Introduction and Sources
The
five Julio-Claudian emperors are very different one
from the other. Augustus dominates in prestige and
achievement from the enormous impact he had upon the
Roman state and his long service to Rome, during
which he attained unrivaled auctoritas. Tiberius was
clearly the only possible successor when Augustus
died in AD 14, but, upon his death twenty-three
years later, the next three were a peculiar mix of
viciousness, arrogance, and inexperience. Gaius,
better known as Caligula, is generally styled a
monster, whose brief tenure did Rome no service. His
successor Claudius, his uncle, was a capable man who
served Rome well, but was condemned for being
subject to his wives and freedmen. The last of the
dynasty, Nero, reigned more than three times as long
as Gaius, and the damage for which he was
responsible to the state was correspondingly
greater. An emperor who is well described by
statements such as these, "But above all he was
carried away by a craze for popularity and he was
jealous of all who in any way stirred the feeling of
the mob." and "What an artist the world is losing!"
[[1]] and who is above all remembered for crimes
against his mother and the Christians was indeed a
sad falling-off from the levels of Augustus and
Tiberius. Few will argue that Nero does not rank as
one of the worst emperors of all.
The prime sources for Nero's life and reign are
Tacitus' Annales 12-16, Suetonius' Life of Nero, and
Dio Cassius' Roman History 61-63, written in the
early third century. Additional valuable material
comes from inscriptions, coinage, papyri, and
archaeology. Early
Life He was born on
December 15, 37, at Antium, the son of Cnaeus
Domitius Ahenobarbus [[PIR2 D127]]and Agrippina
[[PIR2 I641]]. Domitius was a member of an ancient
noble family, consul in 32; Agrippina was the
daughter of the popular Germanicus [[PIR2 I221]],
who had died in 19, and Agrippina, daughter of
Agrippa, Augustus' closest associate, and Julia, the
emperor's daughter, and thus in direct descent from
the first princeps. When the child was born, his
uncle Gaius had only recently become emperor. The
relationship between mother and uncle was difficult,
and Agrippina suffered occasional humiliation. But
the family survived the short reign of the "crazy"
emperor, and when he was assassinated, it chanced
that Agrippina's uncle, Claudius, was the chosen of
the praetorian guard, although there may have been a
conspiracy to accomplish this.
Ahenobarbus had died in 40, so the son was now the
responsibility of Agrippina alone. She lived as a
private citizen for much of the decade, until the
death of Messalina, the emperor's wife, in 48 made
competition among several likely candidates to
become the new empress inevitable. Although Roman
law forbade marriage between uncle and niece, an
eloquent speech in the senate by Lucius Vitellius
[[PIR V500]], Claudius' closest advisor in the
senatorial order, persuaded his audience that the
public good required their union. [[2]] The marriage
took place in 49, and soon thereafter the
philosopher Seneca [[PIR2 A617]] was recalled from
exile to become the young Domitius' tutor, a
relationship which endured for some dozen years.
His advance was thereafter rapid. He was adopted by
Claudius the following year and took the name
Tiberius Claudius Nero Caesar or Nero Claudius
Caesar Drusus Germanicus, was preferred to Claudius'
natural son, Britannicus [[PIR2 C820]], who was
about three years younger, was betrothed to the
emperor's daughter Octavia, and was, in the eyes of
the people, the clear successor to the emperor. In
54, Claudius died, having eaten some poisoned
mushrooms, responsibility for which was believed to
be Agrippina's, [[3]] and the young Nero, not yet
seventeen years old, was hailed on October 13 as
emperor by the praetorian guard.
The first years of rule
The first five years of Nero's rule are customarily
called the quinquennium, a period of good government
under the influence, not always coinciding, of three
people, his mother, Seneca, and Sextus Afranius
Burrus [[PIR2 A441]], the praetorian prefect. The
latter two were allies in their "education" of the
emperor. Seneca continued his philosophical and
rhetorical training, Burrus was more involved in
advising on the actualities of government. They
often combined their influence against Agrippina,
who, having made her son emperor, never let him
forget the debt he owed his mother, until finally,
and fatally, he moved against her.
Nero's betrothal to Octavia [[PIR2 C1110]] was a
significant step in his ultimate accession to the
throne, as it were, but she was too quiet, too shy,
too modest for his taste. He was early attracted to
Poppaea Sabina [[PIR2 P850), the wife of Otho, and
she continually goaded him to break from Octavia and
to show himself an adult by opposing his mother. In
his private life, Nero honed the musical and
artistic tastes which were his chief interest, but,
at this stage, they were kept private, at the
instigation of Seneca and Burrus.
