Chapter 23
Claudius (41 to 54 c.e.)
As the senators debated what to do after the assassination of Caligula (restore the Republic? Create a truly elective Principate?), their inability to control events was made painfully clear. The brother of Germanicus, Caligula’s uncle Claudius (Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanicus), obtained the loyalty of the Praetorian Guard by promising each guardsman a gift of 15,000 sesterces. Although Tiberius and Caligula had given gifts of money to the Praetorian Guard after they became emperors, Claudius set a dangerous precedent by promising a reward for its support before he ascended to the Principate. When the guardsmen demanded that the senators confirm their choice, many protested. Claudius pointed out that with the Praetorian Guard behind him, the senators had no alternative.
Suetonius depicts Claudius’ accession as pure farce: Ransacking the imperial palace after Caligula’s assassination, some praetorian guardsmen happened to see two feet sticking out from under a curtain and discovered Claudius hiding in fright; instead of killing him, they carried him over to their barracks, where the guardsmen acclaimed him emperor. That is how one would expect a man whom hostile tradition depicted as a fool to become emperor. Josephus (Jewish Antiquities, Book 19.236–266) even adds that Herod Agrippa I played the pivotal role in persuading both Claudius to assume the purple and the senate not to oppose him. Claudius probably deserves more credit for shrewdly seizing the opportunity that Caligula’s assassination presented to make himself emperor. Claudius was no fool, although he was an unlikely candidate for princeps.
Early life
All of his life, Claudius had to contend with serious physical and psychological handicaps: persistently poor health, physical deformity, slow mental development, social maladjustment, and timidity. A birth defect or an early illness apparently left him with a wobbly head, spindly legs, a gawky look, and a speech impediment that made him appear simpleminded. Often, his imperial relatives either felt ashamed of him and tried to keep him out of sight or made fun of him. Drinking and gambling provided relief, but also embarrassed the family.
In correspondence with Livia, however, Augustus acknowledged that Claudius did possess a good intellect. He encouraged its development by providing him with excellent teachers. Under their tutelage, Claudius became a philologist, an antiquarian, and an expert on Roman law and government. The famous historian Livy even encouraged him to write history, and he did. After learning to read Etruscan and Punic, Claudius wrote multivolume accounts (now lost) of Etruscan and Punic history based on original research.
Studying law and history is good training for a head of state. Moreover, Claudius was not without some public experience. He represented the imperial family among the equites and had presided over some of the major games. Under Augustus, he was made an augur and a priest of the imperial cult. Tiberius and Caligula gave him some distinctions. Even the senate occasionally decreed honors for him. Also, as a Julio-Claudian and brother of the popularly revered Germanicus, Claudius enjoyed the support of the army, the urban populace, the Italian upper class, and the people of the provinces.
As Augustus’ grandnephew, Claudius was already the relative of a god. At the very end of his first year as princeps, he enhanced his divine pedigree even further. On January 17, 42, he obtained a senatorial decree declaring his grandmother Livia a goddess. Now he had deities on both sides of his family.
The political philosophy and policies of Claudius
From his study of Roman history and political institutions, Claudius had learned that Rome owed its greatness to a willingness to devise new institutions to meet new needs. Like Augustus, however, whose biography (lost) he also wrote, Claudius realized that change at Rome could not move too quickly and had to respect the past. No matter what he did, however, he could not avoid conflict with the senate.
Claudius and the senate
The main problem was that many senators resented how they had been forced to accept Claudius as princeps. Some questioned not only his legitimacy but also that of the hereditary principle. Others thought that they were better qualified by experience, birth, or both. As a result, powerful senators posed real or potential threats to Claudius’ reign right from the start. In 42, the commander of two legions in Dalmatia, a descendant of Sulla and Pompey, unsuccessfully plotted with a number of senators to overthrow Claudius. The legions, however, remained loyal to the Emperor, and their commander either committed suicide or was murdered. His co-conspirators were quickly eliminated.
Afterward, Claudius often saw, or was persuaded to see, rivals and threats that had to be eliminated. They included several members of his own family. For example, his niece Julia Livilla, Caligula’s sister, was executed shortly after Claudius recalled her from the banishment that Caligula had imposed (p. 416). She was the wife of a senator who had wanted to become emperor after Caligula’s assassination. Even without her, he was ultimately deemed dangerous enough to be eliminated in 46. Another victim the next year was Pompeius Magnus, descendant of Caesar’s great rival and husband of Claudius’ own daughter, Antonia.
Claudius’ attempts to win over many senators often failed. As in Tiberius’ reign, the paradox inherent in the nature of the Principate itself strained the relations between senators and princeps and led to the continued weakening of the senate. After becoming princeps, Claudius earnestly sought the senate’s collaboration by outward shows of deference. He returned to it the right to elect curule magistrates, which Caligula had removed. He even restored its control of Macedonia and Achaea, which Tiberius had made imperial provinces earlier. Nevertheless, Claudius could not forget that it was dangerous to let senators have too much independence. Taking up the office of censor, he purged the senate of some old members and added new ones in 47 and 48.
