Nero (film) - Historical Flaws

Historical Flaws

His relationship with Claudia Acte is altered, and its influence on his divorce of Claudia Octavia exaggerated. In fact after Nero's divorce to Octavia he married his pregnant mistress Poppaea Sabina who had married twice before marrying Nero (Rufrius Crispinus and the future Emperor Otho). Poppaea Sabina's death is portrayed differently than how it reportedly occurred. According to the historical sources, she was kicked to death by Nero in a vicious rage. The film also omits Nero's other reported attempts to kill his mother Agrippina the Younger, first by poisoning. In his second attempt he had his mother's mattress fixed so that when she lay down, a decoration on the ceiling would fall onto the bed. A third attempt involved sabotaging a ship Agrippina was traveling on, but she managed to swim to shore. The fourth attempt, in which a soldier killed her on the spot, is shown in the movie as Agrippina walks toward the soldier and tells him, "Strike the womb that bore him". In the film Nero is shown to have a fixation on playing the harp, which is only partly true. In a late part of the movie Nero is shown playing his harp in the center of a Roman Theatre as Emperor around 62 A.D. This is fiction, because Nero never played his harp in front of a large audience. He usually played it in isolation or within a small group of friends.

At the end, Nero escapes the city by himself and slits his wrists where he is embraced by Acte. In reality, Nero was carried out of Rome by guards before having a slave stab him.

The film's budget was around 800,000€. It was filmed on location in Sicily and Tunisia in late 2004 and early 2005.