As the year 59 began, Nero had just celebrated his
twenty-first birthday and now felt the need to
employ the powers which he possessed as emperor as
he wished, without the limits imposed by others.
Poppaea's urgings had their effect, first of all, at
the very onset of the year, with Nero's murder of
his mother in the Bay of Naples.
Agrippina had tried desperately to retain her
influence with her son, going so far as to have
intercourse with him. But the break between them
proved irrevocable, and Nero undertook various
devices to eliminate his mother without the
appearance of guilt on his part. The choice was a
splendid vessel which would collapse while she was
on board. As this happened, she swam ashore and,
when her attendant, having cried out that she was
Agrippina, was clubbed to death, Agrippina knew what
was going on. She sent Nero a message that she was
well; his response was to send a detachment of
sailors to finish the job. When she was struck
across the head, she bared her womb and said,
"Strike here, Anicetus, strike here, for this bore
Nero," and she was brutally murdered. [[4]]
Nero was petrified with fear when he learned that
the deed had been done, yet his popularity with the
plebs of Rome was not impaired. This matricide,
however, proved a turning point in his life and
principate. It appeared that all shackles were now
removed. The influence of Seneca and Burrus began to
wane, and when Burrus died in 62, Seneca realized
that his powers of persuasion were at an end and
soon went into retirement. Britannicus had died as
early as 55; now Octavia was to follow, and Nero
became free to marry Poppaea. It may be that it had
been Burrus rather than Agrippina who had
continually urged that Nero's position depended in
large part upon his marriage to Octavia. Burrus'
successor as commander of the praetorian guard,
although now with a colleague, was Ofonius
Tigellinus [[PIR2 O91]], quite the opposite of
Burrus in character and outlook. Tigellinus became
Nero's "evil twin," urging and assisting in the
performance of crimes and the satisfaction of lusts.
Administrative and
foreign policy With
Seneca and Burrus in charge of administration at
home, the first half-dozen years of Nero's
principate ran smoothly. He himself devoted his
attention to his artistic, literary, and physical
bents, with music, poetry, and chariot racing to the
fore. But his advisors were able to keep these
performances and displays private, with small,
select audiences on hand. Yet there was a gradual
trend toward public performance, with the
establishment of games. Further, he spent many
nights roaming the city in disguise, with numerous
companions, who terrorized the streets and attacked
individuals. Those who dared to defend themselves
often faced death afterward, because they had shown
disrespect for the emperor. The die was being cast
for the last phases of Nero's reign.
Abroad there were continuous military and diplomatic
difficulties, first in Britain, then in the East
involving Parthia and Armenia, and lastly in Judaea.
The invasion of Britain had begun in 43 and that
campaign continued for four years. But the
successive governors had the task of consolidating
what had been conquered and adding to the extent of
the province. This involved some very vicious
fighting, particularly in the west against the
Silures and the Ordovices. In the year 60 the great
explosion occurred. When the governor, Suetonius
Paullinus [[PIR S694]], was attacking the island of
Mona, modern Anglesey, to extirpate the Druids,
Boudica, the queen of the Iceni, located chiefly in
modern Norfolk, rose in revolt, to avenge personal
injuries suffered by herself and her daughters and
to expel Rome from the island. Her army destroyed
three Roman cities with the utmost savagery,
Colchester, London, and St. Albans falling to sword
and fire. But Paullinus met the enemy horde at a
site still unknown and destroyed the vastly larger
British forces. [[5]] Nero is said to have
considered giving up the province of Britannia
because the revenue it produced was far lower than
had been anticipated about a score of years before,
and it cost Rome more to maintain and expand the
province than the latter was able to produce. Yet,
at the last, Nero decided that such an action would
damage Rome's prestige enormously, and could be
interpreted as the first of a series of such
actions. The status quo therefore remained. [[6]]
The problem in the East
was different. Parthia and Rome had long been rivals
and enemies for preeminence in the vast territory
east of Syria and Cappadocia. The key was Armenia,
the land which separated the two great powers. It
served as a buffer state; the important issue in the
minds of both concerned the ruler of Armenia. Was he
to be chosen by Rome or by Parthia, and thereby be
considered the vassal of one or the other? In the
latter fifties there were frequent disagreements
which led to war, fought viciously and variously.
