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Life and times of Emperor Nero
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Life and times of Emperor Nero
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An iconoclast is a person that goes against or criticises a cherished beliefs or institutions. They were a reformer and an influential leader that changed long lasting beliefs. Which is why Nero was definitely an iconoclast. Nero is thought to be a domineering dictator of Rome. In spite of his moral and ethical miscues, he was a successful leader, by removing his rivals and strengthening Rome’s position in the world. Nero was born in 37AD (Dennison, 2012), with the name, Lucius Domitus Ahenobarbus. When he was two his mother was banished by emperor Caligula to Pontian Island. Nero lost his inheritance one year later when his father, Gnaeus Domitus Ahenbarbus, died. When emperor Caligula died, emperor Claudius, a milder emperor, was on the throne. This meant that Agripinna, Neros Mother and Claudius’s neice, was recalled from exile and that Nero was given a good education, being tutored …show more content…
He cooled his temper by watching chariot racing, wrestling bouts and acting and singing competitions which was ‘appalling’ to the people of Rome. All of his executions were directed towards political opponents and unlike his immediate predecessors there is no reason to believe he enjoyed their deaths (Dennison, 2012). This however is very subjective as there are primary sources like Suetonius and Tacitus that say the opposite of this, that Nero did enjoy the executions of his rivals death. Nero reacted harshly to accusations of treason against himself and the senate and because of this people, if caught trying to overturn him, were exiled and executed ("Nero", 2017). One of the people Nero had executed was Seneca, Neros former tutor and mentor ("Who is Nero? Everything You Need to Know", 2017). By Nero executing his rivals, he made people scared to overturn him and changed future beliefs of emperors. It changed future emperors beliefs because they had less tolerance for conspirators making Nero an
Augustus was born in Rome on September 23, 63 B.C. He was originally named Gaius Octavianus, but when his great-uncle, Julius Caesar, was murdered, he took his name. Augustus’ real father died when his son was only four. Augustus was adopted in Julius Caesar’s will and was left to be his heir at the age of eighteen. Caesar was very fond of his grand-nephew and he sent him to the College of Pontifices at the age of sixteen. When Caesar was assassinated, Augustus was in Illyria, where he was sent to serve. It was only when he returned to Italy that he learned he was his great-uncle’s heir.
Augustus Caesar was born on September 23, 63 B.C. in Velletri, Rome. His birth name was Gaius Octavius Thurinus. He was born to Atia Balba Caesonia and Gaius Octavius. His father came from a respectable family and was the governor of
Claudius was a significant ruler of the early Roman imperial era. He reigned from AD 41-54. He was easily influenced by those with questionable agendas, such as his last two wives and his freedmen, yet his principal was deemed successful. His expansion of the empire, his new reforms and his control over the senate were all beneficial to the state and his rule was one which paved the way for those who ruled after him. Claudius was a member of the equestrian class and became a consul in AD 37 (Emperor Claudius Timeline, N Gill).
Shortly before his death Caesar was given several warnings throughout ActsⅡand Ⅲ , however he still went to meet with the Senate due to the fact he thought he was needed. He had an alliance with his adopted sons and valued soldiers Octavius and Antony. The play is about the events that follow his death making him an important secondary character that also portrays a protagonist. Caesar faced many conflicts throughout his lifetime, some internal and some external. He fought a war against Pompey ,which lead to conspirators plotting his death, and he was troubled by the fact that his wife could not provide him with a child. He showcased this by publicly asking Antony to touch her as he passed her, hoping that this would bring healing to her barren womb. He also went through several character changes. When he returned from war, he returned believing that the people would be ecstatic to have him as an emperor. Nonetheless when the people of Rome did not respond the way he expected he knew he had to play on their emotions. He did this by refusing the crown three times and by offering to kill himself to prove his honesty and trustworthiness. This gave him the desired effect, so he returned to knowing that the crowd wanted him as a king. The driving force of the play was the unfortunate murder of Caesar or what happened afterwards. Throughout this play many of the characters go through many unique changes, although Julius Caesar experienced some very significant character changes. The theatrical work exhibits Julius Caesar’s actions, alliances, character developments, and internal and external conflicts which in turn showcase his various changes. The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare is a brilliant piece of work that thoroughly covers the story of Julius Caesar, a protagonistic secondary character. Julius Caesar was the unofficial emperor of Rome. He was a war General and he fought
After Emperor Claudius, who was supposedly poisoned by his wife Agrippina, Nero occupied the Roman throne. Usually, he was characterized as a poetic, sensitive soul, which is evidenced in his ban on blood shedding during the games he sponsored. He used to publicly perform his songs while strumming his lyre and by doing so, he managed to win a few competitions and get some arousing cheers from the crowd. There remains the question of honesty of those cheers and competitions. One of his rivals (note that he was Nero’s rival), as he lay dying, left a note for Nero, in which he expressed just how much he appreciated Nero’s poetic “talent”, that is, the lack of it. However sensitive or poetically inclined he might have
Nero, or Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus was a part of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, alongside his mother who were the last of the Germanic family. His birth name was Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus until he took on his stepfather's name and Augustus’s name. His rise to power was mostly by marriage all arranged by his mother Agrippina who wanted power and social status, and for him to get married to his step-sister Octavia. By marrying into the Julian family, Agrippina helped secure her and her son’s position of power. Not only ambitious, Agrippina was also malicious, poisoning her first and second husband solely to help secure her position in the house. Once Nero received his toga of manhood, the senate
Julius Caesar was believed to be born around the 13th and 14th of July in Rome, 100 BC. Caesar did come from an aristocratic family, but he was far from rich in his youth, and father, Gaius Caesar, died when he was 16, making him becoming much closer towards his mother, Aurelia. While he was growing up in Rome, at the time it was in much disorder and was unstable. It struck Caesar, around the time of his father’s death; he began or would take things into his own hands and do something about this instability and in doing so married Cornelia, the daughter of a noble. His marriage to Cornelia had drawn the ire of Rome’s dictator, Sulla, and ordered the two to divorce or risk losing his property. Caesar ultimately refused this, and sought refuge in the military and served in the province of Asia and on to Cilicia.
Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanicus (b. 10 BC, d. 54 A.D.; emperor, 41-54 A.D.) was the third emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. His reign represents a turning point in the history of the Principate for a number of reasons, not the least for the manner of his accession and the implications it carried for the nature of the office. During his reign he promoted administrators who did not belong to the senatorial or equestrian classes, and was later vilified by authors who did. He followed Caesar in carrying Roman arms across the English Channel into Britain but, unlike his predecessor, he initiated the full-scale annexation of Britain as a province, which remains today the most closely studied corner of the Roman Empire. His relationships with his wives and children provide detailed insights into the perennial difficulties of the succession problem faced by all Roman Emperors. His final settlement in this regard was not lucky: he adopted his fourth wife's son, who was to reign catastrophically as Nero and bring the dynasty to an end. Claudius's reign, therefore, was a mixture of successes and failures that leads into the last phase of the Julio-Claudian line.
Within the Ancient world, political leaders manipulated the balance between religion and politics to further their own power. In particular, Gaius Octavius (63 BC – 14 AD) later known as Imperator Caesar Divi Filius Augustus, exploited the ‘imperial cult’ as a political tool within the Roman Empire. Termed by modern historians, the imperial cult was a combination of local religious cults where people worshipped the emperor as a deity who received divine honours exceeding all other living entities. By directly allowing the imperial cult in the Roman provinces, this achieved much required unity and stability throughout the Empire. Consequently, this enabled Augustus to indirectly incorporate the cult into Rome’s ritualistic polytheism practices.
Domitian was born in Rome on Pomegranate Street 0n October 24th AD51. He was the second son born to the future emperor Vespasian. Domitian’s older brother was named Titus. Even when very young Domitian was of the opinion that he should be treated like a god.
Nero "Let Nero be ever before your eyes, swollen with the pride of a long line of Caesars… an Emperor condemned by his own people… Nero will always be regretted" Tacitus: The Principle of Adoption. Throughout the ages, Nero has been viewed as a rogue and a disgrace to the Roman Empire, thanks to unreliable primary sources. Because of this, Nero is now renowned worldwide as the man who hated Christians, the man who killed Jesus and the man who wanted nothing but to satisfy his own desire for personal gain. This, though, was not the case. Ever since birth, Nero has been slandered, shunned and looked down upon; but now (thanks to more reliable secondary sources)
An example of his negative outlook on emperors is in AD55 when Nero excempted Lucius Vetus from swearing allegiance. This act of supposed good will had completely the opposite effect on Tacitus. Nero's name is often tarnished throughout the Annals as Tacitus saw fit, for example, he described Marcus Julius Silanus as being 'the first casualty of the new reign (Nero's reign).' The opening sentence in AD56 explains 'the year was a time of peace abroad, but disgusting excesses by Nero in Rome.' The emperor went round the city dressed like a worker and he used to beat people up. When a senator fought back he was later forced to commit suicide by Nero. These two extracts are not just observations by Tacitus, but heavy criticisms against a man who was unworthy for his post.
Emperor Nero was the last emperor of the Julio-Claudian Dynasty in Rome; he was the son of Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus and Agrippina the Younger (Roman.empire.net, 2014). Nero was only sixteen when the duty of emperor fell upon him, making him the youngest Emperor in history. Under the guidance of his mother Agrippina, his tutor Seneca, and the Praetorian Prefect Afranius Burrus, Nero’s first five years of ruling were considered to be the prime of his rule. However, things began to take a tumble shortly after. The following discourse details the impact of Emperor Nero’s abuse of power on the Roman world through personal factors, weaknesses in his leadership and social and political factors. This is demonstrated by primary records from his lifetime and shortly thereafter, alongside modern accounts and historical repor...
With that said, Agrippina did not poison those that she poisoned for the fun of it all, but she did so to secure what she believed to be her son’s rightful position as Roman Emperor. Agrippina was brave and willing to do anything that was necessary to secure her son’s role as Emperor, and after many poisonous schemes of murder, Nero became Emperor of Rome from 54 to 68 AD.
Nero suicide due to his lavish lifestyle, then Vespasian built the Colosseum on the ground, which was Nero’s palace (Section 3.1 Colosseum). Above that, it meant the end of Nero’s reign, or an era of authoritarian tyrant. Citizens did love that. As we all know the Colosseum was a place Roman watched fights shows: people to people, animals to animals, and people to animals. As the biggest events at that time, not only the aristocrats, but also normal people went there to watch the “killing games”.