Nobles were affronted. No one, not even Augustus, had held the actual censorship for the past sixty-eight years. Moreover, some new senators were Claudius’ provincial clients. They were rich and powerful chieftains from Gallia Comata whose families had received citizenship from Julius Caesar. Claudius defended his action before senatorial critics in a speech still preserved in an inscription. He pointed out how Rome had benefited throughout its history by incorporating outsiders. Now, the admission of Gallic senators gave leading Gauls political equality with Italian-born senators. They became loyal partners in Rome’s world state and senatorial allies of Claudius.
To reduce the possibility of being challenged by a disgruntled or ambitious senator, Claudius weakened the senate’s power over the armies and its own provinces. He transferred control of the Roman municipal treasury (aerarium Saturni) to two quaestors responsible to him and diverted revenues from several sources to a central imperial fiscus. Furthermore, he placed many vital services under his control: the grain supply, aqueducts, and flood control at Rome; roads, canals, and harbors throughout Italy.
Claudius also increased his power through the legal system. The number of trials that took place in the emperor’s private court, intra cubiculum principis, grew at the expense of the magistrates, provincial governors, and the senate. Those who saw their powers diminished are probably behind some of the exaggerated stories in the ancient sources about Claudius’ absentminded, arbitrary, and even capricious behavior as a judge. Others, however, may have appreciated that in hearing cases himself, Claudius spared senators the indignity that they had suffered under Tiberius and Caligula when they had to try their own colleagues for treason.
Systematized control
As Claudius sought greater security for himself, he needed more carefully organized loyal help. Therefore, he often replaced provincial prefects with more subordinate procurators. In Rome, he enlarged the privy council of trusted friends known as the friends of Caesar (amici Caesaris). He gave even greater prominence to talented and loyal freedmen, whom he included in the council. Their duties were clearly designated by specific titles. Claudius thus created the framework for the bureaus or departments (scrinia; sing. scrinium) that marked more formally bureaucratic administration under later emperors.
Narcissus, Claudius’ secretary for correspondence (ab epistulis), drafted all laws and decrees sent out around the Empire under the imperial seal. Callistus headed the department that examined petitions sent to the princeps from the provinces (a libellis) and had charge of the office handling judicial investigations and trials (a cognitionibus). Another important freedman was Pallas, whom Antonia, Claudius’ mother, had freed. As head of the treasury department (a rationibus), he coordinated all the provincial fisci (p. 365) and the activities of the procurators. A fourth was Claudius Polybius, keeper of the records office and reference library (a studiis).
The equestrian and senatorial classes bitterly resented that these and other freedmen wielded great power in the government and frequently lined their own pockets at imperial expense. Ancient and modern writers, however, have often been too closely bound to a biased and hostile tradition when they depict Claudius as being under the thumb of his freedmen. Like other members of the court, however, they often were part of internal rivalries and pursued personal agendas.
FIGURE 23.1 Model of an apartment block at Ostia. (Scala/Art Resource, NY)
Popularity through public works and welfare
As did most of his predecessors, Claudius courted popularity through public works and relief measures. He forbade usurers to lend to teenage spendthrifts. He abolished sales taxes on food and relieved stricken communities of their tax burdens. Through his control of the imperial mint, he both prevented excessive inflation and met the expanding needs of trade and industry. Public works, such as aqueducts, highways, and canals, were an added economic stimulus all over the Empire.
A spectacular undertaking was Portus, an artificial harbor two miles north of Ostia, Rome’s original port near the Tiber’s mouth. Ostia lacked a harbor deep enough to accommodate large grain ships. Their cargoes had to be unloaded at Puteoli in Campania and hauled overland to Rome. At Portus, grain could easily be transferred to barges and shipped up the Tiber. Unfortunately, ships using Portus had to leave empty: Rome’s exports were now insignificant in comparison with its immense imports. No sooner had Claudius diverted shipping from Puteoli (the outlet of a rich region exporting both agricultural and manufactured products) than the shipowners complained of losing money from a lack of return cargoes. To satisfy them and keep vital supplies moving into Rome, Claudius and his successors had to compensate them with special concessions such as insurance against shipwreck, tax exemptions, the waiving of inheritance laws, and grants of citizenship to those engaged in the grain-carrying service for six years.
Foreign policy and Imperial defense
The motives behind Claudius’ aggressive foreign policy were complex. The security of the princeps greatly depended on the loyalty of the provincial armies. The best way to gain their loyalty was to command them personally and lead them in conquest. Claudius had not gained any military reputation. He needed to do so when he became emperor. The danger of his situation had become clear within his first year, when the commander of the legions in Dalmatia had revolted (p. 422).
