Y12 Ancient History Roman/Julio-Claudian Points Test 17 Imperial Women in Court of Nero5 Claudius Death and Succession

Question 1

1. Describe the influence of Octavia on Nero’s reign? (any relevant point for 2 marks).

Answer 1

• The marriage in 53 between Nero and Octavia established Nero’s legitimacy, but it was far from happy.
• The Claudian credentials of Octavia were all that Nero required from her and once his reign was established he quickly supplanted her his freedwoman Acte.
• His removal of Octavia, however, was particularly objectionable: she was accused her of sexual outrages, exiling her to Pandateria and then having her murdered in 62.

Question 2

2. Describe the influence of Poppaea Sabina on Nero’s reign? (any relevant point for 3 marks).

Answer 2

• Nero’s next affair and marriage was with the infamous Poppaea Sabina. This marriage came hard upon the execution of Octavia: a daughter, Claudia, was born on 21 January 63.
• The sources allege that both Octavia and Agrippina were removed to facilitate this relationship with Poppaea, at her encouragement (Tacitus, Annals, 14.1).
• By contrast, both the coinage and the account of Josephus suggest that Poppaea was a competent and interesting political figure, presenting her far more positively than do Dio and Tacitus, who described her as among the emperor’s most intimate counsellors in his moments of rage (Annals, 15.61).
• Yet Poppaea’s influence over Nero was brief.
• She died in 65, following her own daughter Caludia, who had died aged only four months.
• Nero deifed both of them, exceeding even the precedent of Gaius’ deification of his sister Drusilla in 38.
• The deification seems to have been motivated by genuine affection, although guilt may also have played a part, as Tacitus records that Poppaea’s death was linked to Nero attacking her while pregnant.
• Under the influence of Poppaea, who wished to replace Octavia as his wife, he accused Octavia of adultery and sterility, and had her banished and later murdered.
• Other members of the imperial family were also murdered, including Tiberius’ grandson Rubellius Plautus, Claudius’ son-in-law Sulla, and a descendent of Augustus, Junius Silanus.

Question 3

3. Describe the influence of Octavia on Nero’s reign? (any relevant point for 2 marks).

Answer 3

• Nero’s third wife, Statilia Messalina, a great-grand-daughter of Augustus’ general Statilius Taurus, who had twice been counsul and won a triumph.
• The choice was likely to have been motivated by a desire to appear conventional and respectable to the wider roman public, although Suetonius states that Nero first had to murder her husband Atticus Vestinus.
• Their wedding in June 66 was her 5th, she’d survive to have x2 more.

Question 4

4. Describe the origins of the Great Fire of Rome? (any relevant point for 2 marks).

Answer 4

• In July 64 one of the most famous incidents of Nero’s Principate occurred – a Great Fire, which burned for over a week.
• It had serious consequences for Nero and the people of Rome, as well as for a group of ‘notoriously depraved people’ with ‘anti-social tendencies’ ((Annals), called Christians.
• Although fires were common in Rome owing to the overcrowded and poorly built insulae (tenements), this was ‘the most destructive and terrible fire which Rome had even experienced.’ (Tacitus).
• The fire began in shops selling inflammable materials in the Circus Maximus area, and was fanned by a wind so that it quickly spread throughout the narrow streets of timber tenements and up the hills.

Question 5

5. Describe the main events of the Great Fire of Rome? (any relevant point for 3 marks).

Answer 5

• Only 4/14 regions of Rome escaped damage, while three were completely destroyed.
• Although the Forum, the Capitol and part of the Palatine were not damaged, many ancient shrines, public buildings, palaces, temples, mansions and tenements were burned to the ground.
• ‘Among the losses too were…Greek artistic masterpieces, and authentic records of old Roman Genuis.’(Annals).
• Tacitus says that ‘whether it was accidental or caused by a criminal act on the part of the emperor is uncertain-both versions have supporters.’ However, he then adds that Nero was at Antium and ‘only returned to Rome when the fire was approaching the mansion he had built.’
• Most other sources, including Suetonius and Dio Cassius, preferred to believe that Nero was responsible and in fact record that he sang of the Sack of Troy while he watched the city burn.
• Despite the lack of any evidence of his responsibility, rumours soon spread among the panicking people that his agents had been caught in the act of lighting the fire.
• It was believed that Nero wanted ‘to found a new city to be called after himself’. This view was reinforced when a new outbreak started on the estate of Tigellinus.

