PDF hosted at the Radboud Repository of the Radboud University Nijmegen The following full text is a publisher's version. For additional information about this publication click this link. http://hdl.handle.net/2066/134614 Please be advised that this information was generated on 2021-09-25 and may be subject to change. NERO’S ANCESTRY AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF IMPERIAL IDEOLOGY IN THE EARLY EMPIRE. A METHODOLOGICAL CASE STUDY Abstract: Within the discipline of ancient history, diverse types of sources, Olivier Hekster such as coins, inscriptions, portraits and texts, are often combined to create a coherent image of a particular ruler. A good example of how such a process Radboud Unviersity Nijmegen
[email protected] works is the way in which reconstructions by modern scholars of the emperor Nero tend to look for a clearly defined ‘Neronian image’, by bringing together various types of primary evidence without paying sufficient attention to Liesbeth Claes these sources’ medial contexts. This article argues that such a reconstruction Institute of History Leiden does not do justice to the complex and multi-layered image of the last Julio-
[email protected] Claudian. By focusing on one particular aspect of Neronian imagery, the propagation of this emperor’s ancestry, we will argue that different types of Erika Manders sources, stemming from varying contexts and addressing different groups, University ‘Georg-August’ Göttingen cannot unproblematically be combined. Through an investigation of the
[email protected] ancestral messages spread by imperial and provincial coins, epigraphic evidence and portraiture, it becomes clear that systematic analysis of ancient Daniëlle Slootjes media, their various contexts and inconsistencies is needed before combining Radboud Unviersity Nijmegen them.