As in other matters, Claudius desired to rationalize, systematize, and improve imperial defense. Besides restoring Macedonia and Achaea to the senate (p. 422), he annexed the kingdom of Thrace as an imperial province. This facilitated Roman intervention in Dacia (modern Romania), in the Crimean peninsula, and everywhere north of the Black Sea as far east as the Don. Claudius made the Black Sea almost a Roman lake.
In the Near East, Claudius’ policy was at once vigorous and cautious. He fomented internal discord and rivalry in Parthia and reestablished the Roman protectorate over Armenia by reinstating a friendly client king. He rewarded his friend Herod Agrippa I by granting him the rest of his grandfather’s old kingdom, including Judea. Upon the death of Agrippa, however, he reannexed Judea as a Roman province. His chief objectives were peace and Roman control over the eastern trade routes.
Early in his reign, Claudius had to suppress a revolt that Caligula had provoked in Mauretania by the murder of King Ptolemy (p. 417). After Roman generals crushed the rebels in two years of hard fighting, Claudius organized Mauretania into two imperial provinces: Mauretania Caesariensis in the east and Mauretania Tingitana (Tangier) in the northwest.
The conquest of Britain, 43 c.e.
The conquest of Britain reflects Claudius’ need for military glory, popular acclaim, and money. There was wealth to be had in British minerals, timber, cattle, and slaves. Pretexts for an invasion were not lacking. Claudius had received pleas from lesser British chiefs who feared the expanding kingdom founded by Cunobelinus (the Cymbeline of Shakespeare) in the southeast. After Cunobelinus died (ca. 40 c.e.), his son Caratacus (Caractacus) had grown more powerful and had become the champion of Druidism. A strong British kingdom that promoted Druidism threatened Roman authority in Gaul, where Druids fostered Celtic unity and resistance to Roman rule. Augustus and Tiberius had suppressed the Gallic Druids on the grounds that they practiced savage and inhuman rites.
In 43, a Roman army landed in Kent. After quickly defeating the Britons, the troops awaited the arrival of Claudius. Under his official command, they soon defeated Caratacus and took his capital, Camulodunum (Colchester). In tribute to the swift victory, the senate voted Claudius a triumph and the proud name Britannicus. During the next eight years, his legates created a province extending from the borders of Wales in the southwest to the estuary of the Humber in the northeast near York (Eburacum).
Colonization, urbanization, and Romanization in the provinces
Along with conquest and imperial expansion went further colonization, urbanization, and the extension of Roman citizenship in the provinces. That process—begun by Julius Caesar, continued with restraint by Augustus, and slowed down by Tiberius—was resumed on a large scale by Claudius. Most colonies served at once as military bastions in conquered territory and islands of Roman citizenship. The conversion of rural and tribal communities into organized municipalities (municipia) served similar purposes.
Claudius’ wives
One of the complicating factors of Claudius’ reign was his marital life. Clearly, elite Roman marriages were fraught with political and dynastic significance. As women did in other important families, the women of Claudius’ household wielded much informal power and influence. Claudius’ first two wives were connected with Sejanus during Tiberius’ reign. Plautia Urgulanilla, who also had connections with Livia, was divorced after some scandal. The connection of Aelia Paetina (mother of his daughter Antonia) to Sejanus might have been reason enough for Claudius to divorce her.
Claudius’ marriage to his third wife, Valeria Messallina, was politically opportune for all parties. Through her parents, Domitia Lepida and Valerius Messalla Barbatus, Messallina was a great-granddaughter of Augustus’ sister Octavia (p. 402). Therefore, her husband or children might lay claim to the throne. To Caligula, the disabled Claudius probably seemed a safe husband for her. Conversely, for Claudius the marriage put him in a strong position to succeed, should the chance arise. For Messallina, the union improved her chances of becoming Empress or Empress Mother. Claudius was close to fifty and Messallina about twenty (not the child bride often depicted) when they were married. She produced two children: a daughter, Octavia, and a son, Britannicus (named for Claudius’ conquest of Britain). Ancient authors take pornographic delight in portraying Messallina as a voracious sexual predator consumed by lust and greed. To them, Claudius appears as a hopeless cuckold whom she used to obtain condemnation of certain senators on charges of treason to further her own ambitions. Actually, she and Claudius were often mutually seeking security.
For herself, Messallina needed to protect her own and her children’s position at court. Probably that was the purpose of the affair that brought her downfall in 48. By that time, it may have become clear to her that her mother’s sister-in-law, Claudius’ niece Agrippina the Younger, was plotting with Claudius’ influential freedman Pallas, Agrippina’s alleged lover, to replace her as Claudius’ wife. Then, Agrippina’s son, L. Domitius Ahenobarbus (later known as Nero) by her deceased first husband (brother of Messallina’s mother, Domitia Lepida) would be close in line for succession. While Claudius was away from Rome in 48, Messallina acquired a powerful protector when she publicly committed herself to the consul-elect Gaius Silius in a marriage ceremony. He had promised to adopt Britannicus. Therefore, if his apparent plan to replace Claudius with strong senatorial backing had worked, her young son, Britannicus, might have safely succeeded Messallina’s new husband.
