THE LIFE AND PRINCIPATS OF THE EMPEROR NERO

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THE LIFE AND PRINCIPATS OF THE

EMPEROR NERO

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S T U D I Α H I S T O It Ι C Α

55

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STUDIA HISTORICA

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ΤλUΒLΕR, Ε. - Imperium Romanum

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THIELING, W. - Der Hellenismus in Kleinafrica - 1964 Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione Leipzig, 1911

FRANCOTTE, H. - La polis grecque - 1964

Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione Paderborn, 1907

FRANCOTTE, H. - Μώlanges de droit public grec - 1964 Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione Lige et Paris, 1910 FRANCOTTE, H. - Les finances des cites grecques - 1964 Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione Lige et Paris, 1909

MILLER CALHOUN, G. - Athenian Clubs in Politics and Litigation.

1964

Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione Austin, 1913

CANTARELLI, L. - La diocesi italiciana da Diocleziano alla fine dell'impero occidentale - 1964

Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione Roma, 1903 PIPPIDI, M. D. - Autour de Τibre - 1965 Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione Bucarest, 1944

DE SANCTIS, G. - Atthis - Storia della repubblica ateniese - 1964 Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione Torino, 1912

li. BELOCH, J. - Campanien - 1964

Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione Breslau, 1890

BERSANETTI, G. M. - Studi sull'Imperatore Massimino il Trace - 1965

Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione Roma, 1940

CREES, J. H. E. - The Reign of the Emperor Probus - 1965 Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione London, 1911

KESSLER, J. - ‚sokrates und die panhellenische Idee - 1965 Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione Paderborn, 1911

CARDINALI, G. - Studi graccani - 1965

Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione Genova, 1912 REINHOLD, Μ. - Marcus Agrippa - A Biography - 1965 Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione Gen νe, New York, 1933 CLAUSING, R. - The Roman Colmate - 1965

Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione New York, 1925

PLATNAUER, Μ. - The Life and Reign of the Emperor Lucius Septimius Severus - 1965

Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione London, 1918 CICCOTTI, E. - Processo di Verre - 1965 Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione Milano, 1895

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MILLER CALHOUN, G. - The Business Life of Ancient Athens - 1965 Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione Chicago, 1926

CALDERINI, A. - La manomissione dei Liberti in Grecia - 1965 Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione Milano, 1908

COLIN, G. - Rome et la Grèce - 1965 Ristampe anastatica dell'edizione Paris, 1905 THOMSEN, R. - The Italic Regions - 1966

Ristampe enastatica dell'edizione Copenhagen, 1947 PORALLA, Ρ. - Prosopographie der Lakedaimonier - 1966 Ristampe anastatica dell'edizione Breslau, 1913

HAMPL, F. - Die griechischen Staatsνertrge - 1966 Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione Leipzig, 1938 BRECCIA, E. - Ii diritto dinastici - 1966 Ristampe anastatica dell'edizione Roma, 1903

OLIVER E. Η. - Roman Economic Conditions to the Close of the Republic - 1966

Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione Toronto, 1907

WELLES, C. B. - Royal Correspondence in the Hellenistic Period . 1966

Ristampe enastatica dell'edizione New Haven, 1934 FRACCARO, Ρ. - Studi Varroniani - 1966

Ristampe anastatica dell'edizione Padova, 1907

JASHEISKI, W. F. - The Origins and History 0f the Proconsular and the Propraetorian Imperium to 27. B.C. - 1966

Ristampa enastetica dell'edizione Chicago, 1950

HOWE, L. L. - The Pretorian Prefect from Commodus to Diocletian- 1966

Ristampe anastatica dell'edizione Chicago, 1942

GUIRAUD, P. - Les assembΙ es provinciales dans l'Empire Romain.

