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Acting and Nero's Conception of the Principate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

C. E. Manning
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Extract

Suetonius tells us that Nero's dying words were ‘Qualis artifex pereo’, and amongst English-speaking peoples he is generally known as ‘the man who fiddled while Rome burned’. Even if the ‘famous last words’ are legendary, there is a basis for the second story in Suetonius' account that during the fire of 64 Nero sang ‘the destruction of Troy’ in his stage costume. Yet despite the picture of Nero the performer which emerges from all our ancient sources, it is only in comparatively recent times that historians have given serious consideration to Nero's artistic pretensions. History it would seem is the propaganda of the victors, and that most hurtful remark of Vindex, that he was a bad lyre-player, has often been regarded as the appropriate verdict upon Nero.

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 22 , Issue 2 , October 1975 , pp. 164 - 175
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1975

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References

NOTES

1. Suet. Nero 49. 1; 38. 2; 41. 1.Google Scholar

2. Charlesworth, M. P., ‘Nero: Some Aspects’, JRS xl (1950), 69–76Google Scholar; Tac. Ann. xvi. 4Google Scholar; for Nero in Greece, see Suet. Nero 23. 2–24. 1Google Scholar, and Dio Cass. lxiii. 9. 1–2.

3. Suet. Nero 20–1Google Scholar; Quint. Inst. Or. xi. 3. 170–1.Google Scholar

4. Though Nero's artistic merits have not lacked defenders among modern scholars; cf. Charlesworth, , op. cit. 69–70Google Scholar; Brisset, J., Les Idées politiques de Lucain (Paris, 1964), 12.Google Scholar

5. L'Orange, H. P., ‘Domus Aurea: der Sonnenpalast’, Symb. Osloenses (1942), 68 ff.Google Scholar; Apotheosis in Ancient Portraiture (Oslo, 1947), 57–60.Google Scholar The ancient evidence includes Suet. Nero 31. 2Google Scholar; Pliny, NH 30. 17Google Scholar; Lucan BC i. 45.Google Scholar

6. Boëthius, A., ‘Nero's Golden House’, Eranos xliv (1946), 442–59Google Scholar; Tac. Ann. xv. 42Google Scholar; Suet. Nero 31.Google Scholar For the fashion of elaborate ceilings, see Petr. Sat. 60Google Scholar; Charlesworth, , op. cit. 71–2Google Scholar; Toynbee, J. M. C., review of Apotheosis in Ancient PortraitureGoogle Scholar in JRS xxxviii (1948), 160–3.Google Scholar For Lucan's eulogy, see Brisset, , op. cit. 196–201.Google Scholar

7. Suet. Nero 56Google Scholar; also Charles-Picard, G., Augustus and Nero (New York, 1965), 95–108.Google Scholar

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9. Tac. Ann. xiii. 4Google Scholar; see also Sen. Apoc. 4.Google Scholar

10. Nero's ignorance of the details of administration is illustrated by his attitude to the vectigalia (Tac. Ann. xiii. 50Google Scholar). The senate's tightening and enforcement of the senatus consultum Silianum (Tac. Ann. xiii. 32Google Scholar; xiv. 42–5) show its new-found freedom. See also Warmington, B. H., Nero: Reality and Legend (London, 1969), 34–6, 39–42.Google Scholar

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13. Suet. Otho 7Google Scholar; 10; Vit. 11.Google Scholar

14. Suet. Nero 57Google Scholar; Tac. Hist. i. 4.Google Scholar

15. Fronto, Princ. Hist. 17.Google Scholar

16. For Verus' levitas, see Fronto, ad Ver. Imp. 1. 2Google Scholar; and for specific comparisons of Verus and Nero, Script. Hist. Aug. Verus 4. 6Google Scholar; 10. 8. For Verus' military qualities, see Dio Cass. lxxi. i. 3; for Marcus' campaigns, Dio Cass. lxxii passim; and for his dourness and unpopularity, Script. Hist. Aug. Marc. Ant. 15. 1Google Scholar; 23. 6; Fronto, ad Marc. Caes. iv. 2. 3.Google Scholar

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19. Livy, vii. 2Google Scholar; Tac. Ann. xvi. 21Google Scholar; Dio Cass. lxii. 26. On the social status of actors, see Beare, W., The Roman Stage (London, 1950), 166–7.Google Scholar

20. For Corbulo's death, see Dio Cass. lxiii. 17. 5–6; for the propaganda which Nero's behaviour gave to potential opponents in military contexts, ibid. 22. 5–23.

21. Dio Cass. lxix. 3. 1–3; 9–10. 1; 23. 3; Script. Hist. Aug. Hadrian 14. 8–11Google Scholar; 17. 5 and 8; 20. 1; 21. 9.