At the beginning of his reign, Nero had to face a difficult political situation, due to the ambitions of his mother Agrippina and the efforts of some members of the domus Augusta (the proconsul of Asia Marcus Junius Silanus and especially the freedman Narcissus) to replace him with Claudius’ natural son, Britannicus. This paper considers all available evidence in an attempt to explain how Nero defeated his enemies without losing the support of senators and praetorians, until he obtained the title pater patriae