Nero: The End of a Dynasty

329 Pages·2001·3.35 MB·English

by  Miriam T. Griffin

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NERO
THE END OF A DYNASTY
16EA14ED-4D02-4694-9D74-5564F58878AB
To
JG, JBG, MCG, VTG
Nero’s latest victims
16EA14ED-4D02-4694-9D74-5564F58878AB
NERO
THE END OF A DYNASTY
Miriam T. Griffin
16EA14ED-4D02-4694-9D74-5564F58878AB
First published 1984
by B.T. Batsford Ltd
First published in paperback 1987
by B.T. Batsford Ltd
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2001.
© 1984 Miriam T. Griffin
The right of Miriam T. Griffin to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted
by her 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 by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
ISBN 0–415–21464–5 (Print Edition)
ISBN 0-203-13309-9 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-17977-3 (Glassbook Format)
16EA14ED-4D02-4694-9D74-5564F58878AB
Contents
List of Illustrations 7
Preface 8
Preface to Second Paperback Edition 10
1 Introduction 15
2 The Making of a Princeps 18
Nero’s Paternal Clan – The Ambitions of Agrippina
PART I NERO’S PRINCIPATE
3 The New Ruler 37
4 The Golden Age 50
5 Partners in Power 67
6 The Turning Point 83
Signs of Stress in the Good Years – Ideological Tension – Attitudes to
Claudius
7 The Descent into Tyranny 100
The New Advisers – Personality and Principate – Bread . . . – . . . and
Circuses – First without Equals
8 The Tyranny of Art 119
Numismatic Innovations – Architecture and Town Planning
9 The Artistic Tyrant 143
The Literary Renaissance – Neronian Patronage – The Theory of a Literary
Opposition – The Emperor on the Stage
10 ‘What an Artist Dies with Me’ 164
The Pisonian Conspiracy – The Persecution of the Stoics – The Vinician
Conspiracy
PART II POST-MORTEM ON THE FALL OF NERO
11 Why Did It Happen? 185
12 The Problem of the Succession 189
Nero’s Rivals
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CONTENTS
13 The Problem of Finance 197
The Augustan Pattern – The Magnificent Monarch
14 The Temptation of Philhellenism 208
Nero’s Greek Tastes – Practical Benefits – Family and Imperial History –
The Notion of Divine Monarchy
15 The Military Image of the Princeps 221
Neronian Foreign Policy – The Pursuit of Glory
Appendix I Sources for the Neronian Material in Tacitus, Suetonius and
Cassius Dio 235
Appendix 2 Nero’s Later Coinage 238
Notes and References 240
Bibliography 302
Index of Persons, Human and Divine 309
General Index 316
Index of Inscriptions, Papyri and Coins 318
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List of Illustrations
Photographs between pages 128 and 129
1 Statue of the young Nero (Musée du Louvre)
2 Bust of Nero (Deutsches Archaeologisches Institut, Rome)
3 Late bust of Nero (Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts)
4 Seneca, from double herm of Seneca and Socrates (Staatliche
Museen, Berlin)
5 Bust of Domitius Corbulo (Mansell Collection)
6 Fresco of riot in amphitheatre at Pompeii, 59 (Mansell Collection)
7 Fresco from the Sala degli Uccelletti in the Domus Aurea (Fototeca
Unione)
8 Fresco from corridor of the Domus Aurea (Fototeca Unione)
9 Dome of the octagonal hall, Domus Aurea (Fototeca Unione)
10 Octagonal hall, Domus Aurea (Fototeca Unione)
11 Buttress walls, Temple of Divus Claudius (Fototeca Unione)
12 Nymphaeum, Domus Transitoria (Fototeca Unione)
13–22 Coins: Aurei and Denarii (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)
23–27 Coins: Sestertii (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)
28–32 Coins: Dupondii, As and Semis (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)

