HUI216 Italian Civilization

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HUI216Italian Civilization

• Andrea Fedi

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Marble Portrait of Agrippina (ca. 50 CE, National
Museum, Naples)
Aureus of Agrippina and Nero, from Lyon (France,
ca. 54 CE)
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11.6 The life of Nero chronology of the main
events

• 49 Agrippina marries Emperor Claudius, who adopts
  Nero (Agrippina's son from a previous marriage)
• 53 Nero marries his stepsister Octavia
• 54 Claudius dies (poison?)
• Nero becomes Emperor, before his 17th birthday
• Seneca and Burrus are his tutors the first a
  great philosopher, originally from Spain, the
  second a former military officer
• 55 Britannicus (Claudius's son) dies (poison?)

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11.6 The murder of Agrippina and the life of
Nero chronology of the main events

• 59-62 Agrippina is killed, Burrus dies, Seneca
  retires
• Nero is on his own, free to do whatever he likes
• 64 The Great Fire destroys more than half of Rome
  
• Nero builds his new palace on prime land that was
  expropriated after the fire
• 68 Nero kills himself before he is captured by
  the soldiers of an opposing faction
• 68-69 the year of the 4 Emperors
• in a short period, these 4 Emperors succeed one
  another by defeating the previous Emperor in
  battle, or by gaining larger support within the
  army
• the events of this year shows the weakness
  resulting from the lack of a clear mechanism of
  succession in the Roman Empire

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11.6 Emperor Claudius
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11.7 Tacitus how Roman Emperors are chosen (54
CE)

• At noon on the 13th of October, the gates of the
  palace were suddenly thrown open, and Nero,
  accompanied by Burrus, went forth to the cohort
  which was on guard
• There, at the suggestion of the commanding
  officer, he was hailed with joyful shouts, and
  set on a litter
• Some, it is said, hesitated, and looked around
  and asked where Britannicus was
• then, when there was no one to lead a resistance,
  they yielded to what was offered them

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11.7 How Nero becomes Emperor at the age of 17

• Nero is hailed Emperor by a small military unit,
  that was guarding the palace
• A gift is promised to the soldiers in Rome, to
  encourage them to welcome and support the new
  Emperor
• The Senate follows "the voice of the soldiers"
• There is "no hesitation in the provinces"
• "Divine honors" are decreed to Claudius
• Claudius's will is not "publicly read," for fear
  that it might mention his son Britannicus, who
  was the legitimate heir to the throne (even
  though younger than Nero himself)

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11.7 The mechanism of accession to the throne

• The mechanism of accession to the throne was not
  clearly regulated in ancient Rome
• The practice of Kings in other regions dictated
  that the firstborn son would succeed his father,
  but in Rome that did not always happened, not
  even during the monarchy (753-509 BCE)
• This lack of fixed rules allowed Nero and his
  mother to act quickly and seize the throne
• Nero, after all, was Claudius's stepson, and
  although he was barely 16 (all of this happened
  before his 17th birthday), he was a few years
  older than Britannicus
• This course of events makes Claudius's death
  suspicious

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11.8 The murder of Agrippina a "long meditated
crime"

• Power and ambition
• Nero, justifiably, suspects that his mother wants
  a share of the power that she has procured for
  her son
• It is not by chance that on the Roman coins
  produced during the first years of his empire,
  one can see not just the face of the Emperor
  Nero, as customary, but also the profile of his
  mother
• The passion for Poppaea
• Nero wants to be free to divorce Octavia and
  marry his lover
• Tacitus's narration is framed like a tragedy,
  rather than an accurate and objective historical
  narration

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11.8 The murder of Agrippina political bias
inside the narration

• Tacitus, as a conservative Republican historian,
  was biased, and his narration betrays his
  political agenda
• he lobbied for a more powerful Senate, capable of
  keeping Emperors from abusing their position of
  power
• he thought it possible to revert to even a
  limited form of democracy
• Tacitus and other historians, like Suetonius, are
  largely responsible for the creation of the
  stereotypical image of the decadent Roman empire
• The issue is not whether Nero or Caligula were
  not as immoral or violent as these historians
  described them, but how much their personality
  quirks really affected the Empire, which survived
  for another 400 years

