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NERO.   Term Paper ID:24789 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Life, career & character of 1st Cent. Roman emperor, based on chapter from Suetonius's [The Twelve Caesars].... More...

8 Pages / 1800 Words 1 sources, 17 Citations, MLA Format $32.00 Return to List of Papers

Paper Abstract: Life, career & character of 1st Cent. Roman emperor, based on chapter from Suetonius's [The Twelve Caesars]. Paper Introduction: NERO (37-68 A.D.) This essay reviews the translation of Robert Graves, as revised by Michael Grant, of Suetonius' chapter on Nero, the last Caesarean Emperor. It portrays Nero as a man and a ruler who is so beset and eventually overcome by his personal insecurities and his vices that he became a bloodthirsty, paranoid and ineffective tyrant whose downfall after a short reign of 14 years between the ages of 17 and 31 came about because he was universally detested. The author's narrative style is compelling and revealing of stark reality. His treatment of his subject was advanced for his times because most contemporary historians tended to eulogize their rulers or deal with them superficially. However, the book may fall short of being a comprehensive and accurate analysis of Nero and his times in that it fails to offer a comprehensive Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Afterhis father died and Agrippina was banished from Rome, Nero was a ward ofhis aunt, who hired a barber as his tutor. Nero was, however, a genuine sadist who derived pleasure frominflicting pain on others. Suetonius may have pinned theblame on Nero because that conclusion fit with his general theory that Nerowas the architect of his own downfall. Early Rule During his early adolescence, the author says that Nero behavedhimself, and, in the initial years after he became Emperor followingClaudius' death, Nero acted with moderation and wisdom in a number ofareas: lowering taxes, displaying acts of public and private generosity,putting on crowd-pleasing spectacles and acting deliberately and fairly asa judge. Nero was vainglorious and insincere about his various talents, suchas his singing ability. Some of the world'smost despicable tyrants have died in their sleep, others have been thevictims of tyrannicide. Nero's ancestors in composite seemed to exemplifythe tendencies which were later manifest in him. He would deliberately engage in musicalcompetitions which produced in him a state of high anxiety, then ensurethat the results were fixed in his favor by bribing the judges. In Suetonius' account, Nero was overthrown andeventually died by his own hand because "at last, after nearly 14 years ofNero's misrule, the earth rid herself of him" (237). However, he had to abandon these schemes, not because he scrupled to carry them out, but because he realized their impracticability (239-24 ). Nero's failings, which were writ large by his personalflamboyant style and defiance of convention, probably are not as large acausative factor in the decay, disintegration and eventual destruction ofRome as one might gather from Suetonius' account. This style makes for good entertainment, but the questionremains whether it is totally satisfactory as history. Also, therevolt against Nero was organized by the Gauls in the person of one oftheir provincial governors, an obscure figure named Julius Vindex. Upbringing. The book is advanced in its social realism and its grip onpsychological reality. He also kept the peace on Rome's frontiers and avoided recklessforeign adventures. He killed his first wife, Poppea, by kicking herto death while she was pregnant and ill (233). He was nearly assassinated bythugs sent by Messalina, the wife of his uncle Claudius, then Emperor,because she saw Nero as a future rival to the throne of their son,Britannicus. Basically, Nero was an unsocialized child, who never absorbed anylimits to his personal idiosyncracies and who once he gained supreme powerwas able to pursue them, no matter what disastrous consequences followed,for him or for the Empire he ruled. However, the origins of this firewere not clear in Suetonius' time or later. NERO (37-68 A.D.) This essay reviews the translation of Robert Graves, as revised byMichael Grant, of Suetonius' chapter on Nero, the last Caesarean Emperor.It portrays Nero as a man and a ruler who is so beset and eventuallyovercome by his personal insecurities and his vices that he became abloodthirsty, paranoid and ineffective tyrant whose downfall after a shortreign of 14 years between the ages of 17 and 31 came about because he wasuniversally detested. Suetonius