The final installment contains a pun on Jack Pulman, the screenwriter, and Robert Graves, author of the "Claudius" novels. Before his vision in the Senate, where he sees the ghosts of his past, Claudius mysteriously declares, "The man who dwells by the pool shall open graves and the dead will live again."
This episode takes place from 49 to 54 AD.
Christopher Biggins was cast as Nero partly on the strength of a television commercial for Heineken in which he had played the Roman emperor Nero presiding over the games.