What comes to mind when you think of Nero? Probably that he was a tyrant who craved absolute power, who fiddled while Rome burned, who had his wife and mother killed, and who lived a life of debauchery. Quite a charge sheet! But what if this is all wrong? What if it was all invented to blacken Nero’s name and we’re still being duped by this fake news nearly two thousand years later? This is the provocative question posed by the British Museum show, Nero: the man behind the myth.

We’ve pretty well forgotten about Troy and its war these days. But this show corrects that in thrilling fashion. It doesn’t glorify war but encourages us to examine how emotions like love, duty, desire, and revenge, can bring out the best in us and the worst. We might have forgotten much of the myth nowadays but the story of Troy is a reminder of our capacity for good and evil. And for this warning, we should be grateful.