Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/1176

Rh 1162 NERO. services in Caesar's cause by being made a pontifex ill the place of P, Cornelius Scipio, and was emploj'ed in establishing colonies in Gallia north of the Alps, among which Narbo (Narbonne) and Arelate (Aries) are mentioned ; but the colony to Narbo was a supplementura, for it was settled A. d. 116. On the assassination of Caesar he went so far as to propose that the assassins should be rewarded. He was praetor probably in B. c, 42. On the quarrels breaking out among the triumviri he fled to Pe- rusia arid joined the consul L. Antonius, who was besieged there B.C. 41. In this year his eldest son Tiberius, the future emperor, was born : his mother was Livia Drusilla, the daughter of Livius Drusus. When Perusia surrendered in the following year, Nero effected his escape to Praeneste and thence to Naples, and after having made an unsuccessful attempt to arm the slaves by promising them their freedom, he passed over to Sext. Pompeius in Sicily (comp. Suet. Claud. 4,and Dion Cass, xlviii. 15). His wife and child, scarcely two years old, accompanied Nero in his flight. At Naples, while they were secretly trying to got a ship, they were nearly be- trayed by the cries of the child, Nero, not liking the reception that he met with from Pompeius, passed over !o M. Antonius in Achaea, and, on a reconciliation being effected between M. Antonius and Octavianus at the close of the year (b. c. 40), he returned with his wife to Rome. Livia, who pos- sessed great beauty, excited the passion of Oc- tavianus, to whom she was surrendered by her liusband, being then six months gone with child of her second son Drusus. Nero gave Livia away as a father would his daughter (b. c. 38), but he must have formally divorced her first. The old and the new husband and the wife sat down together to the marriage entertainment. When Drusus was born, Caesar sent the boy to his father, for, being begotten during Nero's marriage with Livia, Nero was his lawful father. Caesar, who was a man of great method, made an entry in his memorandum- book, to the effect " that Caesar sent to Nero his father the child that was born of Livia his wife." (Dion Cass, xlviii. 44; Tacit. AtmaL i. 10, v. 1.) Nero died shortly after, and left Caesar the tutor of his two sons. If Tiberius was born in b. c. 42 (see Clinton, Fasti, B. c. 42), Nero -died in b. c. 34 or 33, for Tiberius, his son, pronounced his funeral oration in front of the Rostra, when he was nine years old. [G. L.] NERO, Roman emperor, a. d. 54 — 68. The emperor Nero was the son of Cn. Domitius Aheno- barbus, and of Agrippina, daughter of Germanicus Caesar, and sister of Caligula. Nero's original name was L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, but after the mar- riage of his mother with her uncle, the emperor Claudius, he was adopted by Claudius A. D. 50, and was called Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Ger- manicus. Claudius had a son, Britannicus, who was three or four years younger than Nero. Nero was born at Antium, a favourite residence of many of the Roman families, on the coast of Latiura on the 15th of December a. d. 37 (comp. Suet. Ner. c. 6, ed. Burmann ; Tacit. Ann. xii. 25, ed. Oberlin, and the notes in both). Shortly after his adoption by Claudius, Nero being then sixteen years of age, married Octavia, the daughter of Claudius and Messallina. Among his early in- structors was Seneca. Nero had some talent and tfiste. He was fond of the arts, and made verses ; but he was indolent and given to pleasure, and had NERO. no inclination for laborious studies. His character, which was naturally weak, was made worse by his education ; and when he was in the possession of power he showed what a man may become who haa not been subjected to a severe discipline, and who in a private station might be no worse than others who are rich and idle. On the death of Claudius, A. D. 54, Agrippina, who had always designed her son to succeed to the power of the Caesars, kept the emperor's death secret for a while. All at once the gates of the palace were opened, and Nero Avas presented to the guards by Afranius Burrhus, praefectus praetorio, who announced Nero to them as their master. Some of them, it is said, asked where was Britan- nicus ; but there was no effort made to proclaim Britannicus, and Nero being carried to the prae- torian camp, was saluted as imperator by the soldiers, and promised them the usual donation. The senate confirmed the decision of the soldiers, and the provinces quietly received Nero as the new emperor. (Tacit. Ann. xii. 69 ; Dion Cass. Ixi. 1, &c.) Nero showed at the commencement that he had not all the acquirements which the Romans had been accustomed to see in their emperors. His public addresses were written by Seneca, for Nero was deficient in one of the great accomplishments of a Roman, oratory. The beginning of his reign was no worse than might be expected in an ill- educated youth of seventeen ; and the senate were allowed to make some regulations which were sup- posed to be useful (Tac. Ann. xiii. 4). The affairs of the East required attention. The Less Armenia was given to Aristobulus, a Jew, and son of Herodes, king of Chalcis. Sophene was given to Sohemus. The follies and crimes of Nero were owing to his own feeble character and the temper of his mother. This ambitious woman wished to govern in the name of her son, and she received all the external marks of respect which were due to one who possessed sovereign power. Seneca and Bur- rhus exerted their influence with Nero to oppose her designs, and thus a contest commenced which must end in the destruction of Agrippina or her opponents. Nero began to indulge his licentious inclinations without restraint, and one of his boon companions was an accomplished debauchee, Otho, who afterwards held the imperial power for a few months. Nero assumed the consulship a. d. 55^ with L. Antistius Vetus for his colleague. The jealous}' between him and his mother soon broke out into a quarrel, and Agrippina threatened to join Britannicus and raise him to his father's place. Nero's fears drove him to commit a crime which at once stamped his character and took away all hopes of his future life. Britannicus, who was just going to complete his fourteenth year, was poisoned by the emperor's order, at an entertain- ment where Agrippina and Octavia were present. Nero showed his temper towards his mother by depriving her of her Roman and German guard ; but an appearance of reconciliation was brought about by the bold demeanour of Agrippina against some of her accusers, whom Nero punished. (Tacit. Ann. xiii. 19—22.) In A. D. 57 Nero was consul for the second time with L. Calpurnius Piso as his colleague, and in A. D. 58, for the third time with Valerius Messalla.' Nero, who had always shown an aversion to his wife Octavia, was now captivated with the beauty 1