytus, and Sporus, reached the villa, where Nero ordered them to dig a grave for him.
“At this time, a courier arrived with a report that the Senate had declared Nero a public enemy, that it was their intention to execute him by beating him to death, and that armed men had been sent to apprehend him for the act to take place in the Roman Forum. The Senate actually was still reluctant and deliberating on the right course of action, as Nero was the last member of the Julio-Claudian Family. Indeed, most of the senators had served the imperial family all their lives and felt a sense of loyalty to the deified bloodline, if not to Nero himself. The men actually had the goal of returning Nero back to the Senate, where the Senate hoped to work out a compromise with the rebelling governors that would preserve Nero’s life, so that at least a future heir to the dynasty could be produced.
“Nero, however, did not know this, and at the news brought by the courier, he prepared himself for suicide, pacing up and down muttering Qualis artifex pereo (‘What an artist dies in me’). Losing his nerve, he begged one of his companions to set an example by killing himself first. At last, the sound of approaching horsemen drove Nero to face the end. However, he still could not bring himself to take his own life, but instead forced his private secretary, Epaphroditos, to perform the task.
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“When one of the horsemen entered and saw that Nero was dying, he attempted to stop the bleeding, but efforts to save Nero’s life were unsuccessful. Nero’s final words were ‘Too late! This is fidelity!’ He died on 9 June 68, the anniversary of the death of Octavia, and was buried in the Mausoleum of the Domitii Ahenobarbi, in what is now the Villa Borghese (Pincian Hill) area of Rome.
“According to Sulpicius Severus, it is unclear whether Nero took his own life.
“With his death, the Julio-Claudian dynasty ended. When news of his death reached Rome, the Senate posthumously declared Nero a public enemy to appease the coming Galba (as the Senate had initially declared Galba as a public enemy) and proclaimed Galba as the new emperor. Chaos would ensue in the year of the Four Emperors.” (Wikipedia)
According to another site, Nero got it in the neck!
I’m mindful that Donald Trump doesn’t want his reign to end, and has gone out of his way to persuade everyone that he is still the best man for the job. But even the quotes shown above give an indication of a similar mindset, including pardoning himself.
