The Julio-Claudian Emperors (Extra Credit)
Suetonius' Lives of the Caesars is one of the most important sources for the early days of the Principate. Suetonius includes all sorts of fascinating biographical details about the men he describes--along with plenty of sometimes unverifiable gossip and rumor.For extra credit, please read Suetonius' account of Augustus, Tiberius, Gaius (Caligula), Claudius, or Nero. Pick a line that illustrates particularly well either the emperor's achievements or the way in which that emperor's life was a personal traagedy, or a tragedy for the people of Rome.
posted by Ancient Art at 9:27 AM
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"At the age of three he lost his father, being left heir to a third of his estate; but even this he did not receive in full, since his fellow heir Gaius seized all the property. Then his mother was banished too, and he was brought up at the house of his aunt Lepida almost in actual want, under two tutors, a dancer and a barber. But when Claudius became emperor, Nero not only recovered his father's property, but was also enriched by an inheritance from his stepfather, Passienus Crispus. When his mother was recalled from banishment and reinstated, he became so prominent through her influence that it leaked out that Messalina, wife of Claudius, had sent emissaries to strangle him as he was taking his noonday nap, regarding him as a rival of Britannicus. An addition to this bit of gossip is, that the would-be assassins were frightened away by a snake which darted out from under his pillow. The only foundation for this tale was, that there was found in his bed near the pillow the slough of a serpent; but nevertheless at his mother's desire he had the skin enclosed in a golden bracelet, and wore it for a long time on his left arm. But when at last the memory of his mother grew hateful to him, he threw it away, and afterwards in the time of his extremity sought it again in vain."
This passage shows that Nero did not have much of a home life in his early years. His family looked upon him as a rival to the throne of Rome and tried to kill him when he was just a kid. His family members stole his inheritance from him and his mother was banished after the death of his father. Nero did not have a happy childhood. This is tragic and might explain why he becaome so cruel in his later years while he was emperor of Rome. When you are still a kid and you father dies, your mother is banished, and then your immediate family tries to murder you, that gonna screw you up inside. This tragedy in his youth does not excuse Nero from what he did as emperor, but it does point out that those who should have cared for him and taught him morality when he was a child, failed in that teaching. Instead, his own family was more concerned about themselves and taught him only hatred and cruelty.
Nero was a very lucky man. After the death of his father being adopted by the Emperor and after he died then at the age of 17 becoming Emporer himself. Nero was a very troubled human being. He had physical and pyschological problems that he took out on the people of Rome. He is well known the fire of Rome, but speculations say he started it but we don't have any evidence. All and all Nero was a troublesome Emperor and when he died the people of Rome rejoiced.
After reading of the life of Nero, I realized there was not one line that would justify the utter vileness of this pervert. He was a self-proclaimed artist who graced the stage by his own bidding. To further find amusement he hurled stones at the audience just to watch their agony. I was just skimming over his document and everything my eyes rested upon was another aspect of his wickedness. At one point, Nero had taken a boy and had attempted to make him into a woman. He even went as far as marrying him, with the same ceremonies and dowry as a normal bride. As some jested in regards to that, it would have been better for the world if his father had had the same kind of a wife. One line I chose was for the absurdity of it, coming from the mouth Nero right before he died: "What an artist the world is losing!" In reality, he was doing the world a favor.
Caligula was a Roman emperor who history has judged him as a man of poor virtue and a despot. He lived a life of luxury and was cruel to those that he despied.
Caligula, which means Little Boot, was able to gain support of the army. "When they (the army) threatened mutiny after the death of Augustus and were ready for any act of madness, the mere sight of Gaius (Caligula) unquestionably calmed them. For they did not become quiet until they saw that he was being spirited away because of the danger from their outbreak and taken for protection to the nearest town." Caligula was able to command respect from the army and thus gain their devotion to him.
