Laughable today, in the ancient world astrology exceeded every religion in power and influence. All your astrologer needed was your birth time to draw up a horoscope which predicted your future. He could provide other services. If you gave him your enemy's birth time he could predict the outcome of your future interactions with him. For this reason the birth times of prominent men and women were closely guarded secrets.Enter the self fulfilling prophecy. So ardent was the belief in astrology that believers were seduced into tailoring their actions to match astrological predictions. An unlucky prediction empowered your enemies and dismayed your friends. So it was with Nero. His birth time became widely known and was used to choose the exact moment that he was pronounced emperor and the exact time he was destined to die.It is 48 AD. Epaphroditus, a sixteen-year-old Alexandrian library slave, is shipped to Agrippina, the scheming niece of the emperor Claudius. She is convinced that the young scribe's horoscope predicts that he is destined to help her raise her son, the future emperor Nero, to the throne of the Caesars. Nero, a man of considerable generosity, talent, great ingenuity and boundless energy is committed to making his life a work of art. He dreams of an age in which music, not military force, is power. But "musical war" is an abomination to the apocalyptic Christians who set Rome on fire when "the Antichrist" performs in public. Despite the ominous arrival of Halley's comet, Nero insists on a yearlong concert tour of Greece allowing his enemies back in Rome to sprout like hydra's heads. Nero outrages aristocratic Romans by giving Epaphroditus a hero's triumph for foiling the great conspiracy aimed at dethroning him. Little does Nero realize that his most trusted supporter is fated to help him keep his final date with destiny
About the Author: I was born and brought up in Apartheid South Africa, a medieval environment. After graduating from Rhodes University I worked for a short period as a newspaper reporter and high school teacher. In 1966 I settled in London. With "flower power" in full bloom, it was an intoxicating time to be there - so different from my puritanical Calvinist background. Once again I worked as a reporter and a teacher while I co-authored The Dominant Man, a layman's guide to the human pecking order, which was published in 1972 in five languages. The Nero Prediction was a long time in coming. With his penchant for music and festivals, Nero seemed to the most 60's of the Roman emperors and, looking back, I probably wanted to recreate that magical time in a historical setting. However the deeper I looked into the first century the more references I found to astrology. One day the idea hit me like the proverbial lighting bolt. Nero's birth date and time are known (dawn on December 15, 37 AD) so it must be possible to re-create his horoscope. With this mysterious wheel in front of her, anyone familiar with ancient astrological lore should be able to make some very intelligent guesses about what Nero's astrologer would have been advising him on a regular basis. Since Nero, like everyone else at the time, believed in astrology which, in the words of historian Michael Grant "exceeded every religion in power and influence" this could be an important historical tool in explaining his motives and actions. So I hired an astrologer who specialized in Greek and Roman astrology to cast Nero's chart and to teach me the rudiments of this intriguing mixture of science and superstition. After several years of studying Roman astrological manuals (two have survived intact) and casting hundreds of horoscopes, the main theme of The Nero Prediction, the self-fulfilling prophecy, came into focus. It still astonishes me that I appear to be alone in this approach because not only was Nero clearly guided by his horoscope but, as soon as it was leaked, his enemies were guided by it as well which clearly led to his death at the age of 30. My most recent novel, Napoleon's Rosebud (2016) was inspired by my great great grandaunt's affair with the fallen emperor during his exile on the remote island of Saint Helena. This was followed by the Sulby Hall edition of The Nero Prediction edited by David Stansfield with a new cover by Neel Muller.