1966

Ristampe anastatica dell'edizione Paris, 1887 CHAPOT, V. - La fronti&e de l'Euphrate - 1967 Ristempa anastatica dell'edizione Paris, 1907 CHAPOT, V. - La flotte de Μisne - 1967 Ristampe anastatica dell'edizione Paris, 1896

CHAPOT, V. - La province romaine proconsulaire d'Asie - 1967 Ristampe anastetica dell'edizione Paris, 1904

CASTIGLIONI, L. - Studi intorno alle storie filippiche di Giustino - 1967

Ristampa enastatica dell'edizione Napoli, 1925

MISPOULET, J. B. - La vie parlementaire Rome sous la RώρυbΙique 1967

Ristampe anastatica dell'edizione Paris, 1899

HOMO, L. - Essai sur le règne de l'empereur Αurώlien - 1967 Ristampe enastatica dell'edizione Paris, 1904

AVIARD, A. - Les assembΙώes de la cοnfώdώration achaienne - 1967

Ristampe enast etica dell'edizione Bordeaux, 1938

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FRACCARI, Ρ. - Ii processo degli Scipioni - 1967 Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione Pisa, 1911 FRACCARI, Ρ. - Studi sull'età dei Gracchi - 1967

Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione Citi di Castello, 1914 BAKER, G. Ρ. - Sulla the Fortunate - 1967

Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione London, 1927

LIVEN, A. - Recherches historiques sur les ρanώgyriques de Sidoine Apollinaire - 1967

Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione Paris, 1942

LIEBENAM, W. - StYidteverwaltung im riemischen Kaiserreiche - 1967

Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione Leipzig, 1900 GRIAG, E. - Hannibal als Politiker - 1967 Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione Wien, 1929

GSELL, S. - Essai sur le Règne de l'Empereur Domitien - 1967 Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione Paris, 1894

ZEILLER, J. - Les origines chrétiennes dans la province romaine de Dalmatie - 1967

ZEILLER, J. - Les origines chrétiennes dans les provinces danubien- nes de l'Empire Romain - 1967

FABIA, P. - Sources de Tacite dans les Histoires et les Annales - 1967

RADET, G. - La Lydie et le monde grec au temps de Mermnades (687-546) - 1967

VII SCALA, R. - Die Staatsνertrige des Altertums 1 - 1968 Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione Leipzig, 1898

RISTIVTZEFF, Μ. - A Large Estate in Egypt in the third Century b.C. - 1967

Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione Madison, 1922

LAMBRECHTS, P. - La composition du Snat Romain de Septime Sώvre a Dioclύtien - 1968

Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione Budapest, 1938 CARDINALI, G. - Ii regno di Pergamo - 1968 Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione Roma, 1906

HENDERSON, B. W. - The Life and Principate of the Emperor Nero 1968

Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione London, 1905

HENDERSON, B. W. - The Life and Principate of the Emperor Ha- drian - 1968

Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione London, 1923 HENDERSON, B. W. - Five Roman Emperors - 1968 Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione Cambridge, 1927

LACOUR-GAVET, G. - Antonin Le Pieux et son temps - 1968 Ristampa anastatica dell'edizione Paris, 1888

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STUDIA HISTORICA 55

THE

LIFE AND PRINCIPATE

OF THE

EMPEROR NERO

BY

BERNARD W. HENDERSON, Μ.Α.

EDIZIONE ANASTATICA

"L'ERMA" di BRETSCHNEIDER - ROMA

1968

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ΤΟ

MY FATHER AND MOTHER

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viii CONTENTS

CHAPTER IV

PAGE

COURT LIFE AND PERSONAL HIsToRY, A.D. 55-63 ^. III i. Poppaea Sabina.

The death of Agrippina.

Games and festivals.

. Rubellius Plautus.

Burrus and Tigellinus.

Seneca's retirement.

Sulla and Plautus.

The death of Octavia.

Death of Poppaea. Statilia Messalina.

CHAPTER 1

THE EASTERN FRONTIER AND ^TIlE WAR IN ARMENIA, A.D. 54-66 151 ι. The Eastern frontier; problems and policies.

Preparations for war.

The campaign of A.D. 58.

The campaign of triumph, A.D. 59.

. Return to the Augustan policy, A.D. 6ο-6τ.

Annexation and its results. The campaign of Rhandeia A.D. 62.

