Remember: nothing but the soul is worthy of admiration, and for a great soul it is less and less.
Seneca
Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus birth name Lucius Domitius (Born December 15, 37 - died June 9, 68 (30 years old); reign 54-68)
The Domitian clan is an old clan, many of this clan were consuls, almost all the men from Domitia were famous for both military exploits and arrogance and cruelty. Nero's father had a reputation for being a petty, grumpy miser. During ten years of marriage, his wife Agrippina the Younger gave birth to his only son - as it is believed, the pregnancy was planned: many rich families, in order not to split the fortune, tried to have only one son, interrupting unwanted pregnancies. During childbirth, Agrippina had a caesarean section.
After the death of his father and the exile of Agrippina, little Lucius Domitius was sent to live with his aunt. But this childish half-exile did not last long: after the murder of Caligula, Agrippina was forgiven, and Claudius returned her inheritance to her little son.
Without a doubt, by the time the famous orator and philosopher Lucius Anneus Seneca became Nero's educator, the character of the future tyrant had already been formed. However, the philosopher must have cherished a vain dream of curbing passions with his influence and raising an exemplary (or at least acceptable) ruler from a beast. An orator in Rome, it seems that he can do everything or almost everything. It is not difficult for a famous philosopher to conquer the imagination of a young man; the student will want to follow the teachings of the teacher. But a philosopher is not able to change the soul of a pupil. Soon enough, the desire to imitate the teacher will disappear.
Of course, Agrippina cleared the road to power not only for her son, but also for herself. Perhaps she believed that the young Nero would be easier to control than Claudius. A strange illusion. But Agrippina made a mistake, trying to engage not only in political affairs, but also interfering with her son's personal life. She was against his passion for the stage, against the new mistress Acte. A 17-year-old boy rarely finds a common language with his parents. Especially if the son is stubborn, and the mother has such a power-hungry unyielding character, like Agrippina. As a rule, in Rome, parental authority forced anyone to obey. But in this case, Nero stood above his mother. He is a princeps. Nero did not want to play a second role.
Quarrels happened one after another. Agrippina decided to intimidate her son and began to support Britannicus in his claims to the throne, believing that after such a demarche, Nero would become more compliant and submissive. The result exceeded all expectations. On the eve of his majority, Britannica was poisoned. It was officially announced that the son of Claudius died of an epileptic seizure. Burr and Seneca were unaware of the impending assassination. What a disappointment! Seneca so diligently sculpted a wise ruler from a disciple. And suddenly this ruler (only a few months have passed since he came to power) shows animal fangs.
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Didn't it work? But so much effort was put in! What should a philosopher do in such a situation: turn around and leave? But if you try, Britannica's death can be justified. One power, one ruler, there should be no ambiguity. You just need to forget about such a concept as virtue. Just a virtue, above which there is nothing, as the Stoics believed. So or not so Seneca reasoned - is unknown. But he remained beside Nero.
Agrippina did not accept, continued to reproach her son, continued to intrigue. Nero stripped her of protection and evicted her from the palace. Even then, he was thinking about killing his mother. But Burr and Seneca opposed and even tried to reconcile Nero with his mother.
No matter how insignificant and vicious Nero was, of course, the influence of the teacher did not pass without a trace. He wanted to follow the advice that the philosopher gave him, he wanted to be virtuous, because “true happiness lies in virtue”, “the highest good is in the perfection of the spirit” (Seneca).
And even if this impulse is purely external, similar to induced magnetism, Nero acted as the teacher taught, and, having heard complaints from the people in the theater, he immediately wanted to abolish all indirect taxes. Seneca objected: "But what about the finances and state revenues?" "But what about virtue!" - most likely the diligent student exclaimed. But after all, the teacher, pronouncing his maxims, always kept in mind the correction for the circumstances. So everything is a lie? And there is neither virtue nor perfection of spirit, and from now on everything is allowed! All the lessons learned about virtue are in the trash can, and you can do whatever your heart desires ?! And the soul is not thirsty for virtue. However, the teacher can say whatever he wants - he is already pretty fed up with the imperious student.
But as long as the philosopher is still engaged in the affairs of the state, continuing to talk about the limits of good and evil, the more time for fun will be left for Nero.
