David C. A. Shotter - Nero Caesar Augustus : Emperor of Rome

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Nero Caesar Augustus

Emperor of Rome

David Shotter

First published 2008 by Pearson Education Limited

Published 2014 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright 2008, Taylor & Francis.

The right of David Shotter to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or
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in writing from the publishers.

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ISBN 13: 978-1-4058-2457-6 (pbk)

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book can be obtained from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Nero Caesar Augustus : emperor of Rome / David Shotter. 1st ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4058-2457-6
1. Nero, Emperor of Rome, 3768. 2. Emperors-Rome-Biography.

3. Rome-History-Nero, 5468. I. Title.
DG285.S536 2008
937.07092dc22
[B]

2008017472

Set by 35 in 10/14pt Galliard

CONIVGI KARISSIMAE MEAE

Contents

(These images of coins are reproduced by Courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum)

I f there is one Roman Emperor about whom some knowledge has passed into general circulation, it must surely be Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus, who succeeded his adoptive father, Claudius, as Emperor on 13 October AD 54 at the age of nearly seventeen. Fourteen years later, on 9 June AD 68, Nero committed suicide, deserted by many of Romes nobility, declared a public enemy by the Senate, and facing a military coup dtat that aimed to replace him with Servius Sulpicius Galba, the Governor of one of the Spanish provinces (Tarraconensis).

That fourteen-year reign was marked by dramatic events, such as Neros murder of his mother, the Younger Agrippina, in AD 59, the murder of his wife, Octavia, three years later, the Fire of Rome in AD 64, and the merciless attack on the Christian community in Rome in the aftermath of the Fire. These events are the ones likely to be most familiar to a modern lay audience. However, a principal purpose of this book is to put these events into the broader context of Neros fourteen-year reign.

As we shall see, surviving Classical writers are mostly critical of Nero, even abrasively hostile towards him; they reflect the disappointment, even disgust, felt by many after his reign was over. A few contemporary writers, however, carry a more favourable, even hopeful, view of Neros Principate: most of these were writing early in the reign, when it seemed to many, for a while at least, that a new golden age had been born with the accession of an Emperor with youth and physical attractiveness on his side. For them, Nero appeared to be the antithesis of the dour Tiberius, the excessive Caligula, and the uncharmingly eccentric Claudius.

Despite some dire deeds on Neros part, mostly concerned with the insecurity he felt about his position, for some this initial sense of optimism was never completely lost. For these amongst his subjects, the Peoples Emperor never completely disappointed. Hence, the appearance after his death of false Nero-figures, as some perhaps cherished the hope that Nero was indeed still alive, awaiting the right moment to reclaim his kingdom.

One act, however, ensured that posterity would not be kind to Neros memory: his savage attack on the Christian community in Rome, following the Great Fire, that was yet another sign of his insecurity, made it inevitable that the developing Christian Church would entertain no mercy for the last of the Julio-Claudians. This may even have helped to determine that the works of certain writers of antiquity would not survive through the late-Roman and early-medieval periods; there will have been no room in Christian libraries for those writers who failed adequately to condemn Neros behaviour towards the Christians. Released in the early-fourth century from the shackles of persecution, the early Church rounded sometimes almost hysterically upon Nero. Some even branded him the Antichrist, who would return to wreak havoc and destruction upon the earth.

Modern writers, however, are generally more balanced: whilst few, if any, would try to construct a blameless Nero, most, whilst acknowledging the gravity of his crimes, have tried to find something positive in his behaviour. Whether or not Nero was personally responsible for the better acts of his reign, it is clear that not all was doom and gloom.

Nero was young at the time of his accession, hardly ready to accept in full the responsibilities that went with supreme power, and perhaps placed by some on a pedestal which no act of his could possibly justify. The result of this was inevitable disappointment and frustration for his subjects and, therefore, given his craving for popularity, for Nero too. Nero was weak, too easily undermined by his own insecurity and too readily influenced by the agendas of others good and bad. Further, Nero was culpably self-indulgent as, in a sense, he had been encouraged to be by the sycophancy of many of those around him.

Thus, although the ultimate verdict on Nero is bound to be harsh, there are logical and not always discreditable explanations for some of what he did. As Cornelius Tacitus, the historian of the early-second century AD, wrote of the Julio-Claudian Emperors in general, the severe criticism of posterity might sometimes mislead. At the end of the day, however, Neros character was not that of which sound Emperors were made; nothing makes this clearer than the important oration placed by Tacitus into the mouth of Neros successor, Servius Galba. This oration, which has been viewed by some as a manual of statecraft and which was delivered by Galba to his intended successor, Piso Licinianus, forms a kind of posthumous critique of the Julio-Claudian Emperors in general, and of Nero in particular.

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