The last campaign, A.D. 63.

Parthian homage and Peace.

CHAPTER VI

FROM BRITAIN TO THE CAUCASUS, A.D. 54-68 ^. 197 ι. The conquest of Britain.

Nero's first governors of Britain.

The great rebellion, A.D. 60.

Peace in Britain.

. Germany.

6. The Danube and the Black Sea.

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CONTENTS ix

CHAPTER VII

PAGE

THE FIRE OF ROME AND ITS CONSEQUENCES, &D. 64 . . 229 i. Art and Revelry.

2. The Fire 0f Rome.

3. The rebuilding 0f the city.

4. The Golden House.

5. The persecution of the Christians.

CHAPTER VIII

CONSPIRACY AND RETALIATION, A.D. 65-66 • 255 x. The conspirators and their motives.

The conspiracy.

Seneca's last years.

The death of Seneca.

. The Terror.

6. Petronius.

7. The Government and the Philosophers.

CHAPTER IX

PHILOSOPHY AND PLEASURE _• 303

ι. Scope of the chapter.

Stoicism and its failure.

Persius.

Roman pleasures.

The Romance of Petronius.

CHAPTER χ

CHRISTIANITY AND JUDAISM 34₁

I. Christianity and the Government: the causes of conllict.

The cοrι ict and its issue.

Rome and Judaism.

The growth of disaffection.

. The Jewish insurrection.

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ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS

NERO (FROM Α BusT IN THE BRITISH MUsEUM) . . Frontirpiece [Cf. Bernoulli, Römische Ikonographie, ii. I, pages 398, 406.]

AiTiuI, THE HARBOUR . . To/ace page 19

AGRIPPINA (FROM A STATUE IN THE GLYPTOTHEK, MUNICH) ,, ,, 49 Identi&ation probable.

[Cf. Bernoulli, ο. cit. ii. I, pages 379, 380.]

NERO (FROM A BUST IN THE UFFIZI GALLERY, FLORENCE) ), ,, 75 [Cf Bernoulli, op. cit. ii. ι, page 395.]

POPPARA SABINA? ( Παοτκ ^A STATUE IN THE MUSEO

CHIARAMONTI ^{IN THE}^VATICAN,^ROME) ^. ,, 113

[Cf. Bernoulli, op. cit. ii. ι, ^pages182, 183.]

AGRIPPINA (FROM A BusT ii THE MUSEO CHIARAMONTI

IN THE VATICAN, ROME) . ,, 123

Identifkation probable.

[Cf. Bernoulli, op. cit. ii. ι, pages 183, 379.]

ANTIUM, DISTANT VIEW OF THE HARBOUR FROM THE

SOUTH ,, 148

CORBULO (FROM A Busi IN THE CAPITOLINE MUSEUM,

ROME) . . . . . ,, 170

[Cf. Bernoulli, op. cit. i. page 273.]

MODERN PUTEOLI (POZZUOLI) . 192

NERO (FROM THE BASALT BusT IN THE UFFIZI GALLERY,

FLORENCE) . . . . , 231

Probably a modern work.

[Cf. Bernoulli, op. cit. ii. I, page 395.]

NERO (FROM A BUST IN THE LouvRE, PARIS) . ,, 257 [Cf. Bernoulli, op. cit. ii. I, pages 396, 404.]

SENECA (FROM A BUST IN THE BERLIN MUSEUM) ,, 305 [Cf. Bernoulli, op. cit. i., page 278.]

NERO (FROM A BUST IN THE LOUVRE, PARIS) . " 343 Of doubtful antiquity.

[Cf. Bernoulli, ο. cit. ii. I, pages 396, 397.]

xi

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PREFACE

T

HE names of the modern authorities whom Ι have con- sulted for purposes of this history will be found in the General Bibliography at the end of this book. Ι have also used the results obtained in certain previously published papers of my own, which also will be found described in the Bibliography.