Whatever the case, important freedmen convinced Claudius that he faced an assassination plot by a treacherous wife. The executions of Silius and many associates quickly followed. Messallina forestalled execution by committing suicide. The freedman Pallas then successfully urged Claudius to marry Agrippina even though she was the daughter of Claudius’ own brother Germanicus. By Roman law, such a marriage was incestuous. Therefore, Claudius had the law changed.
Like her mother, Agrippina the Elder, the younger Agrippina was eager to secure the throne for the family of Germanicus, of which she and her son were the only survivors. Claudius, on the other hand, was already fifty-eight years old and needed to provide the Empire with a suitable successor. His own son, Britannicus, was only seven. Agrippina’s son was of the right lineage and, though only ten, could already begin training for succession. Claudius immediately betrothed his daughter Octavia to him. Originally, she had been betrothed to L. Junius Silanus, a great-great-grandson of Augustus. The combination of Silanus’ lineage with Octavia’s would have made him a strong rival to Agrippina’s son. Thus Agrippina’s allies in the senate engineered Silanus’ expulsion from that body on a charge of incest with his sister. He committed suicide on the day that Agrippina married Claudius. In 50, Claudius adopted Agrippina’s son and gave him the name Nero Claudius Caesar. The loyalty of the Praetorian Guard to the heir apparent was secured in 51 by the appointment of Agrippina’s friend and her great-grandmother Livia’s former procurator Sextus Afranius Burrus as praetorian prefect. The Stoic philosopher Seneca the Younger, whom Agrippina retrieved from exile by Claudius, was entrusted with Nero’s education.
Claudius’ death and the succession of Nero (54 to 68 c.e.)
Claudius died from an undetermined cause in 54. The story that Agrippina poisoned him with a bowl of mushrooms comes from her detractors and should be treated cautiously (see Box 23.1). That Agrippina benefited the most right after his death naturally raises suspicions. It is possible, however, that Claudius, with his tendency to overindulge in food and drink, accidentally choked to death.
23.1 Poisoning
Romans from all levels of society are known to have, on occasion, administered poisons to romantic rivals, unwanted spouses, and relatives who might block an inheritance or get in the way of a business deal. Although our sources report numerous instances of men (including at least eight different emperors) murdering people in this way, poison had long been thought to be a woman’s weapon of choice, probably because women were in charge of care-taking and food preparation: most poisons were administered through meals or as medicines. Indeed, in the earliest known case of a mass poisoning, in 331 b.c.e., a group of 170 matrons were convicted of poisoning their husbands. Two patrician women, who were among the accused, claimed that the potions were medicinal. The famous professional poisoners, both historical and literary, of the early Empire are all women: Canidia, Martina, and Locusta (who is said to have assisted Agrippina).
Agrippina’s alleged assassination of Claudius was part of a long tradition of political poisonings. As early as 180 b.c.e., as part of the second mass poisoning case in five years, the wife of the consul of that year was convicted of her husband’s murder: she was said to have killed him to advance her son, the consul’s stepson, who was named consul in his place. The most famous case from the period of the Republic was the mysterious death of Scipio Aemilianus (p. 227). Rumors circulated that his mother-in-law, Cornelia, encouraged her daughter, Aemelianus’ wife, to poison him to protect legislation advanced by her sons, Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus. In the Imperial period, accusations of poisoning were so rampant that professional food-tasters became sufficiently numerous in the city that they could organize themselves into a professional guild.
Agrippina, Seneca, and Burrus handled the succession smoothly. Nero visited the barracks of the Praetorian Guard and promised each man 15,000 sesterces. Then he effectively delivered to the senate a speech carefully prepared by Seneca. In it, Nero promised to respect senatorial powers and prerogatives. For Nero’s benefit, the senate soon deified Claudius.
Nero surveyed
The principal ancient sources (Tacitus, Suetonius, and Dio) leave a generally negative impression of Nero, the same as in Caligula’s case and for the same reasons (p. 414). Nero appears as a self-indulgent, extravagant megalomaniac. For example, the story of his “fiddling” (playing the lyre) while Rome burned is proverbial. Indeed, there is no doubt that he became self-indulgently obsessed with his artistic pursuits and chariot racing. His attempts to outshine all other aristocrats in Rome are politically understandable but were carried to megalomaniacal heights. That he was mean, vindictive, and cruel at times cannot be denied. Still, there were ancient accounts, now lost, that reflected a more positive, popular picture of Nero. The hostile extant sources perpetuate the one-sided views of his enemies and the succeeding Flavian dynasty.
Again, as they do with Caligula, the extant sources try to disguise the discrepancy between the favorable and hostile views by artificially dividing Nero’s reign in two parts: (1) the good first five years, the so-called quinquennium Neronis (“Nero’s five years”), when he was guided by the steady hands of Burrus and Seneca or restrained by the fear of his domineering mother; (2) the unfettered tyranny of the period after he murdered his mother and was no longer under the influence of Burrus and Seneca.