Caligula gained the support of the Roman citizens through his reform. "He (Caligula) banished from the city the sexual monsters called spintriae, barely persuaded not to sink them in the sea. The writings of Titus Labienus, Cremutius Cordus, and Cassius Severus, which had been suppressed by decrees of the senate, he allowed to be hunted up, circulated, and read, saying that it was wholly to his interest that everything which happened be handed down to posterity. He published the accounts of the empire, which had regularly been made public by Augustus, a practice discontinued by Tiberius. He allowed the magistrates unrestricted jurisdiction, without appeal to himself. He revised the lists of the Roman equites strictly and scrupulously, yet with due moderation, publicly taking their horses from those guilty of any wicked or scandalous set, but merely omitting to read the names of men convicted of lesser offences. To lighten the labor of the jurors, he added a fifth division to the previous four. He tried also to restore the suffrage to the people by reviving the custom of elections. He at once paid faithfully and without dispute the legacies named in the will of Tiberius, though this had been set aside, as well as in that of Julia Augusta, which Tiberius had suppressed."
However, as time went by, Caligula lost support. Caligula was known to have "lived in habitual incest with all his sisters." Along with slaughtering criminals to feed to the lions and increasing taxes, people got fed up with Caligula. Finally, after three years of ruling, Caligula was stabbed and killed while watching a group from Asia that was doing a tribute to the gods.
He lived in habitual incest with all his sisters, and at a large banquet he placed each of them in turn below him, while his wife reclined above. Of these he is believed to have violated Drusilla when he was still a minor, and even to have been caught lying with her by his grandmother Antonia, at whose house they were brought up in company. Afterwards, when she was the wife of Lucius Cassius Longinus, an ex-consul, he took her from him and openly treated her as his lawful wife; and when ill, he made her heir to his property and the throne. When she died, he appointed a season of public mourning, during which it was a capital offence to laugh, bathe, or dine in company with one's parents, wife, or children. He was so beside himself with grief that suddenly fleeing the city by night and traversing Campania, he went to Syracuse and hurriedly returned from there without cutting his hair or shaving his beard. And he never afterwards took oath about matters of the highest moment, even before the assembly of the people or in the presence of the soldiers, except by the godhead of Drusilla. The rest of his sisters he did not love with so great affection, nor honor so highly, but often prostituted them to his favorites; so that he was the readier at the trial of Aemilius Lepidus to condemn them, as adulteresses and privy to the conspiracies against him; and he not only made public letters in the handwriting of all of them, procured by fraud and seduction, but also dedicated to Mars the Avenger, with an explanatory inscription, three swords designed to take his life.
When such a leader, does things of this nature, it can do nothing other than to provide a very bad example for how his people are to behave. they would end up doing things of a similar or worse nature than their leader does indeed do. The way Gaius behaved is a tragedy for Rome. For such a leader has made his hallmark in history as a singular point of depravity for a once grand empire.
"The initial reason for all these wars was this: since he considered nothing more incumbent on him than to avenge his uncle's death and maintain the validity of his enactments, immediately on returning from A pollonia he resolved to surprise Brutus and Cassius by taking up arms against them; and when they foresaw the danger and fled, to resort to law and prosecute them for murder in their absence. Furthermore, since those who had been appointed to celebrate Caesar's victory by games did not dare to do so, he gave them himself. To be able to carry out his other plans with more authority, he announced his candidature for the position of one of the tribunes of the people, who happened to die; though he was a patrician, and not yet a senator [Since the time of Sulla only senators were eligible for the position of tribune]."
Augustus took heir to the throne after the assasination of Caesar and engaged in five civil wars. These wars were all fought over the death of Caesar and Augustus' attempts to carry on his traditions. This quality is very likely that his heir will lead to tradgedy. Caesar was killed for a reason and now Augustus was trying his best to make his ideas live on.
His father Gaius Octavius was from the beginning of his life a man of wealth and repute, and I cannot but wonder that some have said that he too was a money-changer, and was even employed to distribute bribes at the elections and perform other services in the Campus; for as a matter of fact, being brought up in affluence, he readily attained to high positions and filled them with distinction.
At an early age he learned that you can get anything you want with a little bit of money. Bribing people was a great way to get things passed that would not normally be passed. Bribing officials was not always in the best interest for the people of Rome but was good for the wealthy individual that wanted the law passed.
Claudius first consulship was not easy. He was slow in contracting and setting up the statues of Nero and Drusus.Cladius was continually harassed by all kinds of accusations, brought against him by strangers or even by the members of his household.
