The Roman emperor Nero died, ending a dynasty
On this day · 9 June 68
Abandoned by his guards and condemned by the Senate, Nero ended the line that had ruled Rome since Augustus.
On 9 June, AD 68 — the date scholars calculate from ancient chronicles — the emperor Nero took his own life outside Rome, with help from a secretary, after the Senate declared him a public enemy. He was the last emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, the line descended from Augustus that had ruled Rome for roughly a century.
The collapse came fast. The governor Vindex rebelled over Nero’s taxes and called on Galba to seize power; the Praetorian Guard and Senate turned, and Nero fled the city he could no longer hold.
With no heir and no dynasty left to inherit, the throne itself was suddenly up for grabs.
What followed was the Year of the Four Emperors, a violent scramble in which Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and finally Vespasian held power in rapid succession. Vespasian’s victory founded the Flavian dynasty and finally ended the civil war that Nero’s death had unleashed. The exact day is debated — ancient writers disagree by a day or two — but 9 June is the traditional reckoning.
Sources & references
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