offers the reader a magnificent spectacle of personalizedhistory, a view of events as seen from the vantage point of the ruler inthe case of Nero as seen through the prism of his personal foibles. Trans. . Suetonius says that "Nerowas no less cruel to strangers than to members of his family" (233). He largely kept the peace, which enabled the Empire to thrivefor most of his rule. Nero caused the death of Agrippina, his aunt, his step-son, his firsttwo wives and "other members of his family" (233). Let us see to it that no one is left withanything" (23 ). Gravesdeveloped this style into cinematic art through his memorable televisedportrayal of the Augustine line of emperors and their labyrinthianintrigues. However, like a spoiled child, Neroattempted to make up the losses by robbing the citizenry, telling hiscohorts, "You know my needs! Nero clearlywas impolitic in refusing to pay lip service to the goal of conquest. Downfall If Nero's lack of self-restraint contributed to his downfall, as hisvices became self-destructively obsessive, Suetonius suggests that thedifference between the early and latter phases of Nero's rule was more theresult of circumstances than of any changes in Nero's basically corruptnature: Claudius was the first victim of his murderous career: because, though Nero may not have been actually responsible for the poisoning of his adoptive father, he knew all about it, as he later admitted (23 ). Something more was involved than Nero's loss ofpopular support. The world has known many tyrants, but few ascomplex and as insecure as Nero, whose incompetence and personal excessesspelled a sad ending to a long line of Augustine rulers. He blames Nero for setting the great fire ("he brazenly setfire to the city") which destroyed a large part of Rome in 64 A.D., thendescribes how Nero paid for the reconstruction of the city by assessing itsdistressed citizenry the costs (235). Afterone "wholesale massacre of the nobility, no considerations of selection ormoderation restrained Nero from murdering anyone he pleased, on whateverpretext" (234-235). They were described inorder of their remoteness in time from Nero, respectively, as having "aniron face and a heart of lead," "an indecisive man, though he had a furioustemper," "without doubt the best member of the family," who nonethelessbetrayed his patron Mark Antony to Octavius Caesar out of private eroticmotives, "notorious for his arrogance, extravagance and cruelty," and last,Nero's father "a wholly despicable character," sadistically cruel,dishonest, disloyal and prone to sexual excess, including incest with hissister (214-215). What is missing is a persuasiverendition of the more fundamental causes and events which led to Nero'signominious end. Suetonius then damns Nero with faint praise: "I haveseparated this catalogue of Nero's less atrocious acts--some deserving nocriticism, some even praiseworthy--from the others, but I must begin tolist his follies and crimes" (222). The Nero that Suetonius describes isnot a tragic figure, whose strengths succumb to his weaknesses, but rathera pathetic adolescent dictator, whose fate was foredoomed by the ill omensand auguries, in which the Romans believed and which Suetonius recounts. He says that "Nero practised every kind ofobscenity" (228), which included sex with members of both genders andmembers of his own family, the rape of a Vestal Virgin, orgies and othersexually-oriented exhibitionist acts, such as his nightcrawling on thestreets of Rome and his mock marriage ritual to one of his young malelovers. Robert Graves. However, the book may fall short ofbeing a comprehensive and accurate analysis of Nero and his times in thatit fails to offer a comprehensive explanation for the bizarre behavior andother events Suetonius recounts. Whatever his motives, he deserved more credit for this and otherpositive aspects of his rule than he is given by Suetonius. Even as his regime began to crumble, "he made not theslightest attempt to alter his lazy and extravagant life" (238). Thebasis for imperial rule had been weakened by the actions of hispredecessors. Like many persons who inherit wealth, Nero had virtually no sense ofits value, was profligate with his and the state's funds, loved to gambleand literally threw money away. Suetonius mentions various external events which may have contributedto the weakening of Nero's hold on power--a plague, military losses inBritain and defeats in the East. Some of the deaths, suchas that of Britannicus, whom he had poisoned, may have been politicallymotivated. After Agrippina returned to Rome, Nero fell under herdomineering influence and participated in her schemes against Messalina andBritannicus. His treatment of his subject was advanced forhis times because most contemporary historians tended to eulogize theirrulers or deal with them superficially. In Suetonius' view, Nero's earlier moderation was the result ofNero's cunning, his devious flattery and generosity the actions of someonenot yet secure in his power base. How did this conspiracy against Nero develop? The narrative never falters but builds inexorably toits inevitable conclusion. The Twelve Caesars. London: Penguin, 1989.