• How did Octavian finally convince the Roman Senate to declare war on Marc Antony? • By reading Marc Antony’s will in which he requests to be buried in Alexandria, Egypt. • Actium (Greece) • 31 BCE • Cleopatra (1963) • Dir. Joseph Mankiewicz • Cleopatra—Elizabeth Taylor • Caesar—Rex Harrison • Marc Antony—Richard Burton • Octavian—Roddy McDowall Julio-Claudian Dynasty (31 BCE-68 CE) • Augustus 31 BCE–14 CE • Tiberius 14–37 • Gaius (Caligula) 37-41 • Claudius 41-54 • Nero 54-68 Year of the Four Emperors • Galba 68-69 • Otho 69 • Vitellius 69 • Vespasian 69-79 31-14 14-37 41-54 37-41 54-68 Cornelius Publius Tacitus (56-117c) • Senator, historian, orator (aristocratic and conservative) • Held political office during terror of Domitian (81-96) • Consulship in 97 under Nerva; Governor of Asia under Trajan c. 112 • Works: Agricola (father-in-law, governor of Britain) Germania (moral contrast: Germany v. Rome) • Annales (Julio-Claudian era 14-68) Historiae (Flavian period 69-96) Tacitus rewrites the Augustan narrative • Augustus found the whole state exhausted by internal dissensions, and established over it a personal regime known as the Principate… • He seduced the army with bonuses, and his cheap food policy was successful bait for civilians. Indeed, he attracted everybody’s good will by the enjoyable gift of peace. Then he gradually pushed ahead and absorbed the functions of the Senate, the officials, and even the law. • Opposition did not exist. War or judicial murder had disposed all men of spirit. Upper-class survivors found that slavish obedience was the way to succeed, both politically and financially… • The country had been transformed, and there was nothing left of the old Roman character. Political equality was a thing of the past; all eyes watched for imperial commands. Nero [Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus]—chronology --49 Agrippina marries her uncle Claudius [novelty; incest] --50 Claudius adopts Nero [now ahead of his own son Britannicus] --53 Nero marries Claudius’ daughter Octavia --54 Agrippina poisons Claudius; Nero becomes emperor at 17 --55 Nero poisons his step-brother Britannicus --59 Nero has Agrippina assassinated [matricide] --62 Nero has Octavia murdered for his lover Poppaea --64 Great Fire in Rome, Christians persecuted Nero builds Domus Aurea --68 Rebellion of generals in provinces, Nero commits suicide --”What an artist dies in me.” (Suetonius) Themes to look for in Tacitus • The emperor’s house (and Rome by extension) reduced to a site of vice – Focus on emperor and imperial family and its machinations muddles the public/private separation and undoes Augustus’s merger of res publica and res privata. – Nero engages in debauchery; loves everything Greek • Gender and class confusion – machinations of Agrippina; freedmen [liberti] in Emperor’s court • Virtues such as virtus, gravitas, dignitas, pietas are undermined. – No corrective virtuous exempla to overcome vice—Octavia v. Lucretia • Religion (cosmic order) is reduced to superstition and portents Aureus, 54 CE, Nero and Agrippina Bust of Nero, 60 CE Agripp Aug Divi Claud Neronis Caes Mater Aggripina Augusta, wife of divine Claudius, mother of Nero Tacitus on Fire in Rome / Golden House distorted refounding / making the public private • A disaster followed, whether accidental or treacherously contrived by the Emperor is uncertain, as authors have given both accounts… • A rumor had gone forth that, at the very time the city was in flames, the Emperor appeared on a private stage and sang of the destruction of Troy, comparing present misfortunes with the calamities of antiquity… It seemed that Nero was aiming at the glory of founding a new city and calling it by his name…. • Nero meanwhile availed himself of his country’s desolation, and erected a mansion in which the jewels and gold…were not so marvelous as the fields and lakes, with woods on one side to resemble a wilderness, and, on the other, open spaces and extensive views…[with] the genius and audacity to attempt by art even what nature had refused.