This week on Nowt But History, we dive into the bizarre, brutal and often unbelievable life of Rome’s most infamous emperor — Nero.

From a teenager suddenly handed the keys to the Roman Empire, to a ruler accused of murdering his own family, performing on stage like a wannabe rock star, and possibly fiddling while Rome burned, Nero’s reign is one of the wildest stories in Roman history.

Was he truly the mad tyrant history remembers, or was some of it ancient propaganda from the enemies he left behind?

Join us as we untangle the myth from the madness — covering palace conspiracies, power struggles, questionable artistic ambitions, and the dramatic downfall of the man who once ruled the most powerful empire on earth.

Because when it comes to Nero… the line between emperor and absolute chaos gets very thin.

In January 1879, in the aftermath of the disaster at Battle of Isandlwana, around 150 British soldiers found themselves defending a tiny mission station at Battle of Rorke’s Drift against thousands of Zulu warriors.

It should have been a massacre.

Instead, it became one of the most famous last stands in British military history — barricades made of biscuit boxes, a hospital turned into a death trap, and 11 Victoria Crosses awarded in the aftermath.

In this episode, we separate myth from reality and unpack how one desperate night in southern Africa became legend — and what it cost both sides.

From the windswept grasslands of the Eurasian steppe rode a force that would make the Roman world tremble.

In this episode, we dive into the life of Attila the Hun — the man Roman writers called the Scourge of God. Forged in the saddle and raised in a world of shifting alliances and brutal warfare, Attila transformed a confederation of nomadic tribes into a power that extorted, invaded, and reshaped empires.

We explore his uneasy dealings with the crumbling might of the Western Roman Empire and the wealth of the Eastern Roman Empire, the devastation along the Danube, and the legendary march into Gaul that led to one of antiquity’s most dramatic showdowns.

Who was Attila really — barbarian warlord, political mastermind, or product of a collapsing world order?

And how did one man become the embodiment of Rome’s deepest fears?

Saddle up. The storm is coming.