Claudius was not a well liked man by people, he was able to take power by a freak accident. Ever since he became emperorhe has been made fun of and had a target on him.
jmdotCaligula's life was mired in tragedy. Considering his natural abnormalities--epilepsy, exceptional ugliness, etc--would have been detrimental to his standing in Roman society, he had a slew of mental problems as well. He boasted of his incestual relationships (with his sisters and his grandmother), literally stole other men's wives, killed anyone he wanted, and many other horrible actions. There is a reason I said that Caligula is my favorite ancient figure at the beginning of the semester--It's because he was so incredibly screwed up.
"Nero was born at Antium nine months after the death of Tiberius, on the eighteenth day before the Kalends of January [December 15, 37 C.E.], just as the sun rose, so that he was touched by its rays almost before he could be laid upon the grounds. Many people at once made many direful predictions from his horoscope, and a remark of his father Domitius was also regarded as an omen; for while receiving the congratulations of his friends, he said that "nothing that was not abominable and a public bane could be born of Agrippina and himself."
I think that this passage shows how Nero's life was bound to be a tragedy right from the very beginning of it. How tragic it would be to have bad omens follow your birth and your own father to call you abonimable and a public bane. Nero's life was a tragedy because the stigma of bad omens followed him from the first moment of his life, and so maybe there was some 'self-fulfilling prophecy' involved. How sad that there was no proud parents or hopeful beginnings for Nero, which probably had something to do with his eventual wickedness. He ended up being exactly what people said he would be at his birth, abominable and a public bane.
XIV. "To this unbounded love of his citizens was added marked devotion from foreigners."
Caligula was given absolute power unanimously by the senate as well as the mob. The citizens of Rome loved Caligula whereas they had not liked the previous emperor, Tiberius. The citizens and the senate did not even care for Tiberius' wish that Caligula be co-heir with his grandson. Even the foreigners who had disliked Tiberius wanted to befriend Caligula. This was a great achievement in Caligula's life.
"Yet even at that time he could not control his natural cruelty and viciousness, but he was a most eager witness of the tortures and executions of those who suffered punishment, revelling at night in gluttony and adultery, disguised in a wig and a long robe, passionately devoted besides to the theatrical arts of dancing and singing, in which Tiberius very willingly indulged him,in the hope that through these his savage nature might be softened. This last was so clearly evident to the shrewd old man, that he used to say now and then that to allow Gaius to live would prove the ruin of himself and of all men, and that he was rearing a viper for the Roman people and a Phaethon for the world." This passage exemplifies the downfall of Caligula as a person. It shows that even from a young age, the demise of caligula was easy to forecast.
XXVIII. Besides abusing freeborn boys and seducing married women, he debauched the vestal virgin Rubria. The freedwoman Acte he all but made his lawful wife, after bribing some ex-consuls to perjure themselves by swearing that she was of royal birth. He castrated the boy Sporus and actually tried to make a woman of him; and he married him with all the usual ceremonies, including a dowry and a bridal veil, took him to his home attended by a great throng, and treated him as his wife. And the witty jest that someone made is still current, that it would have been well for the world if Nero's father Domitius had had that kind of wife. This Sporus, decked out with the finery of the empresses and riding in a litter, he took with him to the courts and marts of Greece, and later at Rome through the Street of the Images, fondly kissing him from time to time. That he even desired illicit relations with his own mother, and was kept from it by her enemies, who feared that such a relationship might give the reckless and insolent woman too great influence, was notorious, especially after he added to his concubines a courtesan who was said to look very like Agrippina. Even before that, so they say, whenever he rode in a litter with his mother, he had incestuous relations with her, which were betrayed by the stains on his clothing.
this passage discussing a way of life that "all people" should stay away from. A ruler might have power but when he starts doing stuff like this, he should be taken down.
This line comes from the life of Nero.
"Once, indeed, during the performance of a tragedy, when he had dropped his scepter but quickly recovered it, he was terribly afraid that he might be excluded from the competition because of his slip, and his confidence was restored only when his accompanist swore that it had passed unnoticed amid the delight and applause of the people. When the victory was won, he made the announcement himself; and for that reason he always took part in the contests of the heralds. To obliterate the memory of all other victors in the games and leave no trace of them, their statues and busts were all thrown down by his order, dragged off with hooks, and cast into privies."
