Nero

This is hot off the presses, so to speak. I did this only about an hour ago! In high school, the Roman emperor Nero was my favorite historical figure, and he still holds a special place in my heart... in a manner of speaking. Personally, I think historians like Tacitus and Suetonius did a hatchet job on him, as they wrote decades after his death, when a rival dynasty had come into power (rather like the way Shakespeare wrote about Richard III, in fact). I always pictured him as a cross between Lord Byron, Oscar Wilde, and Jim Morrison- a careless, attractive, creative fellow, popular with the masses, who overestimated his own cleverness and charisma, and who ended up destroying himself.

This is pretty much the way I've pictured him for years. He wasn't red-headed or dark-haired; he was actually a blond, and I dressed him in a simple flowing Hellenistic tunic and cloak, embroidered and made of rich fabric (probably byssus- a fine cloth, either cotton or linen, often mixed with silk). If I ever have time, I'd like to perhaps do a larger painted version of this.