Historical Sources

Nero

In this course, Professor Matthew Nicholls (University of Oxford) explores the reign of the fifth Roman emperor, Nero (54-68 AD). In the first lecture we think about the historical sources for Nero’s reign. After that, in the second lecture, we look at the first five years of Nero’s reign (54-59 AD), before turning in the third and fourth lectures to the important women in Nero’s life – his mother, Agrippina, whom he had murdered in 59 AD, and his three wives: Claudia Octavia, Poppaea Sabina and Statilia Messalina. In the fifth lecture, we think about the Pisonian conspiracy (65 AD), before moving on in the sixth lecture to consider the impact of the Great Fire of Rome (64 AD). In the seventh lecture we think about Nero’s handling of foreign policy, particularly in relation to the region of Armenia, before turning in the eighth lecture to the final years of Nero’s reign. In the ninth lecture, we think about Nero’s handling of religion during his reign, before looking more broadly at his administration of empire in the tenth lecture. In the eleventh and twelfth lectures we think about Nero’s relationship with two distinct groups in Roman society – the senate and the people – before turning in the thirteenth lecture to consider Nero’s decision in the aftermath of the Great Fire of Rome to construct a huge palace complex known as the Domus Aurea (Golden House).

Historical Sources

In this lecture we think about the historical sources for Nero’s reign, focusing in particular on: (i) the extant sources, both contemporary (e.g. the poetry of Calpurnius Siculus) and later (e.g. the historical narratives of Tacitus, Suetonius and Cassius Dio); (ii) the non-extant, contemporary sources, including Cluvius Rufus, Pliny the Elder and Fabius Rusticus; (iii) the nature of the accounts written by Tacitus and Suetonius, e.g. sensational, moralising; (iv) the arc of Nero’s reign, i.e. early promise followed by rapid decline, and the key ‘turning points’, e.g. the death of Agrippina (59 AD), the trial of Antistius Sosianus (62 AD), the removal of the Nero’s advisors Burrus (died 62 AD) and Seneca (retired 62 AD, died 65 A5); (v) the extent to which a promising start followed by rapid decline is a trope in Roman history, e.g. Caligula, Claudius, Titus; (vi) the questions that modern historians might ask about Nero’s reign, e.g. to what extent did the political stability of the principate rely on territorial expansion?