Nero

When Tiberius died on Capri in 37 AD, Rome greeted his successor with relief bordering on euphoria. Caligula was young, the son of a beloved general, and everything Tiberius had not been. The city exhaled. It didn't last. The final three reigns of Rome's first dynasty - Caligula, Claudius, and Nero - are among the most dramatic in ancient history: an emperor whose promise collapsed within a year, an overlooked scholar who turned out to be one of Rome's most capable administrators, and a dynasty-ending reign that began with five years of good government and ended with rebellion, flight, and a man alone in a villa with soldiers closing in.