CLAS/HIST 4091/5091: The Roman Empire

Reading 3: for Friday Sept. 16, 2011, Nero, Maniac or Genius?

Suetonius Life of Nero entire p. 195-227

Tacitus Annals 14.14-22

http://classics.mit.edu/Tacitus/annals.10.xiv.html begin at “He had long...” and end at “...divine displeasure.”

Tacitus Annals 15.32-46

http://classics.mit.edu/Tacitus/annals.11.xv.html begin at “That same year...” and end at “...smaller vessels.”

Tacitus Annals 16.1-20

http://classics.mit.edu/Tacitus/annals.12.xvi.html begin at “Fortune soon...” and end at “...undeserved death.”

We have already seen that Augustus had trouble creating a dynasty, in large part because he failed to produce male offspring. Fifty years after his death, Augustus’ grandson (by adoption), Claudius, then reigning emperor, died leaving one natural son and another by adoption, a great great grandson of Augustus, L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, known to the world as Nero (37-68). Through the influence of his conniving mother, Agrippina, Nero seized the throne (54-68) and soon became one of the great monsters of history. Most notorious for murdering his mother and fiddling while Rome burned, he also slept with his mother, married and killed one step-sister, killed another step-sister, raped and murdered his step-brother, castrated and then married a freedman, married another freedman as the man’s bride, raped a Vestal Virgin, and melted down the household gods of Rome for cash. After incinerating the city in 64 he built over much of downtown Rome with his vast Golden House. He fixed the blame for the Great Fire on the Christians, some of whom he hung up as human torches to light his gardens at night. He competed professionally as a poet, singer, actor, and charioteer at the Olympic Games. He alienated and persecuted much of the elite, ignored the army, and drained the treasury. And he committed suicide at the age of 30, in AD 68, one step ahead of the executioner. Everyone likes to party, but few if any of us could claim to keep up with Nero!

Good times aside, keep two things in mind as you read about Nero. First, our sources are written almost entirely by two groups who hated him, the elite and the Christians. The sources we will cover today, Suetonius and Tacitus, both despised Nero. We must therefore be careful not to accept their judgment uncritically. Second, Nero was wildly popular with a large section of the population. Though his popularity was different than that courted by Augustus, his rule kept the Roman masses and many peoples in the Empire more than satisfied.

Questions

1. How would you say that Rome, its empire and its people had changed between the days of Augustus and Nero? Had it changed at all?

2. How did Nero differ from his great-great-grandfather Augustus? Were the differences because of Nero himself, because of a change in the monarchy over 85 years or because of a change in the Roman people?

3. We should not assume that our sources are wrong in their assessment of Nero, but we should also not assume that they were right. Given that this is all that we have to go on, how might we overcome the prejudice of our sources?

4. Can anything good be said about Nero? Think about his love of shows (plays, gladiator fights, horse races), his love of Greeks and Greek culture, his foreign policy, his administration and any other area. Is it possible that Nero had a better idea of what it meant to be an emperor 50 years after the death of Augustus than our sources?

5. What most bothered the senate about Nero? What most bothered the army? What about the people?

6. What do you think brought Nero down in the end? How do you think his death affected the empire and the principate?