Question: What Did Nero Say as He Prepared to Die?
Answer: According to the historian Suetonius, the Roman Emperor Nero dawdled a bit before dying, allowing him time to make various statements. The most characteristic and famous of these statements is What Were Caesar's Famous Last Words?
What Were Nero's Famous Last Words?
What Were Emperor Vespasian's Famous Last Words?
"Qualis artifex pereo!"
"What an artist is now about to perish!"
XLIX. All who surrounded him now pressing him to save himself from the indignities which were ready to befall him, he ordered a pit to be sunk before his eyes, of the size of his body, and the bottom to be covered with pieces of marble put together, if any could be found about the house; and water and wood [630], to be got ready for immediate use about his corpse; weeping at every thing that was done, and frequently saying, "What an artist is now about to perish!"
Suetonius Life of Nero, translated by Alexander Thomson.