Question 6

6. What actions did Nero take to help the population in response to the fire? (any relevant point for 2 marks).

Answer 6

• Nero opened his own gardens, the Field of Mars and public buildings for the homeless: emergency housing was built, food supplies were brought in from Ostia and surrounding towns, and the price of corn was reduced considerably.
• In an attempt to please the Gods the Sibylline Books were consulted and various rites were carried out, but ‘neither human resources, nor imperial munificence, nor appeasement of the gods, eliminated sinister suspicions that the fire had been instigated.’

Question 7

7. What group did blame for causing the fire and what actions did he take against them? (any relevant point for 2 marks).

Answer 7

• Nero desperately needed someone to blame, and he chose the Christians, whom Suetonius described as ‘a sect professing a new and mischievous belief.’
• Tacitus said they were punished by Nero not so much for starting the fire, but for their ‘degraded and shameful practices’ (the words and symbols used in the communion, the body and blood of Christ).
• Those who admitted to being Christians were arrested, and informed on others.
• Their punishments were brutal: they were torn to pieces by dogs, crucified or made into human torches and ignited after dark to create a spectacle.
• Such unnecessary cruelty moved even the urban mob to pity the victims.

Question 8

8. How did Nero transform the architecture of Rome as a result of the fire? (any relevant point for 2 marks).

Answer 8

• The fire gave Nero the opportunity not only to rebuild Rome but to construct an enormous and lavish palace for himself, called the Domus Aurea (Golden House).
• In rebuilding the burnt section of the city, he combined practicality with beauty. A proportion of each newly constructed house had to be of fireproof stone: streets were broadened; frontages were aligned’ no semi-detached houses were allowed; heights were restricted; houses were built around courtyards and with protective colonnades in the front and with fire-fighting equipment readily available.
• A better water-supply was provided also.
• His new Golden House was so large that it extended from the palatine to the Esquiline Hill.
• The following extracts from Tacitus and Suetonius refer to the origin of Christianity and Nero’s Golden House…
“The notoriously depraved Christians (as they were properly called). Their originator, Christ, had been executed back in Tiberius’ reign by the governor of Judaea, Pontius Pilate. But in spite of this temporary setback the deadly superstition had broken out afresh, not only in Judaea (where the mischief had started) but even in Rome.” (Annals).

“The entrance hall was large enough to contain a huge statue of himself, 120 feet high; and the pillared arcade ran for a whole mile. An enormous pool, like a sea, was surrounded by buildings made to resemble cities, and by a landscape garden consisting of ploughed fields, vineyards, pastures and woodlands…Parts of the house were overlaid with gold and studded with precious stones and mother-of-pearl. All the dining rooms had ceilings of fretted Ivory, the panels of which would slide back and let a rain of flowers or of perfume from hidden sprinklers shower upon his guests. The main dining room was circular, and its roof revolved, day and night, in time with the sky. Sea Water or sulphur water was always on tap in the baths.” (Suetonius, Nero 31).

Question 9

9. How did Suetonius blame Nero for the disaster? (any relevant point for 2 marks).

Answer 9

• Tacitus states that various authors attributed it to both chance and to the princeps’ cunning (15.38). Suetonius (Nero, 38) is staunchly in the latter camp…“pretending to be disgusted by the drab old buildings and narrow winding streets of Rome, he brazenly set fire to the city…” (Suetonius, Nero 38).
• Suetonius then claims that Nero entered a tower in the gardens of Maecenas and sang about the fall of Troy.
• This account fits well into the evolution of Suetonius’ Nero, coming at the climax of a catalogue of outrages against his family, the senate and the people.
• Thus his final crime is against Rome herself, as his metaphorical destruction of Rome becomes a literal one.

Question 10

10. How did Tacitus blame Nero for the disaster? (any relevant point for 2 marks).

Answer 10

• Tacitus is more measured, focussing on the susceptibility of Rome to fire and the panic and selfishness of people during the event.
• He states that Nero was actually at Antium when the fire broke out, only returning to Rome itself when the Palatine Hill was threatened.
• Here, he opened up his private gardens to accommodate the refugees and brought in supplies from Ostia.
• However, Tacitus records the rumour that spread about Nero’s singing of Troy’s destruction, and at times Tacitus’ narrative is suspicious of Nero’s part in the affair, suggesting that, while Nero may not have caused the fire himself, he may have allowed it to clear areas of Rome which he hoped to redevelop in the construction of his great project: the Domus Aurea.