From the Gracchi to Nero: A History of Rome from 133 B.C. to A.D. 68 (43 page)

These various achievements of Claudius are of far greater importance than the palace intrigues to which Tacitus and lesser writers devote much attention. Yet his domestic background, even if he was not dominated by it as a hostile tradition suggests, was not without influence in the shaping of events. The extent to which his freedmen and wives influenced imperial policy may be doubtful, but they certainly wielded great power. Freedmen like Pallas and Callistus started as paupers and ended as millionaires, and Roman dignity was seriously affronted when Claudius could send an ex-slave Narcissus to try to quell an incipient mutiny among the legions that were mustering for the invasion of Britain: not thus had Julius Caesar dealt with mutineers. But however offensive the freedmen may have been, at least they rendered much good service to emperor and State. This could scarcely be said of Claudius’ last two wives. Messalina, his wife at the time of his accession, bore him a daughter Octavia and a son whom he surnamed Britannicus (born A.D. 41). A woman of unbridled licentiousness and cruelty, she may well have played on Claudius’ fears of conspiracy which will have been sharpened by the plot of Scribonianus in 42 (see p. 245) and other lesser threats. He ignored her infidelities until in 48 she had the audacity to go through a form of marriage in public with her lover, the handsome consul-designate C. Silius. Behind this strange affair there probably lurked treason and a serious senatorial conspiracy: Silius may well have been plotting to replace Claudius and he appears to have won over the Prefect of the Vigiles and the head of the imperial gladiatorial school. While Claudius remained confused at this revelation, Narcissus acted and persuaded him to order the deaths of Messalina and Silius.

In choosing another wife Claudius followed the advice, so it is said, of the freedman Pallas who supported the claims of the younger Agrippina, though she was Claudius’ own niece. Daughter of Germanicus and greatgranddaughter of Augustus, this dominating woman had already had two husbands; by the first of these she had a son, L. Domitius Ahenobarbus (Nero). She married Claudius in 48, was greeted as Augusta, and began to play the role of empress in the grand manner. In 50 she persuaded Claudius
to adopt her son Nero and began to intrigue for his succession in place of Claudius’ own son Britannicus who was five years younger. Ambitious and unscrupulous, Agrippina struck down a series of victims: no man or woman was safe if she suspected rivalry or desired their wealth. Her weapons were poison or a trumped-up charge, often of magic; delation and treason-trials revived, but the trials were held in the privacy of the palace. Though Narcissus remained loyal to the claims of Britannicus, she secured the support of Pallas, and of Seneca who was recalled from banishment to become young Nero’s tutor; in 51 Afranius Burrus, on whom she could rely, was made Praetorian Prefect. Nero was quickly advanced. Adopted by Claudius ostensibly to act as the guardian of Britannicus, at the age of thirteen in 51 he assumed the
toga virilis
(i.e. ‘came of age’) and received the title of Princeps Iuventutis, together with a grant of proconsular
imperium
outside Rome. Two years later he made his first speech in the Senate and married Claudius’ daughter Octavia. In 54 Claudius suddenly died after eating a dish of mushrooms: it is not difficult to credit the belief that he had been poisoned by Agrippina. Even if she felt that the ultimate succession of her son Nero was secure, she may have wished to see him on the throne while he was still young enough to follow her advice and will.

With all his faults, and they may have increased during the last few years of his reign, Claudius had served his country well. This was publicly recognized when he was accorded divine honours after his death. Seneca might give pleasure to some of the senatorial aristocracy through the parody that he wrote on Divus Claudius, which he called the Pumpkinification instead of the Deification of the emperor, but Claudius was the first emperor to be thus consecrated since Augustus, and the provinces had not been slow to honour a man that had worked for their well-being. But both his drive for efficiency at home and abroad and his attempt to raise the provinces closer to the level of Italy had potentially dangerous consequences: they involved the further undermining of the old governing class and the greater centralization of power in the hands of one man. Though Claudius revered Augustus, the effect of his well-intentioned principate was to disturb further the delicate balance of the Augustan settlement.