The Appendices and the Notes contain complete (I believe) references to all the ancient evidence which concerns this history, and, on occasion, discussion of its value or of controversies which arise concerning it. To these Notes and Appendices Ι must still venture to refer the student even at this time when the examination craze threatens increasingly to degrade, if not to destroy, patient learning in the Uni- versity. But the geneϋaΙ reader's attention is not distracted from the narrative, as the whole apparatus of inquiry is thus relegated to the end of the book.

ly chief obligations are three, all owed in Oxford. Mr Furneaux's edition of "Tacitus' Annals" has been invaluable, for its notes and references in particular. Two series of lectures, as yet unpublished, by Professor Pelham, on the Constitution of the Principate and on the Principate of Nero, have been of service and suggestiveness all the greater because their influence has been as well an unconscious as a conscious one, and Ι cannot measure precisely the extent of my indebtedness. ly tutor in former days, Mr Warde Fowler, Sub-Rector of Lincoln College, has read through this entire book in proof for me, although Ι must relieve him of all responsibility for any statement or opinion in it advanced. This is but part of a debt, always accumu- lating from the time, fourteen years ago to-day, when my

Kill

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xiv

PREFACE

relations with Lincoln College first began. Seneca's writ- ings may be laid under contribution here as elsewhere in this history. "Ex praeceptore in amicum transiit et nos non arte quam vendit obligat sed benigna et familiari voluntate. . . . Ingratus sum nisi ilium inter gratissimas necessitudines diligo."

For some help besides in the correction of the proofs

Ι owe thanks to the Rev. W. C. Allen, Sub-Rector, and to Mr A. W. F. Blunt, Fellow, of Exeter College.

The illustrations Ι have selected from the best sources, Messrs Cogliati of Milan, Aiinari of Florence, and Reimer of Berlin, having permitted reproductions of photographs in works published by them. Ι also owe thanks to Professor Percy Gardner of Oxford and Mr G. F. Hill of the British Museum for ready help in this connection in a dimculty arising at the last moment.

This history, Ι may state in conclusion, is an attempt, not to "whitewash" Nero (though perhaps no man is ever altogether black), but to present a narrative of the events of that Emperor's life and of his Principate with due if novel regard to the proportion of interest suggested by those events. Therefore some personal biographical details or Court scandals receive but a scanty notice or are omitted as too insignifIcant for even an Imperial biography. In their room Ι substitute topics of, in my judgment, a wider interest, the study of which may perhaps prove of greater service. Great events, and not in the spheres of action or administration only, befell during the Principate of Nero.

These, as well as the Emperor's character, may help, if it so chance, to justify this history.

BERNARD W. HENDERSON.

ΕΧΙΤΕR COLLEGE, OXFORD, Αρriί^26, 1903.

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PROLOGUE

Ut mater iuvenem, queni fΙtus invido flatu Carpathii trans maris aequora cunctantem spatio longius annuo dulci distinet a domo,

lotis ominibusque et precibus vocat, curvo nei (acier litore dimovet, sic desideriis jCta όdeΙibιis quaerit patria Caesarem,

(HORACE, Car,n. iv. .)

Α

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PROLOGUE

R EVOLUTIONS begin from social and economic causes,

but the combatants mostly strive for political forms,

thinking best to change the product, by interference with

the machinery, of government It is in virtue of this that

the political form does actually become of supreme import-

ance. As soon as (at the end of the second century before

the Christian era) the period of Revolution in the history of

the Roman Republic was initiated by the reforming zeal of

the

Gracchi,

that question of the constitution of the central

Government of the Roman State came rapidly to the

front. In very truth these early democrats had at the first

challenged the existing practice of the Constitution inci-

dentally, reluctantly, as a means to the gaining of objects

which they deemed higher and a good which they required

as indispensable. But it was the good, not of political power

for the mob, but of land for the landless, of work for the

unemployed (whom in splendid vanity of hope the statesman

expected to welcome that opportunity for labour could it be

but offered to them), of children for those in whose mouth

might have been placed the ominous complaint of the French

statesman, "Ce n'est pas la peine de faire des maihereux

comme

eux." To realise distress, your own, if not another's,

is no more difficult than to discover the obvious inequalities

of wealth and comfort. It were harder to find the remedy,

whether for distress or inequality, did not the possession of

supreme political power in the State offer itself as so 'risible

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4 PROLOGUE

a panacea of ills, whether agrarian, social, or economic. But when the prince has won the golden key to enter from out the brier-encompassed wilderness into the palace of delight and dispossess its chieftain, he stands only upon the threshold of greater endeavour. Perhaps his very palace, into which he has gained entrance so hardly, is but a maze the more.

