The Greatest Show on Earth -Handmade Collage

Long before he picked up the fiddle to watch Rome burn, Nero exhibited eccentric behavior that should have tipped off all in the Senate of what was to come. One such case, was his suspension of Senate proceedings so that he could present what he called, "The Greatest Show on Earth." Thereafter, he disrobed, slid into a cermonial fount and from it raised two hands, each bearing a puppet. For the next two hours, the senators were subjected to an almost indecipherable play about an emperor and his primary counsel, a giant imaginary green rooster. The rooster told the finger puppet emperor that eggs would soon fall from the heavens unless all of the senators told their leader that indeed his earlobes were without rival and that no one could play Stairway to Heaven on the lyre better than him. Impatient with the delay in proceedings, the Senators voiced praise of Nero's earlobes and lyre playing and thus the rotund emperor emerged from the fount and let the meeting continue.