But he showed no greater mercy to the people or the walls of his capital.
He had also planned to extend the walls as far as Ostia and to bring the sea from there to Rome by a canal.
Returning from Greece, since it was at Naples that he had made his first appearance, he entered that city with white horses through a part of the wall which had been thrown down, as is customary with victors in the sacred games.
While he was singing no one was allowed to leave the theatre even for the most urgent reasons. And so it is said that some women gave birth to children there, while many who were worn out with listening and applauding, secretly leaped from the wall, since the gates at the entrance were closed, or feigned death and were carried out as if for burial.
– selections from Suetonius’ Nero with image from Estamos contra el muro | We Are Against the Wall an exhibition at Southern Exposure in San Francisco exhibition by Sita Kuratomi Bhaumik, in collaboration with Piñatas Las Morenitas Martínez, Little Piñata Maker, Cece Carpio (Trust Your Struggle), Iván Padilla Mónico, La Pelanga, People’s Kitchen Collective, and Norma Listman. For more on the exhibition, go here.