This is a tragedy for the people of Rome because rather than encouraging the arts in Rome, he dissuaded people from wanting to compete. He announced the winner of the contest himself, and it was him. He was so jealous that he got rid of the evidence of previous winners. One of the worst ways to hurt the people of your civilization is to make people not want to create art.
”In the nineteenth year of his age he was called to Capreae [the Isle of Capri] by Tiberius, Although at Capreae every kind of wile was resorted to by those who tried to lure him or force him to utter complaints, he never gave them any satisfaction, ignoring the ruin of his kindred as if nothing at all had happened, passing over his own ill-treatment with an incredible pretence of indifference. Yet even at that time he could not control his natural cruelty and viciousness, but he was a most eager witness of the tortures and executions of those who suffered punishment, revelling at night in gluttony and adultery, disguised in a wig and a long robe, passionately devoted besides to the theatrical arts of dancing and singing, in which Tiberius very willingly indulged him,in the hope that through these his savage nature might be softened. This last was so clearly evident to the shrewd old man, that he used to say now and then that to allow Gaius to live would prove the ruin of himself and of all men, and that he was rearing a viper for the Roman people and a Phaethon for the world. “
Caligula as some think poisoned Tiberius to avenge the death of his mother and brothers and also to become Emperor of Rome. This natural cruelty and viciousness is seen through out his reign. At the time of his succession, many of the roman people were excited to have Caligula on the thrown thinking that Tiberius reign of terror would end, and also because of the memory of his father Germanicus and pity for a family that was all but extinct. I don’t quite understand why sixty thousand victims were slain in sacrifice because of the public rejoicing for the new Emperor. It’s obvious that Tiberius, when he was alive knew the disturbed character of Caligula and the people did not. I believe the Romans assumed Caligula would have been more like Germanicus. He was not however. Caligula took Roman men’s wives and used them for his own pleasure. He only really loved one woman, who was reckless. He forced parents to attend the executions of their sons, he tortured many people and made jokes about it. He was not the kind man his father was.
-Nate Mills
"When his mother was recalled from banishment and reinstated, he became so prominent through her influence that it leaked out that Messalina, wife of Claudius, had sent emissaries to strangle him as he was taking his noonday nap, regarding him as a rival of Britannicus. An addition to this bit of gossip is, that the would-be assassins were frightened away by a snake which darted out from under his pillow."
This poor guy he lived a horrible life and was all of a sudden in to this position of unequaled power it's no wonder he lost his mind.
of the unbounded honors that were heaped upon him refusing but one, the title of father of his country, and that because of his youth.
This line says to me that hey this emperor is showing that he believes he might do good for the empire but is not willing to call himself the father of it becaue rome is a whole lot older and nero was so young when he came into power.But it was good for the roman emperor because that way they knew that Nero right away was not going to get a big head and go it a controling state of ruling.
XXXVIII. But he showed no greater mercy to the people or the walls of his capital. When someone in a general conversation said: "When I am dead, be earth consumed by fire," he rejoined "Nay, rather while I live," and his action was wholly in accord. For under cover of displeasure at the ugliness of the old buildings and the narrow, crooked streets, he set fire to the city so openly that several ex-consuls did not venture to lay hands on his chamberlains although they caught them on their estates with tow and firebrands, while some granaries near the Golden House, whose room he particularly desired, were demolished by engines of war and then set on fire, because their walls were of stone. For six days and seven nights destruction raged, while the people were driven for shelter to monuments and tombs.
I chose this passage from the section about Nero because I believe it shows how his decisions during his reign as emperor created tragedy for the people of Rome. He took a comment from a Roman citizen and twisted it around to create a horrible example of the extent of his power and his insanity. He set fire to buildings in Rome which he disliked and let them burn for a whole week. This obviously devasted the lives of many Roman citizens whose homes and businesses were burned down in the fire. I think this was a good example of how Nero failed the people of Rome and tarnished his role as emperor.
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