----------------------- 1 One of the most vivid and graphic parts of the chapter relates toNero's death and his fumbling attempts to counter the growing opposition tohis rule: At the first news of the revolt Nero is said to have formed several appalling, though characteristic, schemes for dealing with the situation . Nero was born under a curse uttered by his father, whosaid that "any child born to himself and Agrippina [Nero's mother] wasbound to have a detestable nature and become a public danger" (216). Suetonius says that, as a ruler, "his dominant characteristicswere his thirst for popularity and his jealousy of men who caught thepublic eye" (245). Megalomaniac Rule Suetonius offers two basic explanations for the emergence of Nero asa monstrous figure in his early 2 s, one of which is more straightforwardthan the other. As Suetonius points out in the rest of the book, plots among membersof the imperial family to kill one another and to ensure the triumph oftheir particular faction or line or succession were common at the time.Paranoid though he became, Nero may well have had to resort in self-defenseto murderous tactics to retain power against real conspiracies against him.According to Suetonius, Nero resisted ambitious plans of foreign conquestpresented to him by his generals and others, a prudence shown by few of hispredecessors. The author's narrative style is compelling andrevealing of stark reality. Rev. Michael Grant. Nero's Background and Upbringing Genetic origins. Hewas fond of display, even flamboyant in a homoerotic way, about his dress,his ostentatious decorations and his garish and elephantine publicbuildings. He insists, however, that Nero broughtdown his own rule by his excesses and his imprudent flaunting of them inpublic view. In thus going into Nero's motives, oftenon the basis of apochryphal evidence, Suetonius ventures on dangerousground for any historian when he engages in amateur psychiatry, which thescientific knowledge of his times could not support. The simple explanation was that, "gradually, Nero's vicesgained the upper hand" (227). Nevertheless, hemarshalls an impressive catalogue of predisposing factors which influencedNero's development or lack thereof, his extreme egocentricity andinclination to self-indulgence and his unwillingness to brook anyopposition to his harebrained schemes and fantasies. Suetonius could have but did notprovide some historical perspective for this type of conflict. Even the rankest dictator must take into account publicopinion because of the need to ensure adequate supplies of conscripts intime of war and the ever-present possibility that his enemies would stir uppopular discontent in times of trouble. What one finds in this account is a superb description ofNero's inept response and his futile attempts to hang on to power once thetide of events turned against him. Who were its keysupporters other than the Gauls and the starving masses, who could not havedislodged Imperial rule without strong support inside the regime, theSenate and the aristocracy? A possible weakness of the book,therefore, is that Suetonius may have discounted the importance of externalevents and forces in favor of oversimplified personal explanations. Work CitedSuetonius. . Conclusion Despite the book's shortcomings, Suetonius placed himself in theranks of the world's great historians by tracing the factors andcircumstances which propelled an adolescent misfit and enfant terrible tocontrol over the world's greatest Empire and then led to his decline andfall. Nerobrooked no interference by anyone with his private or public schemes. One factor that reduced Nero's popularity and weakened hissupport among the common people was his profiteering in grain,which occurred at a time of food shortages and became known because "a shipfrom Alexandria had just unloaded a cargo of sand for the Imperialwrestlers" (24 ). Suetonius providesan unsympathetic account of Nero's life, but this charlatan did not deservemuch better. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.