This is a strange book as though titled ‘Nero’ it’s more about his mother Agrippina and is setting the scene for what is to be a trilogy on his life/times. There isn’t a great deal of ‘action’ (battles), which the author does so well and thus it is simply a novelistic approach to a history, which could be gleaned from Wikipedia.
Any novel that has Claudius as an important character stands in the shadow of Robert Graves and there is nothing in ‘Nero’ which isn’t done better in those works (& Simon Scarrow!) One leaves with the notion that the next two novels in this series are going to be superb - the author is at his best with strong characters brought vividly to life. This is a prologue & inessential. Or to put it another way in conclusion one is left with the thought ‘is that all there is?’