A remark attributed to the emperor Trajan has often been interpreted as recording his belief that a ‘quinquennium Neronis’ was a period in which Nero’s rule excelled the government of all other emperors. Trajan, however, if he ever made the observation, may in fact have been referring only to Nero’s building activities in the later part of his reign and not to the general administration of his first five years. But whatever the application
of the remark, it at least accords with the undoubted fact that his reign commenced well.
¹⁸

Agrippina with unscrupulous skill had so prepared the way for her sixteen-year-old son that the transference of power from Claudius to Nero was smooth: the great-great-grandson of Augustus was generally acceptable. He had the support of the Praetorian Prefect, Burrus, and confirmed the loyalty of the Guard by a donative of 15,000 sesterces a man. He was also welcomed by the Senate which he addressed in a speech composed for him by his tutor Seneca: he promised to follow the Augustan model in his principate, to end all secret trials
intra cubiculum
, to have done with the corruption of court favourites and freedmen, and above all to respect the privileges of the Senate and individual senators. The evils of the last years of Claudius were thus renounced, though Claudius was deified, and Nero, now
divi filius
, pronounced the oration at the state funeral.
Clementia
, a word that Seneca chose as the title of a work that he dedicated to Nero in 55, was to be the ruling quality of the new administration, and at first Nero responded. He modestly refused the title
pater patriae
, he opposed the first charge of
maiestas
, he exempted his fellow-consul in 55 from swearing the usual oath
in acta principis
, he avoided using
imperator
as a
praenomen
, he employed as a coin type the civic crown of oak which was a symbol of liberty, and he restored to the Senate the right to issue gold and silver coinage which now was issued ‘EX S.C.’ This good start and the hopes for a happier age were mirrored in the
Bucolics
of the poet Calpurnius Siculus and in the first book of Lucan’s
Pharsalia
.

Agrippina now meant to rule through her son. She murdered or drove to suicide potential foes: Domitia Lepida, Nero’s aunt; M. Iunius Silanus, proconsul of Asia and a great-grandson of Augustus; and the freedman Narcissus. Her power was advertised on the coinage which bore confronting busts of herself and Nero on the obverse, with the legend ‘Agripp(ina) Aug(usta) divi Claud(ii uxor) Neronis Caes(aris) mater’; Nero’s name and titles were banished to the reverse. Seneca and Burrus, however, although they owed their positions to her, had little love for petticoat government, while Nero himself would be glad to free himself from the role of puppet-king, if only to have time for indulging his artistic fancies and sensual passions. First they struck at her supporter, the financial secretary Pallas, who was deprived of his office and fortune; he was replaced by another freedman, probably Phaon, who would be more amenable to their direction (55). Agrippina, who received a public rebuff when she tried to sit alongside Nero at a reception of some Armenian ambassadors, then began to show affection for Britannicus. This could not be endured and Britannicus was poisoned (55): Nero clearly was guilty, though the extent of the complicity of Seneca and Burrus in the crime remains uncertain. Agrippina then showed interest in Britannicus’ sister Octavia, Nero’s wife, whom he was neglecting for a freedwoman named
Acte. This new move by Agrippina was less dangerous politically, but it was equally obnoxious to Nero and led to her fall. Nero ordered her to leave the palace, and her influence was broken. The struggle for the regency was over: Seneca and Burrus had won.
¹⁹

Nero continued to fear and hate his mother even in her retirement though on one occasion she boldly disproved a charge of treason. His hatred was encouraged by his new mistress Poppaea Sabina, whose husband, his friend Otho (the future emperor), was sent off to Lusitania as governor. Finally Nero decided to murder his mother. First he devised a collapsible boat which might crush or drown her when after dining with him at Baiae he put her on board to go home, but the attempt miscarried and Agrippina swam to shore. Having gone so far, Nero now must go further; alleging that her messenger who came to report her ‘escape from an accident’, had tried to murder him, he ordered Anicetus, the freedman prefect of the fleet at Misenum, to assassinate her: some sailors then battered her to death. Whether or nor Seneca and Burrus had knowledge of the crime beforehand, they helped to smooth over Nero’s return to Rome six months later: the crime had shocked the world, but his explanation was officially accepted, if not believed, and the Senate passed extravagant votes of gratitude for the ‘deliverance’ of the matricide. According to the popular account Nero, like Orestes pursued by the Furies, was haunted by his mother’s ghost: whether his conscience was in fact stirred we do not know. At any rate he was free from her dominance.

During these years the general administration was good. Though he held a consulship in 55, 57 and 58, Nero declined a perpetual consulship in 58 and did not obtrude himself. When personal action by him is recorded (e.g. part of a letter that he wrote to Rhodes in 55 survives), it cannot be certain how far he was merely following the advice of Seneca, who with Burrus was the power behind the throne after Agrippina’s decline. Together these two men were responsible for the administration, but although Seneca may have had the interests of the Senate at heart he also had to give the appearance that all was being done by Nero’s beneficence. Thus while outwardly the relations between Princeps and Senate might seem cordial, in fact the emperor’s autocracy was no less than it had been in the past, since upon it in the last resort the power of Seneca and Burrus rested. They aimed, however, at promoting the wellbeing of the Empire, and not least its economic prosperity. Seneca himself had wide financial interests.

