Warmington gives a sober and balanced assessment of the reign and life of Nero based on the available sources, reflecting the approach and concerns of scholarship in the late 1960s. He gives a good assessment of the sources (principally Tacitus, Dio Cassius and Suetonius), Nero's background among the Julii-Claudii and the Domitii, and a positive assessment of Nero's predecessor, Claudius. For the majority of his reign the youthful Nero was under the tutelage of the philosopher Seneca and the Praetorian commander Burrus, who really ruled the Roman empire in his name. During this time the empire was administered competently and the senatorial class accommodated. Warmington also provides some insights into Nero's mother, Agrippina the Younger, and Nero's efforts to free himself from her influence. With the demise of Agrippina, Seneca and Burrus, Nero began increasingly to indulge his pro-Greek and artistic tastes. He moved to Naples and toured Greece. Nero also increasingly alienated the senatorial class, biasing our sources against him. His neglect of the armies probably led to the revolts in which he perished. Nero failed to respond decisively in the situation. While he did persecute Christians, Nero was only really brutal to members of his extended family. His poor reputation rests on his mistreatment on the senatorial class - from whom we draw the written sources - and the way he scandalised them by aping Greek customs and feeding his artistic pretentions, which led him to shocking things for a noble Roman - nude exercise, public singing and acting, and competing personally in events like the Olympics (for which he was awarded all the prizes in advance). He certainly wanted to be treated like a divine king in the Greek style, which seemed like megalomania to many Romans. He may well have been popular with many plebeian Romans, and certainly with the Greeks, but their opinion counted for little. Warmington is a good introduction to Nero.