EMPEROR NERO'S MADNESS

Fourteen years of Madness and Murder

Submitted by bija on Fri, 05/29/2009 - 13:06

One of the earliest descriptions we have of Nero is particularly unflattering. It comes from the Roman writer and historian Suetonius in his work The Twelve Caesars, a biography of 12 of the Roman empire's rulers, from Augustus to Domitian. He gives a physical description of Nero as "about the average height, his body marked with spots and malodorous, his hair light blond, his features regular rather than attractive, his eyes blue and somewhat weak, his neck over thick, his belly prominent, and his legs very slender."

Nero grew up as a child in the most powerful family of ancient Rome, the Julio-Claudians. But he was very much the product of his mother's cold and ruthless ambition.

Body odour, acne and skinny legs? Surely those are not the macho attributes usually associated with hardened battle heroes and conquerors of the ancient Mediterranean. In fact, the accuracy of that description is hard to ascertain. Suetonius was born in 70 AD, two years after Nero's death. However, it certainly renders the idea of an emperor deeply unpopular with his people and generally considered to be a laughing stock – albeit a ruthless and murderous one.

Nero's Early Years: Murder and Matricide

Even from the word go, Nero seemed an unlikely ruler for the most powerful civilization of ancient times. His ascent to power was entirely due to the political scheming of his mother, Agrippina the Younger. She had married the limping (and – if you believe the BBC adaptation I, Claudius – stuttering) emperor Claudius in 49 AD, while her son from her previous marriage, Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, later known as Nero, was just 12.

During five years of marriage, Agrippina ensured that Claudius adopted Nero as his own son, while also promoting his public profile. When Nero was 17, in October 54 AD, Claudius died suddenly from eating poisoned mushrooms. While some historians suggest that this was an unfortunate accident, others point out that Claudius's untimely death was actually incredibly convenient for Agrippina, who was then able to push Nero into the purple robes of the emperor. The timing was crucial, as Agrippina had to hand power to her son Nero before Claudius's own son, Brittanicus, three years Nero's junior, came of age and was able to make his own claim as emperor. In fact Brittanicus also met a sticky end – poisoned at the dinner table – and is widely believed to have been murdered by his step-brother, the adolescent emperor Nero.

Part of the pay-off for Agrippina's ruthless planning was that she wanted a share of Nero's influence and power. She was joint-ruler in all but name, with coins from the early years of Nero's rule showing his mother's profile alongside his. However, the leading lady had failed to address her son's sense of insecurity. It had also slipped her mind to instil any sense of gratitude and loyalty in him. This led to him fearing and resenting the extent of her power and control over him and his decisions. He arranged for her to move out of the imperial palace, but this wasn't far enough. So, in 59 AD, Nero went one small step further.

Agrippina had been attending a party with her son at an imperial palace at the Roman town of Baiae, about 10 km north of modern-day Naples on the site of the modern town of Baia. It was a calm night on the bay of Naples, so Agrippina decided to make the short journey home by sea. Little did she know that Nero's men had rigged her boat so that the deck would collapse and weights would crush her. This plan didn't succeed and Agrippina, realising what was afoot, managed to dive overboard and swim ashore. Nero's plot had been thwarted, but the emperor, at the age of 22, was determined to rid himself of his own mother. He dispatched his men to finish the job once and for all – they were sent to beat her to death in her apartment. When they came they found her in bed. She apparently ordered them to strike her in her stomach, cursing her womb for having produced such a son.

Nero's Artistic Delusions

Despite two family murders within his first five years in power, in these early years Nero was close to his two solid and respected advisers – Burrus and Seneca. Their influence over the emperor was able to restrain him considerably. Even if they weren't able to prevent his act of matricide, they were able to limit the damage by convincing the senate and the people of Rome that Agrippina had been discovered plotting to kill Nero. This was the only plausible explanation for such a heinous crime – particularly in ancient Rome where mothers were revered as a symbol of fertility and peace.

However, this period, with its semblance of restraint on the part of Nero, was coming swiftly to an end. Burrus and Seneca were falling out of favour with the emperor. Seneca penned the philosophical work On Clemency, advocating that an emperor should exercise restraint, compassion and, above all, should seek to hide his absolute power. By 62 AD, according to Tacitus, the influence of Nero's good advisers was dwindling, leaving the empire at the mercy of the emperor's unfettered impulses and caprices.