58 years old - Nero started an affair with Poppeya Sabina, a woman of extraordinary beauty, the wife of his friend Otho. Poppaea is not a freedman of Acte, she wanted to be the wife of the emperor. However, Agrippina strongly opposed the divorce from Octavia. Then Nero decides to get rid of his mother in the simplest way, that is, to kill. Seneca and Burr are not his helpers in this matter. And Nero turned to Aniket, who held the post of prefect of the fleet. Aniket proposed to build a self-destructive ship and drown Agrippina. No doubt, the plan is original, but the technique failed. Nero celebrated the Greater Quinquatria at Bayah. Agrippina said goodbye to her son and boarded the ship. The ship was destroyed as planned, but not completely. Agrippina was able to swim out and took refuge in her villa.
Nero was horrified. He called Seneca and Burr and asked them for advice: what to do. The situation was in reality critical. For matricide in Rome, death was due. But under the new ruler, it is unlikely that a brilliant future awaited the killer's educator and the chief of his guard. Burr, however, refused to use the Praetorian Guard. Let Aniket finish the dirty business himself, which he failed with such success. And now, almost without hiding, in front of the crowd of onlookers who had heard of the night shipwreck, the killers went to the villa of Nero's mother. Having met the assassins, Agrippina allegedly offered to pierce her womb, which gave birth to the monster - one of those beautiful phrases with which the Romans loved to adorn their annals.
After the murder, they quickly came up with an excuse: allegedly Agrippina tried to kill her son, and when nothing came of it, she committed suicide. Seneca drew up a letter of acquittal, which the emperor sent from Naples to the Senate. After the burial, Burr ordered the centurions and tribunes of the Praetorian Guard to congratulate Nero on the fact that he had so happily escaped the assassination attempt.
Burr's death soon broke the Burr-Seneca alliance. Tigellinus became one of two praetorian prefects. The second position was taken by Feny Rufus. Two trials of insult to grandeur took place at the beginning of 62. True, Nero was going to show mercy by replacing the convicted Senator Antistia Sosian from execution to expulsion with confiscation of property. However, the Senate, at the insistence of Trazei Peta, himself decided to commute the sentence and replace the death sentence with exile. The emperor was angry: he was deprived of the opportunity to show mercy.
But not to punish a person at all for the fact that he only read bold rhymes about the emperor in a circle of friends, Nero did not have enough mercy for this. Seneca asked for resignation, but he was refused. He wanted to return the gifts of the emperor - Nero did not accept them. For another two years, Seneca will allegedly be next to his pupil, but then he will move away from the court (for now it is the court of a true monarch) and will live as a recluse until the student orders the teacher to die.
Now the places of Burr and Seneca in the heart of Nero were taken by Tigellinus and Poppaea. These two owed their rise exclusively to the emperor. This is especially true for Tigellinus. A man of the lowest origin, thanks to his pleasant appearance, he gained confidence and became a member of the houses of Agrippina and Livilla (sisters of Caligula), lived with them, not forgetting to please their husbands, was expelled, returned, engaged in breeding race horses, which helped him to gain the friendship of young Nero. A career rather strange for a praetorian prefect, chief of the praetorian guard.
Poppaea, a woman of amazing beauty, whose amber hair seemed extraordinary (usually the Romans were dark-haired), she was at least six years older than the emperor, had a son from her first husband Crispus (he was then ordered to be drowned by Nero). With Crisp, Poppaea divorced and married Otho. To prevent Otho from interfering with the lovers, the princeps sent Poppea's second spouse to rule Lusitania.
62 - Nero decided to divorce Octavia in order to marry Poppaea. This decision had an unexpected effect: an outraged crowd rushed into the palace, demanded the elimination of Poppea and protested against Nero's divorce from Octavia. But Poppaea was not going to give in: she convinced the tyrant that this revolt was started by Octavia's clients and slaves. The unloved wife, a modest and quiet woman, was accused of having an affair with Aniket and treason, was sent to the island of Pandateria, where her veins were forcibly opened, trying to present her death as a suicide.
An amazing thing: Nero as a person was not bloodthirsty. Suetonius told the following case: when Nero was brought to sign a decree on the execution of a criminal, he exclaimed: "Oh, if I could not write!" On the Champ de Mars, he built an amphitheater with a stone plinth trimmed with marble. On a wooden frame, a blue awning was stretched from above, studded with stars. In this amphitheater, he arranged games, but did not allow the killing of a single gladiator, even of criminals. However, as soon as it came to his own skin, the emperor lost his head from fear and turned into a bloodthirsty monster.