While there is some truth to this picture, it distorts and oversimplifies. The positive aspects of Nero’s reign are not limited to its start. Nero and his advisors pursued positive policies throughout his career, particularly in regard to the common people at Rome, the governing of the provinces, and the management of foreign affairs. On the other hand, throughout his reign, the fear of rivals within the imperial family and the plottings of ambitious senators to succeed a childless emperor produced undeniable intrigue, conspiracy, and murder.
Good initial relations with the senate
At the start of his reign, Nero did seem to embrace the ideal of clemency set forth in Seneca’s Stoic essay De Clementia (published in 55). He abandoned trials within the emperor’s private chamber, which had made many senators hostile toward Claudius. He even provided annuities to assist impoverished senatorial families.
General foreign and provincial affairs
During much of Nero’s reign, Rome successfully controlled the provinces and the frontiers. Trade also benefited from the continued suppression of piracy and mitigation of some oppressive taxes for many years. Nero himself once even proposed the total abolition of all indirect taxes and customs duties throughout the Empire. Responsible critics in the senate, however, pointed out such an act’s dire consequences for the public finances. The idea was dropped. Provincial discontent with Roman tax-collectors remained high, and provincial governors were often prosecuted for extortion after their terms of office.
Armenia, 55 to 60 c.e.
Armenia, a problem since the days of Marcus Antonius, had bedeviled all of Nero’s predecessors. Mountainous, with extremes of heat and cold, Armenia was hard to conquer and difficult to hold. Furthermore, so long as Parthia remained strong and was not constrained by a more secure Roman frontier, annexing Armenia was impossible. Neither Rome nor Parthia could allow the other to occupy it without loss of security and prestige.
The Armenian problem had arisen again at the end of Claudius’ reign, when King Vologeses I of Parthia placed his brother, Tiridates I, on the Armenian throne. In 55, Nero sent out to the East Cn. Domitius Corbulo, one of the ablest generals of the century. By 60, Corbulo was able to place Tigranes V, a Roman client, on the Armenian throne and withdraw.
Military operations in Britain, 58 to 61 c.e.
In 58, Nero sent out C. Suetonius Paulinus, another able general, to continue the subjugation of Britain. Paulinus conquered the island of Mona (Anglesey), the main center of Druidism, but in 60 a dangerous rebellion broke out behind his lines among the Iceni and Trinovantes. The deceased king of the Iceni had willed his territory to the Roman People. Acting on behalf of moneylenders, such as Seneca, to whom the previous king had fallen into debt, Roman procurators confiscated farmlands and reduced the former owners to the level of serfs. They robbed the king’s widow, Queen Boudicca (Boadicea), of her land, flogged her, and permitted the raping of her daughters. Allied with the Trinovantes, the outraged queen collected an army. She captured the Roman colony at Camulodunum (Colchester) and destroyed the Roman legion sent against her. She then marched on Londinium (London), where she reportedly caused the massacre of 70,000 Romans. Suetonius Paulinus defeated her army in battle by superior discipline and skill. The vanquished Boudicca took her own life. Once Paulinus had accomplished the immediate military task, Nero replaced him with other officials who were more suited to the peaceful work of reconstructing the province and mending relations with its inhabitants.
Armenia again, 61 to 66 c.e.
In 61, after Corbulo had left Armenia, Tigranes V attacked Adiabene (northern Assyria around Arbela), a powerful Parthian ally, and started a war that he could not finish. Parthia invaded Armenia in force. Nero sent another army to intervene, but the new commander proved incompetent. Vologeses badly defeated him in 62 and compelled the army’s surrender. In 63, Corbulo again took command. He invaded Armenia with overwhelming force during 64. Soon, compromise suited both Rome and Parthia in the face of common threats from restless Alan tribes. Corbulo allowed Tiridates I to ascend the throne of Armenia again but insisted that he go to Rome and receive his crown at Nero’s hands.
The darker side of Nero’s early reign
Clearly, the good aspects of Nero’s reign were not limited to just his first five years. On the other hand, there was a darker side of murder and palace intrigue from the start. Under Claudius, Agrippina had already eliminated many whom she had viewed as threats: for example, Claudius’ powerful freedman Callistus and her rival for influence with Nero, Domitia Lepida (his aunt, mother of Messallina, and grandmother of Octavia and Britannicus). Upon Claudius’ death, Agrippina and her allies had forced his freedman Narcissus to commit suicide. Right after that, she allegedly contrived the murder of M. Junius Silanus. He was a brother of her earlier victim, L. Junius Silanus (p. 426), and would have been a rallying point for opposition to Nero. In 55, Nero became exasperated with his mother’s objections to his love affair with Acte, one of Claudius’ well-placed freedwomen (p. 502). Nero tried to undercut Agrippina by dismissing her strongest ally within the palace, the powerful freedman Pallas.
