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!!
h p://ggfrrrrr1234.wordpress.com/2011/10/05/the-domus-transitoria-of-nero-joe-geranio/ h p://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
Domus Aurea wall pain ng Nero’s summer triclinium? Golden House (Domus Aurea): domed room with oculus
copyright Rhiannon Evans Domus Aurea: The Laocoon
h p://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 le ers: 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 • h p://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 elegen ae • Tacitus Annals 16.18: • ‘idled into fame’ • proconsul of Bithynia • Tigellinus jealous – links to Scaevinus, Pisonian conspirator • theatrical death 66 CE