The World

In AD 54, Ban Biao, who had started to write a private history of the imperial family, perished, leaving his masterwork Hanshu – the Book of Han – unfinished. The brutality and avarice of court feuding had almost destroyed the Han, but after a bloody civil war a masterly Han cousin, Emperor Guangwu, had restored the dynasty and appointed Ban to write its history. When Ban died, he left three children: two sons, a dreamy poet, Ban Gu, then aged twenty-two, a tough soldier, Ban Chao, twenty-one, and a daughter, Ban Zhao, nine, who would be the most remarkable of a talented family. All three would change history in different ways that extended from the imperial court all the way across the Silk Road towards the west. Each became famous, one as a historian, one as a conqueror and one as a writer, courtier and female advocate – one of the first women to achieve such prominence.

Ban Gu started to work in private on his father’s book. His ruffian brother Ban Chao had no interest in such delicate activity: he had joined the court, serving the emperor as a clerk of the Orchid Terrace, but its slow pace bored him. He craved adventure.

When the old emperor died, he was succeeded by his son, the thirty-year-old Ming, who heard that Ban Gu was ‘privately revising the national history’ – a euphemism for failing to extol the virtues of the dynasty. Ban was arrested, his library impounded. Fortunately his brother, Ban Chao, appealed to Ming on his behalf. Mingdi released him, summoned him to court and appointed him official Han historian while his brother Chao preferred rougher pursuits: ‘Throw away your writing-brush,’ he advised the delicate historian, ‘and join the army!’ Chao joined General Dou Gu on a campaign against the barbarians, in which his bloody exploits, cultural curiosity and political gifts made him the greatest Chinese conquistador, expanding the Western Region (Central Asia). The Bans were flourishing, but the Han court was as dangerous as that of the Caesars.

Nero was squeezed between his mother and his mistress. Agrippina, still in her early forties, got Nero drunk and seduced him, but then threatened to enthrone Claudius’ son Britannicus. Nero had abused Britannicus, even raping him. When he ordered the younger prince to perform a poem at the theatre, Britannicus recounted in verse how he had been passed over, speaking with such dignity that the crowd cheered. The fact that Britannicus was a better actor so infuriated the omnipotent narcissist that he ordered the poisoner Locusta to provide two poisons, one fast, one slow, to be served to Britannicus at family dinner. When her slow poison failed, Nero tricked Britannicus into taking the fast one. He looked on as Britannicus went into convulsions.

Nero’s mother Agrippina and his wife Claudia (Britannicus’ sister) realized that the emperor was out of control. Nero moved Agrippina out of the palace, and discussed how to destroy her. The praetorians would never kill a daughter of Germanicus, and poisons often failed, so he was delighted when a sleazy freedman called Anicetus came up with a plan.

In 59, attending a festival on the Bay of Naples, Agrippina was taken out for a cruise on a specially sabotaged murder boat. When she survived the lead roof of a canopy falling on her, the boat itself came apart, but she managed to swim to shore. Nero feared her vengeance and dispatched the freedman back to her villa. As she was held down and butchered, she pointed to her belly and cried, ‘Strike here, Anicetus, for this womb bore Nero.’

Helped by his minister Seneca, Nero squared his matricide with the Senate by framing Agrippina for treason. Now he was liberated.

In 62, he had Pallas killed, harvesting his fortune. Finally, Nero could marry Poppaea – except that he was still married to Empress Claudia, whom he loathed. When there were rumours that he would divorce her for infertility, the people protested and Nero panicked. Once again Anicetus proved useful, testifying to adultery with the empress. She was exiled to the island of Pandateria, where, still just twenty-two, she was tied down and her veins opened. The head was presented to Poppaea as a marriage gift. In 63, Nero and his new empress had a daughter together.