Supposedly, Agrippina threatened to back Nero’s stepbrother, Britannicus, as the rightful heir to Claudius’ throne and Nero forestalled her by poisoning him. The story is suspect, but the sudden death of Britannicus did put Nero in a stronger position as he tried to reduce his mother’s influence. After a sudden reconciliation, Agrippina regained her prominence. Eventually, Nero acquired a new mistress, Poppaea Sabina, wife of M. Salvius Otho. The latter had enjoyed close ties with Livia and Tiberius. He also had aided Nero’s affair with Acte and cooperated with him over Poppaea. In return, Otho became governor of Lusitania (Portugal). Later, he became emperor.
Nero’s relations with his mother grew hostile once more. Finally, Tacitus records that in 59, supposedly egged on by Poppaea and aided by Otho, Nero enticed Agrippina onto a boat designed to collapse at sea and drown her in the Bay of Naples (Annals 14.3.1–9.5). The collapsible boat may be fictitious, but there was an attempt to drown Agrippina. She swam to safety and reached home. Nero then sought the help of Seneca and Burrus, who probably had not been privy to the plot. Nero feared that Agrippina would use the incident to stir up popular opinion against him and replace him with another protégé. Seneca and Burrus agreed to put out the story that she had been plotting to depose Nero. Burrus did not trust the praetorian guardsmen to finish what Nero had started. Sailors from the fleet at Misenum, whose commander had been in charge of the plot to drown Agrippina, went to her home and dispatched her with club and sword. At a meeting of the senate, most members happily believed the story concocted to justify Agrippina’s murder. One, the renowned Stoic Thrasea Paetus, walked out in protest against what he saw as his colleagues’ servile hypocrisy.
Nero asserts himself
Nero had turned twenty-one at the end of 58. With his powerful mother out of the way, he was becoming more independent and self-assertive and less dependent upon the support of Seneca and Burrus. Burrus died in 62; claims by Suetonius and Dio that Nero poisoned him are called “unproven” by Tacitus. Nero replaced him with Gaius Ofonius Tigellinus, prefect of the Vigiles and a friend of Seneca. Seneca himself, however, asked for permission to retire into private life. That would not seem unnatural for a man of sixty-five, but the decision may have been hastened by Nero’s divorcing Octavia, a major guarantor of his claim to the throne, and marrying Poppaea.
First, Nero executed two previously exiled possible rivals: Rubellius Plautus, great-grandson of Tiberius, and Faustus Cornelius Sulla Felix, second husband of Claudius’ daughter Antonia, son of Nero’s late aunt Domitia Lepida’s second marriage, and a direct descendant of the dictator Sulla, Augustus’ sister, and Marcus Antonius. Then he divorced Octavia and exiled her to Campania. Shortly thereafter, when popular demonstrations erupted in her favor, the fearful Nero had her executed on trumped-up charges of plotting against him. Poppaea had encouraged Nero’s hopes for an heir after their marriage when she produced a daughter in 63. The baby soon died, however, and Nero felt it necessary to eliminate another member of the Julian line, D. Junius Silanus Torquatus, a brother of Lucius and Marcus Junius Silanus. Also, with the loyal support of Tigellinus, Nero had resumed treason trials from 62 onward. All of these actions greatly alienated the senatorial elite.
Growing hostility toward Nero
The upper classes in general were scandalized by Nero’s increasing attempts to gain popularity with public displays of his chariot-driving skills and his lavish expenditures on public entertainments of all kinds. Nero’s genuine interest in the arts had helped to stimulate what is often referred to as the Silver Age, an important efflorescence of Roman cultural life after the Golden Age of Augustus that lasted until the time of Hadrian (pp. 478–80). Nevertheless, Roman aristocrats were never supposed to show more than a decorous private interest in such things as playing music, singing, and dancing, while racing chariots in public was definitely beneath their august dignity.
Nero and the Great Fire of Rome, 64 c.e.
One sizzling night in July of 64, after a long period of hot, dry weather, a fire broke out in the slums at the northeast end of the Circus Maximus. The fire raged for nine days and left more than half of Rome a blackened waste. Acres of flimsy apartment houses and some of Rome’s most venerated temples and shrines went up in smoke. So did Nero’s own palace, with its priceless collection of books, manuscripts, and works of art.
At the time, Nero had been staying at Antium (Anzio), about thirty-five miles south of Rome. He swiftly sped to the scene of the conflagration. In this crisis, Nero’s good qualities shone. After a vain attempt to check the flames, he converted Mars’ Field and his private gardens into shelters for the homeless and hastened the transport of grain supplies to feed the destitute. His energy in alleviating suffering, however, did not spare him from the malicious rumor that he had started the fire in order to acquire the glory of building a new and more beautiful Rome.
Rebuilding program
Although the accusation against Nero probably is false, it is true that he eagerly seized the opportunity to indulge his passion for aesthetic enjoyment and creative activity by rebuilding Rome. Much of what he did or approved to be done was good. Widened and straightened streets had pillared colonnades built on both sides of them to provide shade and lessen the danger of fire. The rebuilt sections of the city had many fountains and open squares. New houses had to have their facades and first stories built of fireproof stone. They had to be separated by alleys and have rear gardens provided with fire buckets and supplies of water.
