Nero returned to Rome and spent the evening in the palace . After sleeping , he awoke at about midnight to find the palace guard had left . Dispatching messages to his friends ' palace chambers for them to come , he received no answers . Upon going to their chambers personally , he found them all abandoned . When he called for a gladiator or anyone else adept with a sword to kill him , no one appeared . He cried , " Have I neither friend nor foe ? " and ran out as if to throw himself into the Tiber .