Financial administration was improved, and the emperor’s influence over it was increased, when in 56 two imperial prefects (ex-praetors) replaced quaestors at the Aerarium, to which in the next year Nero transferred forty
million sesterces. Measures were taken to make the prosecution of extortionate governors easier, and to preserve the agrarian wellbeing in Cyrene. The food-supply of Rome was safeguarded by the appointment of an efficient Praefectus Annonae, Faenius Rufus, and by the completion of Claudius’ harbour works at Ostia, which Nero advertised on his coinage.
^19a
He distributed
congiaria
of 400 sesterces per head to the people of Rome on two occasions. To meet the needs of the army and as a measure to check the increasing depopulation of Italy, several colonies of veterans were established in Italy, e.g. at Capua and Nuceria (57), Puteoli, Tarentum and Antium in 60 (the last, Nero’s birthplace, received a colony of Praetorians), and Pompeii after the earthquake of 63. Finally, there was the famous scheme for free trade, sponsored if not originated by Nero himself in 58, that all indirect taxes should be abolished in the expectation that the consequent increase in trade would improve the amount derived from the direct taxes. The suggestion was dropped in face of the practical difficulties involved, but it at least showed interest in promoting the economic life of the Empire.

Vicious and vain, cruel and lustful, Nero nevertheless had genuine artistic leanings. He wrote poetry, including a poem on ‘The Sack of Troy’: the few surviving fragments do not suggest total lack of merit. He took great trouble to improve his somewhat husky voice (‘vox exigua et fusca’), by lying with heavy lead sheets on his chest in order to strengthen his diaphragm, and by dieting and purging. He studied the playing of the harp with great determination. That he should appear in private performances as singer, artist, actor or poet was harmless enough, as also was his passion for horsemanship. But unfortunately he gained an exaggerated idea of his abilities and craved wider audiences, and here he met opposition from the aristocracy; for an emperor to perform in public shocked Roman sentiment. Further, he had a genuine interest in Greek art, and wanted to introduce Greek Games into Rome, including athletic contests, chariot driving, and competitions in poetry, music and oratory. It may be that one of the causes of his quarrel with his mother was her opposition to the development of these interests. Certain it is that after her death he gave full rein to them.

In 57 he had forbidden gladiatorial combats to be fought to the death, presumably not from humaneness but because such games were unHellenic. In 59 he held Ludi Iuvenales, gymnastic and artistic competitions, in his own gardens, at which a special body of young aristocrats, the Augustiani, took part: citizens had taken part in the games of Greece, and Nero intended senators and knights to follow this example. In 60 he established quinquennial Neronia, based on the Olympic games. He himself appeared as singer,
harpist and charioteer: one of the functions of the Augustiani was to act as his claque.
²¹
In 61 he built a gymnasium and Baths (the Thermae Neronianae). In 64 he appeared on the stage at Greek Naples. When he presided at these games, men might wonder whether he did not resemble a Hellenistic king rather than a Roman emperor.

Having thrown off all restraint in this field, Nero was encouraged to indulge his less reputable desires and rid himself of any who stood in his way: in 62 treason trials started again. When Burrus died, possibly a natural death, Nero appointed two Praetorian Prefects, Faenius Rufus and a vicious Sicilian Ofonius Tigellinus who had managed to become Prefect of the Vigiles.
^21a
Without Burrus and unable any longer to rely on the Praetorian Guard, Seneca was powerless and was forced into retirement. While Tigellinus pandered to Nero’s vices, Poppaea persuaded him to divorce Octavia and marry her. Octavia was banished, but a false rumour that she was going to be re-instated led to public demonstrations in her favour. Nero acted promptly: he accused her of adultery with Anicetus and treason. She was put to death and Anicetus, an awkward accomplice of Nero in the murder of Agrippina, was neatly banished. Nor did Nero spare the aristocracy: he forced the deaths of a grandson of Tiberius, Rubellius Plautus, and of a son-in-law of Claudius, Cornelius Sulla. The greater freedom that the Senate had enjoyed thanks to Seneca in the early part of the reign was now lost, and Nero was being corrupted by unbridled power. To the hatred of the Senate was next added that of the people of Rome.