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11.8 Elements of a literary tragedy inside the
narration of the murder of Agrippina

• The sins and the impious behavior of the main
  characters justify and prepare the story's
  developments
• greed, murder, incest, perversion, simulation and
  hypocrisy
• Growing anxiety results from the various
  successful crimes, rather than elation and
  tranquility (cf. Shakespeare's Macbeth)
• The theme of the fight of good vs. evil
• Seneca and some of the senators fight on the side
  of democracy, justice and honesty against
  Agrippina, Nero and their lackeys or accomplices

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11.8 Literary devices used inside the narration
of the murder of Agrippina

• Another typical literary device employed in this
  episode is the historian's insistence on the
  description of the frame of mind of the main
  characters
• Traditional historians were expected not to
  speculate on the thoughts and feelings of
  historical figures while dramatic events were
  happening
• Unless they could rely on the report of an
  eyewitness, real or legendary, they would either
  be silent or they would convey those feelings and
  thoughts by embellishing and re-creating public
  speeches given by those historical figures, under
  the pretense that eyewitness existed who heard
  the speech and could confirm its contents

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11.8 Tacitus the sin of incest, the art of
innuendo

• Consider how Tacitus treats the alleged incest of
  Agrippina and Nero, introducing a variety of
  sources and eyewitnesses, never fully supporting
  or denying the allegations of incest, all the
  while giving the impression that he wants to keep
  an objective stand
• Cluvius relates that Agrippina in her eagerness
  to retain her influence went so far that more
  than once at midday, when Nero, even at that
  hour, was flushed with wine and feasting, she
  presented herself attractively attired to her
  half intoxicated son and offered him her person

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11.8 Tacitus incest, superstition,
verisimilitude

• Acte, the freed-girl, told him Seneca that the
  incest was notorious, as his mother boasted of
  it, and that the soldiers would never endure the
  rule of an impious sovereign
• Cluvius's account is also that of all other
  authors, and popular belief inclines to it,
  whether it was that Agrippina really conceived
  such a monstrous wickedness in her heart, or
  perhaps because the thought of a strange passion
  seemed comparatively credible

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11.8 Agrippina's theatrical death a tragic fate

• Agrippina's death, in this episode, is associated
  with the idea of fate, typical of classical
  tragedies
• First you find the description of the shipwreck,
  at night (darkness and evil acts go hand in hand,
  in tragedies and literary fiction)
• Then, after Agrippina's messenger is accused of
  being a murderer and is killed, she dies in the
  most theatrical way
• "as the centurion bared his sword for the fatal
  deed, presenting her person, she exclaimed,
  'Smite my womb!'"

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11.8 Agrippina's death prelude (greed, ambition)
and consequences (guilt, fear)

• Her death apparently had even been anticipated,
  as it was written in the stars
• "when she consulted the astrologers about Nero,
  they replied that he would be emperor and kill
  his mother. 'Let him kill her,' she said,
  'provided he is emperor'"
• After the crime, only guilt and fear follow
• Where are the political considerations?
• In reality Agrippina and Nero had probably become
  estranged, as it happens often to members of a
  royal family, and they were fighting for power
  and supremacy like political rivals do

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11.8 After the crime guilt, panic, hypocrisy,
cowardice

• Nero, when the crime was accomplished, realized
  its portentous guilt
• The rest of the night, now silent and stupefied,
  now and still oftener starting up in terror,
  bereft of reason, he awaited dawn as if it would
  bring with it his doom
• He himself, with an opposite phase of hypocrisy,
  seemed sad, and almost angry at his own
  deliverance, and shed tears over his mother's
  death
• he retired to Naples and sent a letter to the
  Senate