Rome suffered some significant losses, until Cn.
Domitius Corbulo [[PIR2 D142]]was appointed governor
of Syria and made commander of all military forces.
He won the day by diplomacy as much as by force of
arms. The upshot was that the man chosen for the
Armenian throne came to Rome to be crowned by Nero
with enormous panoply and display.
The year 66 saw the beginning of an uprising in
Judaea which was brutal in the extreme. The future
emperor Vespasian was appointed to crush the rebels,
which he and his son Titus were able to accomplish.
Four legions were assigned to Judaea; the
neighboring province of Syria, under its governor
Mucianus, also possessed four. This was a mighty
military muster in a relatively small part of the
empire. The great
fire at Rome and the punishment of the Christians
The year 64 was the most significant of Nero's
principate up to this point. His mother and wife
were dead, as was Burrus, and Seneca, unable to
maintain his influence over Nero without his
colleague's support, had withdrawn into private
life. The abysmal Tigellinus was now the foremost
advisor of the still young emperor, a man whose
origin was from the lowest levels of society and who
can accurately be described as criminal in outlook
and action. Yet Nero must have considered that he
was happier than he had ever been in his life. Those
who had constrained his enjoyment of his (seemingly)
limitless power were gone, he was married to
Poppaea, a woman with all advantages save for a bad
character [[7]], the empire was essentially at
peace, and the people of Rome enjoyed a full measure
of panem et circenses. But then occurred one of the
greatest disasters that the city of Rome, in its
long history, had ever endured.
The fire began in the southeastern angle of the
Circus Maximus, spreading through the shops which
clustered there, and raged for the better part of a
week. There was brief success in controlling the
blaze, but then it burst forth once more, so that
many people claimed that the fires were deliberately
set. After about a fortnight, the fire burned itself
out, having consumed ten of the fourteen Augustan
regions into which the city had been divided.
Nero was in Antium through much of the disaster, but
his efforts at relief were substantial. Yet many
believed that he had been responsible, so that he
could perform his own work comparing the current
fate of Rome to the downfall of Troy. All his
efforts to assist the stricken city could not remove
the suspicion that "the emperor had fiddled while
Rome burned." He lost favor even among the plebs who
had been enthusiastic supporters, particularly when
his plans for the rebuilding of the city revealed
that a very large part of the center was to become
his new home. As his
popularity waned, Nero and Tigellinus realized that
individuals were needed who could be charged with
the disaster. It so happened that there was such a
group ready at hand, Christians, who had made
themselves unpopular because of their refusal to
worship the emperor, their way of life, and their
secret meetings. Further, at this time two of their
most significant "teachers" were in Rome, Peter and
Paul. They were ideal scapegoats, individuals whom
most Romans loathed, and who had continually sung of
the forthcoming end of the world.
Their destruction was planned with the utmost
precision and cruelty, for the entertainment of the
populace. The venue was Nero's circus near the Mons
Vaticanus. Christians were exposed to wild animals
and were set ablaze, smeared with pitch, to
illuminate the night. The executions were so grisly
that even the populace displayed sympathy for the
victims. Separately, Peter was crucified upside down
on the Vatican hill and Paul was beheaded along the
Via Ostiensis. But Nero's attempt, and hope, to
shift all suspicion of arson to others failed. His
popularity even among the lower classes was
irrevocably impaired. [[8]]
City planning, architecture, and literature
The devastation in the center of the city presented
an opportunity for Nero to build a mansion worthy of
himself, the vast estate known as the "Golden
House," the domus aurea. It consisted of a very
extensive residential quarter, with numerous
architectural innovations, a lake, and a colossal
statue of himself. In subsequent years, all were
destroyed or transformed. The Golden House was
filled in and served as the foundation of Trajan's
baths, the lake disappeared under the Colosseum, the
amphitheatrum Flavium, and the statue's head was
changed to that of a divinity. The entire project
was a huge example of Roman building techniques and
imagination. Indeed, the architects responsible,
Severus and Celer, [[9]] are the first in Roman
history whose names are known. [[10]]
There is little else of importance in the field of
architecture. Nero did have other grand plans, such
as cutting a canal through the Isthmus of Corinth in
Greece, but they did not come to fruition.