The Golden House
Nevertheless, the extravagance that Nero showed in rebuilding his own palace helped fuel the rumors that he was responsible for the fire. Not only was he trying to make a greater public impression than any of the great senatorial families could afford, but he also confiscated large areas where their homes once stood and forbade them to rebuild. Nero’s new palace, the Golden House (Domus Aurea), rose on the cleared land. No expense was spared. It probably rivaled in cost and splendor the great palace of Louis XIV at Versailles. Its entrance court could accommodate a colossal statue over 100 (perhaps 120) feet high (commonly said to be of Nero but arguably of Helios, the Sun-god), and it had a portico with a triple colonnade a mile long. Together with colonnades, gardens, lakes, fields, and game parks, it occupied an area of ca. 125 acres between the Palatine and Esquiline hills.
Nero’s persecution of early Christians
Nero revealed his worst side when he made Christians the scapegoats for the fire to stop the whispering against him. Tacitus tells the story in Annals 15.44 (written probably as late as 120, perhaps even 123):
Therefore, to quell the rumor, Nero served up and most strikingly punished culprits who were hated for their abominations. The common people call them Christians. The one responsible for that name, Christus, had been executed by the procurator Pontius Pilate when Tiberius ruled. Having been temporarily suppressed, their pernicious superstition was breaking out again not only in Judea, the origin of that evil, but also in the city [of Rome], into which from everywhere all horrible and shameful things flow and are amplified. Therefore, those who confessed [to being Christians] were brought to trial first, and then, on their own evidence, large numbers were convicted, not so much on the charge of arson as for their hatred of humankind. Also, mockeries were heaped upon them as they perished, so that covered in the skins of wild beasts they died from the ravening of dogs, or, having been fixed on crosses in order to be set aflame, they also, when day was done, were burned for nighttime illumination.
Despite the prevailing prejudice expressed here, the vicious punishments that Nero inflicted produced a widespread reaction against him.
Disastrous fiscal and monetary policies
The huge sums spent on Nero’s Golden House and the rebuilding of Rome overstrained imperial finances. Therefore, Nero and his advisors took a number of unpopular steps to reduce other expenses and increase revenues. They temporarily suspended distributions of grain. They even seem to have let the pay of some of the legions fall into arrears. Supposedly, like a stereotypical tyrant, Nero ordered magistrates to produce higher rates of convictions and confiscations of property in trials. Indeed, he is said to have executed the six largest landowners in Africa Proconsularis and thus gained possession of the rich Bragadas valley. In other provinces, increased demands for taxes and the confiscation of local temple treasures aroused great hostility, as happened in 66 over plundering the Temple at Jerusalem.
Such confiscations, however, did not yield enough precious metal to prevent the mint from debasing the coinage, which had remained quite stable since the time of Augustus. The aureus shrank in weight by 11 percent. It was now minted at forty-five instead of forty to a pound of gold. The denarius went from a standard of eighty-four to a pound of silver to ninety-six, and its silver content went from 98 to 93 percent. The total reduction in value of the denarius was more than 20 percent when the new standards were met; it could reach 25 percent during actual production. The mint also tried to discontinue copper asses in favor of lighter brass coins.
On the positive side, these changes may have brought Roman coinage even more closely in line with the local coinages of the Greek East to create a broadly uniform imperial standard. They may also have checked the drain of gold and silver to India and Southeast Asia by raising the prices of luxury imports and thereby discouraging their purchase. Roman coins stopped appearing in southern India shortly after 64. On the negative side, the changes undermined faith in the Roman currency and caused an increase in prices that was particularly hard on the poor. The cheap new brass coin intended for minor everyday transactions aroused such dissatisfaction that the mint had to return to copper for its small coins.
Plots against the throne
Growing dissatisfaction with Nero led to the formation of serious plots against him in 65. The plotters appealed to traditional aristocratic values such as libertas and dignitas and the welfare of the res publica, but theirs was not a call for restoring the old Republic. They desired a more responsible princeps. The most serious candidate was Gaius Calpurnius Piso, the man whose first marriage Caligula had destroyed (p. 416) and a relative of the Piso who had quarreled with Germanicus (p. 407). Many equites as well as senators supported him, including the poet Lucan (Seneca’s nephew) and several officers of the Praetorian Guard. When they were betrayed, the terrified Nero struck at the conspirators and many others whom he viewed as possible threats. Lucan and Seneca were forced to commit suicide.
