On this date in 68, the Roman Emperor Nero, last of the Julio-Claudian line, committed suicide following a coup in which the Senate declared him an enemy of the state and bribed his bodyguards to betray him. The successor to his adopted father Claudius, who had succeeded Nero's uncle Caligula in 51, Nero, like his uncle Caligula, was notorious for his excesses and proclivities (though many of these may have been exaggerated by historians like Suetonius and Tacitus). According to the histories, Nero had his own mother Agrippina murdered, executed the apostles Peter and Paul as part of his ongoing persecutions of Christians, set fire to Rome and sang as it blazed, and castrated and married a young slave named Sporus, To learn more about Nero's debauched exploits, visit your local library or go rent the skin-friendly mini-series I, Claudius (1976). Or better yet, the unrated deluxe edition of the Tinto Brass classic Caligula (1979). You'll go from Nero to Sticky in 30 seconds!