Line drawings
Genealogical Table12–13
Map of Rome 14
The lower floor of the Domus Aurea (Analecta Romana Istituti
Danici, Suppl. X) 134–5
The upper floor of the Domus Aurca (Analecta Romana Istituti
Danici, Suppl. X) 136
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Preface
In excusing the monotony of his narrative, with its concentration on imperial crime
and cruelty, the historian Tacitus argued that to be wise in politics is to understand
those who wield power according to the constitution of the time: in his own day, he
claimed, that meant studying the character of the Princeps. As if in confirmation of
his judgement, the genre of imperial biography was about to be inaugurated in
Latin by his younger contemporary Suetonius and was thereafter to remain long in
fashion.
This ancient defence of imperial biography is difficult to impugn. Yet it imposes
no obligation to rewrite the works of the ancient historians and biographers which
are accessible in excellent translations even to the general reader. Indeed recent
scholarship tends to frown on the composition of imperial lives, favouring instead
works that illuminate the general structure of the imperial system and the long
processes that explain the development of the Empire. Yet even from this point of
view, it sometimes matters that a particular man became Princeps at a particular time.
It can be argued that, as Princeps, Nero affected cultural processes, namely the history
of the visual arts and of Latin literature, and that, by failing as Princeps, he made
manifest both the structural weaknesses and the practical necessity of the Augustan
system.
This study is intended to be a hybrid, biographical in its concentration on the
Emperor’s personality and problems, historical in its analysis of his fall in terms of
the interaction of that personality with the political system. Nero’s reign is here
examined from two standpoints: first, his own inclinations and the way his expression
of them was affected by his particular circumstances and the advice of others; then
the pressures inherent in the Principate, pressures which were bound to condition
any ruler’s conduct even if he was not continuously aware of them. In accordance
with the latter focus, the excellent beginning of his reign is examined for signs of
stress such as appear in his dealings with the Senate and his handling of his freedmen
secretaries (chapter 6), while the latter disastrous phase leads to an extended post-
mortem (chapters 11–15) covering the problem of the succession, the financial
responsibilities of the Emperor, and two questions bearing on the appropriate image
of the Princeps: the temptation of philhellenism and the need for military glory.
8
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PREFACE
There are other problems and other aspects of the imperial image that could have
been considered with profit had space permitted, but I hope these will at least suggest
why it was so difficult to succeed as Princeps. If it is reasonable to think that a good
political system can function acceptably well in the hands of mediocrities, then the
Principate stands condemned, for it required men of exceptional and varied talents
at the head. There is no need to exculpate the last of the Julio-Claudians or the folly
and viciousness of other Emperors in order to see that the terrible instability that
was to be manifested by the novus status of Augustus resulted in large measure from its
original design.
The common fate of books that aim to suit different types of reader, from the
general to the scholarly, is to please none of them. But the effort has been made, and
its consequences should be stated. Only the odd phrase has been left untranslated;
documentation being limited by considerations of space, I have chosen, in the interests
of students and teachers, to cite more ancient evidence and less modern scholarship.
I apologise to those whose work I have used but not expressly cited. It remains to add
that the dossier was effectively closed in the spring of 1983.
In the years that have elapsed since the start of this project, I have incurred many
debts. For chapter 8 in particular, I exploited the generosity of the scholarly world.
As regards coins, Dr. Cathy King not only read and commented on my work but
helped me to select the coins to be photographed. Through her good offices, Dr. C.
H. V. Sutherland generously provided me with proofs of the second edition of
Volume I of the Roman Imperial Coinage. And long ago Dr. D. MacDowall sent me
material from the Western Coinages of Nero well in advance of publication. For the
architectural section, first the late Martin Frederiksen and then Mr. Nicholas Purcell
suggested bibliography and commented on drafts. The latter not only shared with
me his new ideas on the Domus Aurea but provided the rough draft for the map of
Rome. Dottoressa Laura Fabbrini graciously responded to requests for clarification
of her new excavations and granted permission to reproduce her plans of the Domus
Aurea. I am also grateful to the British Academy which in 1980 made me a grant
from the Small Grants Research Fund in the Humanities thus enabling me to study
at first hand the site of the Domus Aurea and the paintings from the Domus
Transitoria, to view the remains of Nero’s villa and harbour at Anzio, and to use the
invaluable library of the British School at Rome.
Dr. Gillian Clark and Dr. Tessa Rajak have continued to query my logic as profitably
as when they were subject to my tutelage; other colleagues, such as Dr. Simon
Hornblower, furnished me with inscriptions and encouragement. Sir Ronald Syme
has, as always, helped me in person and in print. The dedication perhaps suggests
something of the long-suffering of my family but not enough of their help in the
face of pessimism and proofs.
Somerville College Miriam T. Griffin
Oxford Summer 1984
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