The lack of an heir continued to make Nero feel vulnerable. The very irony, therefore, raises skepticism about the story that in a fit of rage not long after Piso’s conspiracy, Nero killed his wife Poppaea, who was pregnant again, by kicking her in the stomach. Shortly after her death, Nero tried to persuade Claudius’ daughter Antonia to marry him. Having had one husband killed by Claudius and another by Nero, she adamantly refused. Therefore, she was executed. Her execution brought more suspicion and death. One new victim was the son of M. Junius Silanus (p. 430). In 66, two senators who allegedly consulted astrologers about how long Nero would live committed suicide after being condemned for treason. So did Seneca’s two brothers, as well as the famous Stoic Thrasea Paetus and a number of others, including Petronius, Nero’s “arbiter of social graces” (p. 479). Meanwhile, Nero married Statilia Messallina, widow of one of his victims and descendant of the Augustan general and literary patron M. Valerius Messalla Corvinus.
Prelude to a fall
Neither fear of conspiracy nor the arduous tasks of government interrupted Nero’s musical career. After elaborate preparations, Nero set out in the fall of 66 on a grand concert tour of Greece. The attempts to eliminate real or potential conspirators and the spectacle of Nero going off to public competitions in Greece only bred more discontent and conspiracy. As he was leaving Italy, an alleged plot was discovered at Beneventum. This time, the great general Domitius Corbulo was implicated. Nero summoned him to a meeting in Greece and forced him to commit suicide. Then, he did the same to the two brothers who commanded the armies of upper and lower Germany. Soon, there would be no one left to trust.
The concert tour, however, was a personal triumph, thanks to the shrewd cooperativeness of the Greeks. In 66 or 67, pleased with the Greeks’ flattering reception and their vocal appreciation of his art, he proclaimed the liberation of Greece from the governor of Macedonia. His words, no doubt intentionally, echoed the speech of Titus Quinctius Flamininus in 196 b.c.e. (p. 158).
The Jewish revolt and the fall of Nero
In the meantime, a full-scale rebellion broke out in Judea among the Jewish inhabitants. Many had already been incensed by the plundering of the Temple’s treasures in 66. The situation was further inflamed that year when Greeks attacked their Jewish neighbors in the city of Caesarea and were not punished by the Roman authorities. Protests in Jerusalem against Roman inaction quickly got out of hand when the Roman procurator, hoping to avoid further trouble, failed to crush the protesters quickly. The imperial legate of Syria, Cestus Gallus, then besieged Jerusalem. It was, however, late in the year. Gallus was not prepared for a long winter siege and suddenly retreated. The whole province then seized the chance to revolt.
Vespasian
Nero gave Titus Flavius Vespasianus (Vespasian) a special command to quell the uprising. In 67, Vespasian methodically set about retaking the countryside and drawing a tighter and tighter noose around Jerusalem. Many saw the inevitable success of this strategy and surrendered. Among them was the future historian Flavius Josephus, who had been placed in charge of the rebels in Galilee. Still, resistance was fierce, especially at Jerusalem and later Masada. Vespasian had several years of hard work ahead.
That was fortunate for him. Complete success at an early date might have proven fatal. Not interested in personally conducting military campaigns and visiting troops on the frontiers, Nero was perfectly happy to let others do that dirty work. On the other hand, he was afraid to let others have too much military success and popularity, as the recent fates of other generals attested.
The revolt of Vindex, 68 c.e.
Nero had planned to tour Asia Minor and Egypt. Bad news compelled him to cancel the trip and return to Rome from Greece in early 68: C. Julius Vindex, the governor of one of the Gallic provinces, was stirring up a revolt and raising a large army. By spring, Vindex also had the open support of two men who had been close to the old Empress Livia: Servius Sulpicius Galba, who had benefited handsomely from her will, governed Nearer Spain; M. Salvius Otho, Poppaea Sabina’s compliant former husband, who governed Lusitania. North Africa and Rome itself were also seething with revolt. The rebellion received a sudden check when L. Verginius Rufus, the loyal governor of Upper Germany, led three legions into Gaul. Overwhelmed, Vindex committed suicide.
The final blow and the accession of Galba, 68 c.e.
Galba had sent agents to Rome to undermine the loyalty of the Praetorian Guard with a promise of 80,000 sesterces to each man. The guards succumbed to the bribe, deserted Nero, and backed Galba. Soon, other armies began to renounce their allegiance. The senate proclaimed Nero a public enemy and embraced Galba. Deserted, condemned, and not having the courage to do himself what he had often coldly ordered others to do, Nero persuaded a faithful freedman to plunge a sword into his throat. Reportedly, Acte saw to his decent burial.
Afterword
The common people still loved Nero. His posthumous adoration and the flowers often placed by unknown hands on his tomb disturbed Galba. Otho, Galba’s successor, exploited Nero’s memory, as did Vitellius, who overthrew Otho. Years later, Emperor Domitian, who also preferred the more unfettered rule of a popular monarch instead of being a mere “first among equals” within the senate, revered Nero’s memory and executed some of his surviving foes.
Suggested reading
Champlin , E. Nero. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005.
Mason , S. A History of the Jewish War, 66–74. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016.
Osgood , J. Claudius Caesar: Image and Power in the Early Roman Empire. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011.