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11.8 The responsibility and incompetence of the
Senate the opposition has high moral values,
lacks a political plan

• He told the story of the shipwreck
• but who could be so stupid as to believe that it
  was accidental, or that a shipwrecked woman had
  sent one man with a weapon to break through an
  Emperor's guards and fleets?
• Thrasea Paetus then walked out of the Senate,
  thereby imperiling himself, without communicating
  to the other senators any impulse towards freedom
• Paetus will later will commit suicide, following
  a 'noble' tradition in the Roman upper classes

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11.8 Tacitus highlights the consequences of
Nero's sinful behavior

• Nero had not omitted a single abomination which
  could heighten his depravity, till a few days
  afterwards he stooped to marry himself to one of
  that filthy herd
• A disaster followed, whether accidental or
  treacherously contrived by the emperor, is
  uncertain, as authors have given both accounts,
  worse, however, and more dreadful than any which
  have ever happened to this city by the violence
  of fire

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11.9 Suetonius (circa 110 CE), Life of Nero
(transl. by J.C. Rolfe) the Golden House

• Its vestibule was large enough to contain a
  colossal statue of the Emperor 120 feet high and
  it was so extensive that it had a triple
  colonnade a mile long
• There was a pond too, like a sea, surrounded with
  buildings to represent cities, besides tracts of
  country, fields, vineyards, pastures and woods,
  with great numbers of wild and domestic animals
• There were dining-rooms with fretted ceilings of
  ivory, whose panels could turn and shower down
  flowers and were fitted with pipes for sprinkling
  the guests with perfumes
• The main banquet hall was circular and constantly
  revolved day and night, like the heavens

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11.9 The first Roman Emperors chronology

• Augustus 27 BCE-14 CE
• Tiberius 14-37
• Caligula 37-41
• Claudius 41-54
• Nero 54-68
• Galba 68-69
• Otho 69
• Vitellius 69

• Vespasian 69-79
• Titus 79-81
• Domitian 81-96
• Nerva 96-98
• Trajan 98-117
• Hadrian 117-138

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11.9 Optional readings on Nero and the events
narrated by Tacitus

• Nero's Golden House (Domus aurea)
• Pictures of the archeological site of the palace
• read more about Nero
• Nero, his family, the court
• http//www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/nero
  .shtml
• http//www.pbs.org/empires/romans/empire/nero.html
  
• The great fire of Rome
• http//www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/case_rome/index.ht
  ml

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11.10 Claudio Monteverdi's opera on Nero

• The coronation of Poppea was staged in Venice in
  1642 or '43
• Venice, as a Republic, "prided itself on its
  direct lineage from the Roman republic, retaining
  the values that had been so distorted as
  classical Rome moved from republican strength to
  imperial decadence, a decadence still apparent,
  it was felt, in the Rome of the early
  17th-century" (Tim Carter, "Towards the creation
  of genre Monteverdi's Poppea," p. 18)
• There is a thesis clearly at work throughout this
  opera when the state is in the hands of a
  tyrant, immorality thrives, especially near the
  source of power, at the court, while the fate of
  the whole state must also be affected

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11.10 Monteverdi's Poppea Nero the immoral tyrant

• It is not surprising that, even before Nero
  appears on the scene, at the beginning of the 1st
  act he is introduced (during the conversation
  that takes place between two Roman soldiers) as a
  most hateful character, who has no regard for the
  sanctity of marriage, neglects the care of the
  empire at a critical juncture, and favors those
  like him who lack moral values and self-control
• Second soldier Our Empressconsumes herself with
  weeping, and Nero neglects her for Poppaea.
  Armenia's in revolt, yet he ignores it.
  Pannonia's up in arms and he makes light of it.
  As far as I can see, the empire's going from
  back to worse

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11.10 Monteverdi's Poppea the tyrant affects the
moral stability of single individuals