Yet there it stands in all its splendour of flashing gold, dazzling the eyesight of all but the most detached. The battle shall be for the obvious prize.

Thus for one hundred years men at Rome fought for the prize 0f power, and destroyed the Republican Constitution by their fighting. Only the wisest realised that this would be the issue, some like Sulla, with regret; others like Caesar, with satisfaction. The Republic was sick of a mortal disease, selfishness. When the Sullari constitution, in truth its last hope (for Cicero's weaker policy had long since been dis- counted by the failure of the greater scheme), had perished in the new breaking out of the flames of faction, the para- mount issue of the nature of the Government of the State remained to be decided by the appeal to arms, and few Republics may survive this in more than name. The blind- ness of the old Republican, the orator, the politician, was excusable, almost necessary. Yet not even a Caesar had the clear vision of the statesman. His solution of the problem of government was proved of default by the con- spirator's dagger and by Cicero's rejoicing at his death. It was reserved for one, no soldier indeed, but greater perhaps than the greatest soldier of them all, to build up anew the fabric of the State out of a veritable chaos of broken aims and ruined bloodstained fragments of the past, to base it securely upon content and new-won peace, order, and prosperity, and by his genius to secure to Imperial Rome centuries of life and power and prestige, which had seemed

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PROLOGUE 5 a vanished and a hopeless dream on the Ides of March.

The "boy " Octavius possessed that which his great predecessor Caesar lacked, the sense for the past, the appreciation of Tradition and of others' love for tradition, the genius of compromise. Ruthless where mercy was impolitic, merciful and gladly merciful when pity was expedient, learning from day to day new lessons from his ever-changing surround- ings, the Emperor Augustus finally devised that constitution for the new Empire which secured for the Empire—for Rome, Italy, and the provinces—peace and good government, objects for which parties for one hundred years had been striving with such ill success, and successfully barred by their very striving. In a constitution cunningly devised to hide a monarchy under Republican forms, the power of the individual ruler was in practice little hampered by the division of spheres of authority between him, as repre- sentative of the people, and the former actual ruler of the Republic, the Senate. Scarcely an element in the new constitution was new. But a new combination of the old elements, a re-arrangement of the disposition and incidence of old authority, gave birth to the Augustan Imperial Constitution, known, not as the Monarchy, but as the Ρrinciρate It was indeed the Principate, rather than Caesar's sword, which saved the State, though without the sword of Caesar the genius of Augustus could never have been allowed its scope. Order and Organisation were the keynotes of the new government. In the spheres of finance, of legislation, of jurisdiction, of provincial administration, a division 0f powers between the Princeps as magistrate and the Senate was instituted and so engineered that little rivalry was possible between the two, save that of emulation in good government. For practice quickly showed the Princeps to be the stronger

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ό

PROLOGUE

if

thought of any other kind of rivalry arose, since he alone was master of the legions. Yet none the less there remained the body of the Republic visible to all eyes, though animated by a different spirit, one which now paid more care to the outlying members and the extremities of the Body Politic, than had the Government inspired, whether by a Gracchus or a Cicero. The Republic had sacri&ed Good Government of its dependencies to its exclusive ideas of Freedom. Caesar had too openly immolated the idea which men had formed of Liberty upon the altar of his own ambition which should prove his Country's good. The greatest Roman of them all, Augustus, had known how to institute the one and preserve in some measure the appearance of the other. Thus the Empire welcomed the Principate, and, not unjustly, in the easy and thankful credulity of polytheism, added the Empire-Builder to the number of its Gods.