One of the most mysterious events of his reign is the great fire of Rome in 64. More than once modern historians are trying to refute the rumor that the City was set on fire by order of the emperor, and he himself, standing on a dais, sang the song of his own composition "The Crash of Troy", looking at the fire (the aqueduct on which he stood had a chance to be removed from the legend, because the fire was not visible from it). In general, the fun with the arson of the capital would be more suitable for Caligula, with his passion for unexpected antics and sadistic jokes. But everyone knew Nero's dreams of rebuilding dirty and chaotically built up Rome.
In addition, Nero did not have enough space for the construction of a new palace. And although the fire began and resumed in a completely different place where the Golden House was later built, although the princeps' own buildings suffered primarily from the fire, still rumors of arson appeared immediately after the fire, because someone had to be blamed for this terrible misfortune. After the start of construction of the grandiose Golden House, rumors only intensified.
Let us remember Tiberius: he gave out huge sums to the victims when one Aventine Hill was burned down. Famous politicians, and then emperors, were supposed to build public buildings in the capital, the construction of their own chambers did not add to their popularity. Nero, having begun the grandiose construction of a personal residence, and not a public building, aroused hatred among the Romans. So he had to urgently look for someone to whom he could blame. A suitable sect was found that lived in isolation and did not recognize the Roman gods and Roman customs. Tacitus claims that these were Christians. The few members of the sect were executed in the most sophisticated way. However, the atrocities did not add love to the emperor, but only aroused sympathy for the executed.
The princeps had one passion - a passion for art. He wanted to sing and perform on stage. If he was born into a poor family, he would have lived the life of a happy person, becoming an actor. I would get applause, receive gifts from patrons, and sneak into the bedrooms of noble matrons. However, his mother made him a princeps. For a noble Roman, performing on stage was considered a shame. The fact that the princeps sings on stage horrified the Romans. In vain the emperor tried to change the attitude of the Romans to art - the glory of the singer could not equal in the eyes of the inhabitants of Rome with the glory of a politician or a military leader.
At first, Nero, yielding to old customs and traditions, did not dare to appear before the public and performed only in his private circus and on the stage of a private theater. However, this was not enough for him. After getting rid of the tutelage of Seneca and Boer in 64, the princeps decided to go on stage. For the first performances, he chose Naples - a Greek city in the Italic lands, where the Romans usually wore Greek dress and where many things were allowed that could not be done in the Eternal City. Here in Naples, the sacred Greek games were held.
The spectators of the first performance of Emperor Nero were the inhabitants of Naples and the surrounding towns, the Alexandrians and Praetorians of the Princeps who came to the city. Although the theater collapsed after actors and audiences left, Nero was delighted with his debut.
65 - the first serious conspiracy against the emperor arose. The Princeps was to be killed during the chariot competition at the Circus Maximus on April 19, 65. The conspirators planned to make Guy Calpurnius Piso the princeps, who came from a noble family and was very popular. The conspiracy was attended by senators, horsemen, tribunes and centurions of the Praetorian Guard and one of the praetorian prefects Fenius Rufus. But the conspirators had no support in the legions stationed in the provinces. It is believed that one of the reasons for the conspiracy was the princeps' desire to perform on the Roman stage during Neronius - games instituted by the emperor in honor of himself.
But too many people were involved in the conspiracy. A freedman of one of the senators reported on his master. The conspirators, already knowing that the emperor knew about their plans, did not dare to take active steps and began to pawn each other. Together with the conspirators, innocent people were also executed. Rather, their only fault was that the princeps hated them. Agree, it is a huge crime to earn the hatred of a tyrant. It is not known whether Seneca took part in the conspiracy, but he was forced by Nero's orders to commit suicide.
So, Piso's conspiracy failed, and the tyrant was preparing to perform on stage. The Senate was horrified. Roman emperor on stage! In order to avoid embarrassment, the senators wanted to provide the princeps with all possible rewards in advance. But he refused. The Emperor wanted to speak in person, hear thunderous applause and enjoy the delight of the audience. And he spoke. The praetorian prefects carried his lyre, and the soldiers ordered the audience to applaud. After that, the tyrant began to appear in front of the audience much more often, he also performed as a driver in the arena of the Great Circus.