• First soldier One might add that our Prince robs
  everyone to line the pockets of a few. The
  innocents suffer while criminals are doing very
  nicely
• The introduction of historical details on the
  decadence of Imperial Rome gives the author of
  the libretto, Giovanni Francesco Busenello, an
  opportunity, in the first act, to discuss more
  generic moral and political issues, when Arnalta,
  Poppaea's old nurse and confidant, tries to warn
  her about the dangers of dealing with immoral,
  evil princes
• To have dealings with princes is perilous.Love
  and hate count for nothing with themtheir
  emotions are governed by pure self-interest.Nero'
  s love for you is a but a fancyif he abandons
  you, you can't complainit would only make
  matters worse

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11.10 Monteverdi's Poppea tyranny may corrupt
the souls of the subjects

• POPPAEA No, no, I fear no setback at all.
• ARNALTA A great man honors you with his mere
  presence,and, having filled your house with
  wind,pays in nothing but reflected glory.Your
  good name's gone if you admitNero beds me.The
  vice of self-aggrandizement gets you nowhereI
  prefer the sins that yield returns.You can never
  deal with him on equal terms,and if your goal is
  marriageyou're asking for disaster.
• POPPAEA No, no, I fear no setback at all.

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11.10 Monteverdi's Poppea power and personal
whims

• Following the historical sources, the opera
  presents the suicide of Seneca as the simple
  result of Nero's almost childish desire to free
  himself of his tutors, his only reasonable
  counselors
• Power has all to do with personal whims and the
  satisfaction of one's ego, rather than with
  politics or the care of the well-being of the
  community
• NERO Hey! One of youmake haste to Seneca tell
  himhe must kill himself this evening.I insist
  that my power to act depends on me,not on the
  whims and sophistry of others!I could almost be
  temptedto disown my spiritif I believed it base
  enoughto be ever subject to another's promptings

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11.10 Monteverdi's Poppea Nero, the monster

• Even those who act as accomplices to Nero, and
  execute his orders, feel a very natural and human
  repulsion for the behavior and the devilish
  decisions of such a wicked man
• A freedman, sent by the Emperor to inform Seneca
  that he should take his life, confesses that he
  cannot bear to be the messenger of such cruel and
  irrational orders
• (The tyrant's commandsare quite irrationaland
  always involve violence or death.I must convey
  them, and althoughI am only the innocent
  mouthpiece,I feel tainted by the evilI am
  required to communicate.)Seneca, I am sorry to
  have found you,even though I sought you.

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11.10 Monteverdi's Poppea an immoral conclusion?

• The conclusion of the opera appears to be
  unusual, in that Nero and his lover, Poppaea,
  sing together on stage celebrating their success
  against all enemies and the realization of their
  dream of love
• The extraordinary thing is that two characters
  who have committed so many sins are allowed to
  close the story on the sensuous notes of their
  (albeit temporary) triumph does crime pay?
• It is obvious, rather, given the standards and
  the restrictions of the genre, that this
  conclusion implied the widespread knowledge, in
  the audience, of the actual historical conclusion
  of the events in the story, with Poppea murdered
  and Nero killing himself right before he was
  captured by his opponents

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11.10 Monteverdi's Poppea the final duet

• POPPAEA, NERO
• I gaze at you,possess you,press you to
  me,clasp youno more pain,no deathly grief,O
  my life, my treasure.I'm yours,yours am I,my
  dearest, say you love me too.You are the idolof
  my heart,oh yes, my love,my heart, my life, oh
  yes.

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11.10 Petrolini's Nero a parody of Mussolini?

• In 1930, Italian actor/comedian Ettore Petrolini
  (1886-1936) played the part of Nero in a surreal
  theatrical parody, that famous director
  Alessandro Blasetti shot directly on the stage to
  produce a movie
• Some suggested that Mussolini might have been the
  target of this satirical representation of the
  Roman tyrant, especially in the scene in which
  Nero speaks to the people of Rome
• However, the first version of this play was
  staged in 1917, before Fascism
• see http//www.burcardo.org/mostre/petrolini/

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Emperor Nero
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