Nero's Golden House (2001)

• 73%
• 2001
• Documentary
• History
• Phil Grabsky

It was once the grandest, most ostentatious building on earth. It was built by the most infamous emperor in history to satiate his many and various lusts. It was a building that played host to violence, sexual perversion and great beauty. Even the Romans found it too much and built the Colosseum on top of it. Today a few rooms remain - and a new investigation is taking place to try and distinguish fact from fiction. It will be one of history's great detective stories - can the building help prove whether the Emperor Nero was as bad as they say - or worse? Or was he actually an inspired artist and designer unfairly maligned through the centuries? Is the 'Golden House' one of the unrecognized architectural wonders of the world? Rome's most notorious emperor was trying to create a model of Roman domination on land and sea. There were hundreds of rooms, and thousands of frescoes and statues. Only the best was considered worthy. To cap it all, a 120-foot statue of Nero, as absolute ruler, stood at the entrance - (this was the Colossus - from which the Colosseum would later derive its name). On completing the Golden House Nero exclaimed "Good, now I can at last live like a human being". This visually bold and exciting film examines the reality behind the myth of this extraordinary building. Moreover, the film explores just who was the real Nero - and what does his rule tell us about the rule of the Roman emperors.