The situation was different in the arts and
literature. Nero considered himself a virtuoso in
music, acting, chariot racing, and literary
activity, to the point that he could not tolerate
any rivals. In competitions, it was routine that he
always won, and those compelled to attend his
performances were faced with execution if they did
not evince appropriate attention and enthusiasm. The
future emperor Vespasian fell asleep on more than
one such occasion but was spared.
We know essentially nothing about Nero's competitors
in other fields, but in literature there were
substantial rivals. Chief among them was Lucan,
whose epic on the Caesarian civil war evoked the
majesty, in subject and manner, of Vergil. Lucan
offended Nero by criticism of the latter's poetry
and was forbidden to recite his own work. Seneca was
the other great figure of the literary age, but his
specialities of philosophy and rhetoric did not
appeal to the emperor. Pliny the Elder similarly
devoted himself to works of massive scope, such as
his History of the German Wars and the Natural
History, which defied competition from the emperor.
A failed conspiracy
The year 65 was marked by a conspiracy of a large
scale, the purpose of which, it goes without saying,
was to eliminate Nero and replace him with a member
of the senatorial order. [[11]] The chosen designee
was C. Calpurnius Piso [[PIR2 C284]], although there
was talk that Seneca was the favorite of many. The
conspiracy failed, in part because there were too
many people involved in it and some, by action or
word, caused suspicion which Tigellinus ruthlessly
pursued. Once it was broken, leading members of
society behaved miserably and dishonorably,
squealing on others and facing their own ends with
fear and shame. Only two persons who were tortured
or put to death behaved in the fashion of an "old
Roman," and these were members of the lower classes.
A freedwoman Epicharis, after torture had not
succeeded in breaking her resistance, committed
suicide by hanging herself before a second day of
interrogation. [[12]] Subrius Flavus, a tribune of
the praetorian guard, was the only person, as
reported by Tacitus, who bluntly spoke when Nero
asked him why he had ignored his oath as a soldier
and acted against him.
"I hated you, yet not a soldier was more loyal to
you while you deserved to be loved. I began to hate
you when you became the murderer of your mother and
your wife, a charioteer, an actor, and an
incendiary." [[13]]
Flavus' judgment of Nero essentially expressed the
views of subsequent history. Among the other deaths
were those of Piso and Seneca by suicide.
Nero was now twenty-seven years old. He had been
emperor for more than a decade and had overseen or
been responsible for three major disasters in the
space of little more than one year. The only
positive result from any of these was the imposition
of strict building laws for the reconstruction of
the city, calling for wider streets, a limitation on
the height of buildings, and the use of safer
building materials. Though Rome became a healthier
and more attractive city, resentment remained
because Nero had taken for his own use such a large
part of the central city and had brought the
countryside into the city. Yet Nero's response to
these challenges was to devote ever more attention
to his artistic leanings, in ever more public
contexts. First there came an extended visit to
Naples, the most Greek city of Italy, then a trip to
Greece, where he participated in each of the great
festivals and won hundreds of contests. Who, after
all, would dare vote against the man who held the
power of life and death over all? [[14]]
The end - Nero's death and its aftermath
Nero's and Tigellinus' response to the conspiracy
was immediate and long-lasting. The senatorial order
was decimated, as one leading member after another
was put to death or compelled to commit suicide. The
year 66 saw the suicides of perhaps the most
distinguished victims of the "reign of terror,"
Caius Petronius [[PIR2 P294]]and Thrasea Paetus
[[PIR2 C1187]].[[15]] Petronius, long a favorite of
Nero because of his aesthetic taste, had been an
able public servant before he turned to a life of
ease and indolence. He was recognized as the arbiter
elegantiae of Nero's circle, and may be the author
of the Satyricon. At his death, he left for Nero a
document which itemized many of the latter's crimes.
Thrasea, a staunch Stoic who had been for some years
an outspoken opponent of Nero's policies, committed
suicide in the Socratic manner. This scene is the
last episode in the surviving books of Tacitus'
Annals. In the year 68,
revolt began in the provinces, with the uprising of
Julius Vindex, a Gallic noble, governor of Gallia
Lugdunensis. His purpose, it seems clear, was not a
nationalistic undertaking but an attempt to depose
Nero and offer Rome the opportunity to choose a new
ruler. But he received little support from other
governors; indeed, only the elderly Galba in Spain
indicated approval. Vindex may have been in
communication with Lucius Verginius Rufus [[PIR2
V284]], governor of Germania Superior, but when he
moved his army in Gaul, a battle ensued between the
two forces, perhaps instigated by the army of
Germany. Upon Vindex's defeat and death, Verginius
was offered the purple by his troops, which he
rejected, stating that such a decision was a
prerogative of the Senate. By this action he gained
enduring fame, which was recorded on his epitaph
almost thirty years later:
Hic situs est Rufus, pulso qui Vindice
quondam
imperium adseruit non sibi, sed
patriae.
