The  Roman  World:  Lecture    19      

Another  Renaissance?  Neronian  Culture  

Julio-­‐Claudian  Emperors,  14-­‐68  CE  

Tiberius   14-­‐37  CE  Gaius  (Caligula)   37–41  CE  Claudius   41-­‐54  CE  Nero   54-­‐68  CE  

Nero  -­‐  Hellenophile  

•  admira>on  for  Greek  culture  •  Greek  compe>>ve  fes>vals    •  Neronia  •  literary  renaissance:  – Seneca  –  Stoic  philosopher  and  tragedian  – Lucan  Civil  War  (Pharsalia)  – Petronius  Arbiter  Satyricon    

Nero - architect!

•  private house - Domus Transitoria!•  joined 2 hills! !•  64 CE - Fire!!

hKp://ggfrrrrr1234.wordpress.com/2011/10/05/the-­‐domus-­‐transitoria-­‐of-­‐nero-­‐joe-­‐geranio/  

Domus  Aurea  wall  pain>ng  

hKp://www.fransite.net/Klassiek/Romeins/kunst/Fourth%20Style%20wall%20pain>ngs%20in%20Room%2078%20of%20the%20Domus%20Aurea%20(Golden%20House)%20of%20Nero,%20Rome,%20Italy,%2064–68%20CE_jpg_orig.html  

copyright  Rhiannon  Evans  

Nero’s  summer  triclinium?  

Golden  House  (Domus  Aurea):  domed  room  with  

oculus  

Domus  Aurea:  The  Laocoon  

hKp://www.neropredic>on.com/images/nero_house/laocoon.jpg  

Nero - literary renaissance:!–  Seneca – Stoic philosopher and

tragedian!!– Lucan Civil War (Pharsalia)!!– Petronius Arbiter Satyricon!!

Seneca  the  Younger  –  Stoic  philosopher  and  tragedian  

 •  Lucius  Annaeus  Seneca    •  Corduba,  Spain,  c.  4CE  •  31CE    quaestor  •  41  exile  •  49  recalled,  50  praetor    

The news was brought to Jupiter that somebody had come, a rather tall man, quite grey-headed; that he was threatening something or other, for he kept shaking his head; and that he limped with his right foot. The messenger said he had asked of what nation he was, but his answer was mumbled in some kind of an incoherent noise; he didn’t recognize the man’s language, but he wasn’t either Greek or Roman or of any known race. Then Jupiter told Hercules, who had travelled all over the world and was supposed to be acquainted with all the nations, to go and find out what sort of a man it was. Hercules at the first sight was a good deal disturbed, even though he was one who didn’t fear any sort of monsters. When he beheld the aspect of this unknown specimen, its extraordinary gait, its voice belonging to no earthly creature but more like that of the monsters of the deep, hoarse and inarticulate, he thought that a thirteenth labour had come to him. When he looked more carefully, however, it appeared to be a man.

Seneca Apocolocyntosis of the Divine Claudius 5

Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10001/10001-h/10001-h.htm

Seneca  in  Nero’s  early  reign  

•  59  Agrippina  murdered  •  quinquennium  -­‐  Seneca  (and  Burrus)  

Seneca  –  literary  works  

-­‐  philosophical  wri>ngs  –  trea>ses  and  leKers:  Stoic  

-­‐  Tragedies:  9  remaining,  e.g.  Oedipus,  Phaedra,  Medea  -­‐  Phaedra:  Hippolytus,  Theseus  

Seneca’s  later  years  

•  ‘re>rement’  –  62CE  •  Pisonian  conspiracy,  65  CE  (Ann.  15.47  ff)  •  suicide:  Tacitus  Annals  15.60-­‐64  

•  hKp://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/tacitus-­‐ann15a.asp  

Marcus  Annaeus  Lucanus  

•  b.  39CE  •  Spanish  •  Seneca’s  brother  =  father  •  Neronia  •  Civil  War  (Pharsalia):  Caesar,  Pompey,  

Brutus,  Cassius  •  On  the  Burning  of  the  City        

Still Rome is gainer by the civil war.! You, Caesar, are her prize. When you choose,! After your watch is over, to seek divine abodes,! All heaven rejoicing, you will hold a throne,! Or else elect to drive Phoebus' car! And light a subject world that will not dread! To owe her brightness to a different Sun;! All will concede your right: do what you will,! Choose which god you want to be,! And which kingdom of the universe you will rule.! And yet choose not the Northern or the Southern Pole! But in rays direct turn your radiance to your city Rome.! If you press on either side, the universe! Should lose its equipoise: take the middle part! And weight the scales, and let that part of heaven! Where Caesar sits, be evermore serene! And smile upon us with unclouded blue.!

–  Lucan Bellum Civile (Pharsalia) Book 1.44-60!

Gaius  Petronius  Arbiter  

•  arbiter  elegenAae  •  Tacitus  Annals  16.18:  •  ‘idled  into  fame’  

•  proconsul  of  Bithynia  •  Tigellinus  jealous  –  links  to  Scaevinus,  

Pisonian  conspirator  •  theatrical  death  66  CE