The tyrant was at the height of bliss. But then the beautiful Poppaea died. She was pregnant, and Nero had high hopes for her unborn child. Which was not destined to come true. The emperor arranged a magnificent funeral for his beloved wife, her body was not burned, but embalmed according to the Eastern tradition. After which the tyrant resumed the persecution of the "participants in the conspiracy." Well, in order to drown out the longing for his beloved wife, he made a young freedman a eunuch and lived with him.
But could the Romans really appreciate the talents of the emperor? Only Greeks can listen, only the inhabitants of Hellas understand a lot about music and singing, only Greeks are worthy of Nero's efforts.
And the emperor went on tour to Greece. For the sake of the princeps, the date of the Olympic Games was postponed, and not only - all the games that were held in Greece were now held in one year so that Nero could perform for everyone and for everyone to receive wreaths. In Olympia, driving a team of ten horses, the emperor lost control and fell out of the chariot. He was immediately put back. But he was so badly hurt that he could not take part in the races. However, the victory was still awarded to him. Princeps took his performances very seriously and was very worried whether he would be awarded or not. But he was worried in vain: the victory was always awarded only to him.
The Greeks were not in vain. Leaving the province, he gave Greece freedom (giving freedom the second time was very much like a farce). Freedom was granted, of course, not in the literal sense: Achaia was still a part of the Roman state, but the emperor freed Greece from taxes, which, in principle, was not such a small favor. Let us note in parentheses: under Vespasian, the Greeks lost this favor.
The return of the tyrant to Rome looked like a triumph, only the triumph was not military, but theatrical. In purple robes and an Olympic wreath, holding a Pythian wreath in his hands, Nero rode into the capital in the triumphal chariot of Augustus. But he entered not through a triumphal arch, but through a gap in the wall, as befits a Greek winner at sacred games. Wreaths with a list of his victories and songs were carried in front of him. Behind, instead of legionnaires, were his flappers. The procession came to the Temple of Apollo on the Palatine. All the way people sprinkled saffron on the road, presented ribbons, songbirds and sweets to the princeps. Nero hung the resulting wreaths in his bedroom near the bed and put his statues in the vestments of kifared there.
The tyrant had long lived in a fictional world, he was only interested in theatrical performances. Hearing about the danger, about an imaginary or genuine conspiracy, he inflicted cruel blows, execution of enemies and former friends for the slightest suspicion, and again plunged into his conventional, one would like to say "theatrical" world.
Not a single military leader of those times felt safe. The most talented of the generals of that era, Corbulo was summoned to Nero and was ordered to be stabbed. The other two - the Scribonia brothers - also arrived at the princeps and were ordered to commit suicide.
So sooner or later one of the commanders, fearing for his life and having troops, had to revolt. But the first to revolt was Gaius Julius Vindex, the ruler of Lugdun Gaul, who did not have a single legion. But he hoped for the help of his colleague, who ruled the Near Spain, Galba, who had one legion at his disposal. Galba at first hesitated, but then, deciding that Nero's rule did not promise him anything good, he decided to oppose the tyrant.
When the news of the Vindex uprising came, the emperor came up with an unexpected way to fight the rebels: he wanted to go to Gaul, go out alone and unarmed to the Vindex warriors and cry in front of them for a long time. Such a pathetic scene should reason the rebels. And the next day, the princeps will sing a victory song, and everything will be settled in this unusual way. The tyrant went off to compose the song on which he had pinned such hopes.
But soon the news of Galba's actions came, and Nero fainted. True, Vindex was soon defeated and died in a battle with the governor of Upper Germany. But a new chain of betrayals immediately followed. Tigellinus was ill and could not come to the aid of his emperor. And the second prefect of the praetorian Nymphidius went over to the side of Galba, promising the praetorians great awards. The Senate, realizing that it could finally settle accounts with Nero for all "arts", including for its constant fears and humiliations, declared the emperor an enemy of the fatherland and sentenced him to death.
Emperor Nero took refuge in a villa on the outskirts of Rome. Only four of the freedmen remained with their master. When the emperor learned that the pursuit was near, with the help of one of them, Nero committed suicide. Before his death, he uttered his famous words: "What a great artist dies!"
M. Alferova