(Pliny the Younger
9.19.1)
Here lies Rufus, who once, after
Vindex's defeat,
claimed the empire not for himself, but
for his country.
Nonetheless the end of
Nero's reign became inevitable. Galba claimed the
throne and began his march from Spain. Nero panicked
and was rapidly abandoned by his supporters. He
finally committed suicide with assistance, on June
9, 68, and his body was tended and buried by three
women who had been close to him in his younger days,
chief of whom was Acte.[[16]] His death scene is
marked above all by the statement, "Qualis artifex
pereo," (What an artist dies in me.) Even at the end
he was more concerned with his private life than
with the affairs of state.
The aftermath of Nero's death was cataclysmic. Galba
was the first of four emperors who revealed the new
secret of empire, that an emperor could be made
elsewhere than in Rome. [[17]] Civil war ensued,
which was only ended by the victory of the fourth
claimant, Vespasian, who established the brief
dynasty of the Flavians. The dynasty of the
Julio-Claudians was at an end.
Nero's popularity among the lower classes remained
even after his death. His close friend, and
successor to Galba, Otho paid him all public honors.
But with Vespasian's triumph Nero began to fade from
public memory. Vespasian built the enormous
amphitheater known from the beginning of the Middle
Ages as the Colosseum on the site of Nero's lake,
the stupendous statue of himself was transformed
into a representation of a god, and in the decades
of Trajan and Hadrian most of the remainder of the
Golden House disappeared under the Baths of Trajan
on the Esquiline Hill and the Temple of Venus and
Rome built by Hadrian at the extreme east end of the
Roman Forum. The land claimed by Nero for his
private pleasure was restored to the Roman people,
for enjoyment and worship.
Nonetheless, over the two decades or so after his
death, several pseudo-Neros appeared on the scene,
claiming to be the emperor. But these claimants had
no success, and Nero then passed entirely into
history. It is not
excessive to say that he was one of the worst of
Rome's emperors in the first two centuries and more
of the empire. Whatever talents he had, whatever
good he may have done, all is overwhelmed by three
events, the murder of his mother, the fire at Rome,
and his savage treatment of the Christians.
Precisely these
qualities are the reasons that he has remained so
well known and has been the subject of many writers
and opera composers in modern times. These works of
fiction particularly merit mention: Henryk
Sienkiewicz's Quo Vadis, one of the finest works of
the 1907 Nobel Laureate in Literature, and John
Hersey's The Conspiracy. Nero unquestionably will
always be with us.
Bibliography
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Footnotes
[[1]] Suetonius 53 and 49. All translations from
Suetonius are taken from J.C. Rolfe's Loeb Classical
Library edition II, 1950.
[[2]] Tacitus 12.5-6.
[[3]] Tacitus 12.66-67.
[[4]] Tacitus 14.1-11; Dio 62.11-14.
[[5]] Tacitus Agricola 15-16, Annals 14.29-39; Dio
62.1- 12. [[6]]
Suetonius 18. [[7]]
Tacitus 13.45; huic mulieri cuncta alia fuere
praeter honestum animum.
[[8]] Tacitus 15.38-44, Suetonius 38. See Beaujeu,
Freudenberger, Wlosok.
[[9]] Tacitus 15.42-43.
[[10]] See Ball, Boëthius and Ward-Perkins,
MacDonald. [[11]]
Tacitus 15.48-74, Dio 62.24-25.
[[12]] See Benario 589-91.
[[13]] Tacitus 15.67. The translation is from A.J.
Church and W.J. Brodribb, The Complete Works of
Tacitus, The Modern Library, 1942.
[[14]] Dio 62.8-11.
[[15]] Tacitus 16.18-19, 34-35.
[[16]] See Benario 591-92.
[[17]] Tacitus, Histories 1.4.2, evolgato imperii
arcano, posse principem alibi quam Romae fieri. |