Something that no doubt was a source of great amusement for many citizens, while it was also a humiliating embarrassment to the ruling elite, was that Nero was not particularly interested in the daily politics of ruling the empire at all. As long as he felt himself to be popular among the people, he much preferred pursuing his hobbies: singing, composing, drama and the Hellenic arts. He became a patron of the arts and instigated several theatrical and musical festivals known as the Neronia, performing in many of them himself. Of course this was considered to be highly inappropriate for an emperor. Part of the problem was that Nero had achieved the level of a professional singer, so his advisers found it difficult to discourage him. The latter years of Nero's rule, from 62-68 AD, were fraught with deep-rooted discontent. While Nero clung to power by ruthlessly murdering any senator that looked like he might oppose Nero or have a claim to the throne, he also appeased the unhappy citizens by laying on lavish games and public ceremonies. In 66 AD, while Rome was still reeling from the aftermath of the Great Fire, Nero took himself off to Greece for a tour of arts festivals. He returned in 'triumph' having 'won' numerous prizes for his musical performances.

Nero, top left, took his place in the historic line-up of Caesars, but he remains perhaps the most infamous and shocking of the Roman emperors

Octavia and Poppaea

Nero's wives fared no better than other members of his close family. Octavia was the daughter of Claudius – both were much loved by the Roman public, in fact Claudius was deified. Octavia had already witnessed the poisoning of her father and her brother Britannicus. At the age of 13 she was married to her step-brother Nero (he was 16). It was an unhappy marriage. While Octavia fulfilled the role of a virtuous wife, Nero had affairs with a freedwoman called Claudia Acte and then with the aristocrat Poppaea Sabina. When the latter fell pregnant, Nero divorced Octavia and banished her to the island Pandateria (the modern day island of Ventotene near Naples).

This caused a public outcry from Rome's citizens who were still devoted to Claudius and his daughter. Nero attempted to quell the riots by having Octavia murdered in 62 AD – she was just 22 years old. He was then free to marry the manipulative beauty Poppaea. During their three-year marriage Poppaea gave birth to a daughter who died at four months. She was pregnant again when, according to Suetonius, Tacitus and Cassius Dio, there was an argument between the emperor and empress that resulted in Nero attacking his wife. Some say he kicked her in the stomach, while others suggest it could have been an accident. Whatever the truth, Poppaea died in 65 AD and Nero entered a long period of mourning for her.

The Fire of Rome

According to legend Nero 'fiddled' while Rome burned, but when the fire started in a small shop near Circus Maximus in July 64 AD, Nero was 50 km away in the Roman town of Antium (modern day Anzio). In any case, it is more probable that he would have been playing his lyre, or practising his singing. The fire destroyed many of Rome's urban areas – just four out of 14 neighbourhoods were left intact. People took to the streets in utter panic and the effect on human life in the city was devastating. Three quarters of the city's dwellings – those of rich senators as well as the ramshackle apartments of the poor – went up in flames. The city burned for nine days.

Unfortunately, Nero didn't make himself any more popular in the aftermath of the fire, even though he was quick to introduce important reforms for safer building regulations. He stipulated that the 'insula' apartment blocks should be no higher than 21 metres, that they should be built around courtyards to provide 'breathing space' and fire barriers, while streets should be no narrower than 1.5 metres. However, with three quarters of Rome damaged or destroyed, Nero saw his chance to change the face of the city – and benefit himself in the process. He set aside a third of the burnt area – eight hectares of land – and ordered a new imperial palace to be built there. This outraged the people of Rome, who already lived in cramped conditions. Now they were being pushed into the peripheries of the city. Nero compounded his crimes by making scapegoats of the city's Christians, and blaming them for starting the fire. Many of them were tortured then executed as punishment, but according to Tacitus this also backfired, rousing general sympathy for the Christians and resentment at Nero's overt and excessive cruelty.

Domus Aurea

The imperial palace was a deeply unpopular project – not only in Rome, where land was taken from the city's people, but also in the provinces, which were squeezed for all the taxes they were able to pay. The project was vast and consisted of some of the most luxurious buildings Rome had ever seen. The building work also relied heavily on slave power – one in three people in Rome during that time were slaves. The Golden House was built around a lake and consisted of a huge palace with over 150 rooms – all opulently decorated with precious stones and painted with exquisite frescoes. Nero seemed to be finally content when he entered the finished palace. It did nothing whatsoever for his standing with the people of Rome. In fact, soon after it was completed, Nero was declared an enemy of the public and was forced to flee the guards who were sent to kill him.

The emperor pre-empted the guards by taking his own life. His last words were believed to have been 'Such an artist dies with me!' Nero was self-delusional to the end.

The Independent UK