Difficulties and discontent remained when the Emperor handed over to his successor his Power and the new-formed State. In truth there was a plentiful crop of tares promising but a lugubrious harvesting, should the new husbandmen lack their predecessor's resolute and temperate wisdom. And this in a measure was the case. Yet partly it is that such good husbandry as his could not be wastd; partly that those whi followed after have for reasons quickly apparent been maligned and depreciated beyond their due. For the tares failed to choke the wheat. There was turbulence in the armies, but it was quelled; open rebellion in the provinces, but for many years it perished for very lack of fuel to feed upon; conspiracy in the Capital, successful to the cost of an Emperor's life, but never shaking the immobile strength of the Empire. On the Eastern frontier fretted a rival Empire, Rome's implacable foe; in Gaul the spirit of Nationality and Fanaticism yet

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PROLOGUE 7

survived Caesar's conquests and Augustus' policy, and these sought their stay in the yet unsubdued island across the narrow channel which marked the frontier of the Empire.

Yet a broader Nationality and a Religion, politically, it may be, devised but at least with certain elements of Truth in it which were gratefully recognised, should speedily overcome the narrower types here as elsewhere, and weld the congeries of alien races into a united Imperial people. Still trouble remained in Rome, the Imperial City, herself. Power perhaps had justified itself too nakedly by force. The old sure anchor- age of religious dread and Duty sanctioned by the Roman Gods seemed lost, and the ship was now labouring in the surf of doubt breaking over the quicksands of Greek scepticism, now spinning in the wild and baffling currents of Eastern super- stition or the cult of pleasure. The few might yet find brave anchorage in Stoic creed or the nonchalance of indifference.

But what of the many thronging the streets of Rome and the crowded life of the Graeco-Italian town? How should any sanction of morality or of righteousness be imposed upon their disbelief?

Small matter this might seem to the statesman, the philosopher, the historian of the day. The political diffi- cult}, in the city was more pressing. Servility baffled the wisest Emperors' efforts to galvanise the Republican elements of the Constitution into at least a small realisation of life.

The Senate would not accept the risk with the share of power, the possibility of independent action pressed earnestly upon it by more than one of the early Emperors. Proud of its great traditions, it was too craven, too spiritless, perhaps too clear sighted, to act independently of the Emperor's will despite the Emperor's invitation, and therefore resented all the more bitterly its own limitations just because they were in part self-imposed. In this discontent, in this opposition,

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8

PROLOGUE

lurked no small danger to Emperor and to Empire. The Republican ideal was to this Senatorial class one of class and city privilege: it was countered by the Imperial policy of expanding equality of opportunity to every subject of the Empire: and it resented its defeat. Privilege girt round about itself the philosopher's cloak of high-sounding maxims of equality, of freedom, of liberty, and never asked their meaning or their price. It clad itself in armour of shibboleths, time-honoured and deluding. It bowed down to idols of the market-place, old idols, idols of heroes, austere, remote Republican, of later Stoic warriors sacrificing their lives on altars to obsolete time-crusted divinities, yet honoured therefore all the more—and themselves in all blind honesty elevated to receive a like devotion. The Roman Aristocracy of the early Empire admired and envied, philosophised and grumbled, and because it could no longer use the State denied the State the use of its own services. Thus Republicanism deserved ill of the State.

Hence the successors of Augustus turned ever more and more to new classes in the State for State services; looked to the municipalities and provinces for civil servants and new Senators; asked of them good work ably done and were not disappointed. Public service of itself may offer some basis of morality and right. If the old families of Rome refused it, let them go. Nay, to expedite their decay may to the more impetuous Emperor seem even desirable.

What are they at the best but useless grumblers, when they dare, and flatterers, when they do not dare, to grumble?

The Empire is a living reality. There is work—good work

—to be done. There are new provinces to win, new wars to wage, new dangers to overcome. The old pride of birth is offered its share in the service. It will not take it honestly.

Then let it stand aside. Augustus' successors will carry on

THE LIFE AND PRINCIPATS OF THE EMPEROR NERO