The Julian Claudian Dynasty and Its End

“Now had been divulged that secret of empire, that emperors could be made elsewhere than at Rome.”

Tacitus, Histories, 1.4

The Julio-Claudian Monarchy

Dynastic Disasters and a Pleasant Surprise

Assessments of Augustus

Discrepant Views in the Literary Tradition

“Then followed much talk about Augustus himself, and many expressed an idle wonder that

the same day marked the beginning of his assumption of empire and the close of his life,

and, again, that he had ended his days at Nola in the same house and room as his father Octavius.

People extolled too the number of his consulships…the continuance for thirty-seven

years of the tribunician power, the title of Imperator twenty-one times earned, and his other honors which had either been frequently repeated

or were wholly new.”Annals, 1.9

“Citizens were proscribed, lands divided, without so much as the approval of those who

executed the deeds. Even granting that the deaths of Cassius and the Brutii were sacrifices to an hereditary hatred…still Sextus Pompey

had been deluded by the phantom of peace, and Lepidus by the mask of friendship.

Subsequently, Marc Antony had been lured on by the treaties of Tarentum abd Brundisium,

and by his marriage with his sister, and paid by his death the penalty of a treacherous alliance. No doubt, there was peace after all this, but it

was a peace stained with blood.”Tacitus, Annals, 1.10

The Successors Tiberius and Caligula

A Senatorial Bad Press

Tiberius (14 CE-37 CE)

Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus

An Emperor by DefaultDeaths of Marcellus, Agrippa, Gaius and Lucius Caesar

Military Experience along the Northern Frontiers (Rhineland)

Negative Image in the Roman Historiographical/Biographical Tradition

Retirement to Capri (26 CE)

The Praetorian Prefect Sejanus

Tiberius

“As the years went by, this stinginess turned to rapacity. It is notorious that he forced the

wealthy Gnaeus Lentulus Augur to name him as his sole heir and then to commit suicide…

Tiberius also confiscated the property of leading Spanish, Gallic, Syrian, and Greek provincials on trivial and absurd charges, such as keeping part

of their wealth in ready cash!”

Suetonius, Tiberius, 49

“Some aspects of his criminal obscenity are almost too vile to discuss, much less believe.

Imagine training little boys, whom he called his “minnows,” to chase him while he went

swimming and get between his legs to lick and nibble him. Or letting babies not yet weaned from their mother’s breast suck at his breast or groin

—such a filthy old man he had become!”

Suetonius, Tiberius, 44

Caligula (37 CE-41 CE)

Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus (b. 12 CE)

Son of Germanicus and the Elder Agrippina

Childhood in Military Camp (“Little Boots”)

Youth on Capri with Tiberius

Promise at the Ascension

The Illness, Megalomania, and Assassination

Caligula

“When impoverished and in need of funds, Gaius concentrated on wickedly ingenious methods of raising funds by false accusations, auctions and taxes….If a leading centurion had bequeathed nothing either to Tiberius or himself since the

beginning of the former’s reign, he would rescind the will on the ground of ingratitude; and voided those of all other persons who were said to have intended making him their heir when they died,

but had not done so.”

Suetonius, Caligula, 38

“It was his habit to commit incest with each of his three sisters, and, at large banquets, when his

wife reclined above him, placed them all in turn below him. They say that he ravished his sister

Drusilla before she came of age….“He had not the slightest regard for chastity, either his own or

others’.”

Suetonius, Caligula, 24, 36

Claudius (41 CE-54 CE)Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanicus (b. 10 BCE)

Brother of Germanicus, son of Drusus and Antonia Minor

Weak Constitution and Illness

Antiquarian, Scholarly Interests (History of Etruscans)

Farce of the Elevation by the Praetorian Guard

Claudius

Claudius (41 CE-54 CE)The Reign:

Fiscal Conservatism and ResponsibilityConstruction of Harbor at Ostia (grain supply)Enlightened Policy on the Roman FranchiseInvasion/Incorporation of Britain (43 CE)Unlucky Marriages

– Messalina– Agrippina the Younger– Powerful Freedmen (Narcissus, Pallas)

Nero (54 CE-68 CE)

Pallas, Agrippina, and the Death of Claudius (54 CE)

The Accession of NeroAdvisers, Seneca and Burrus

The Quinquennium Neronis (54-59 CE)

Military Exploits: Parthia (Corbulo); Revolt in Britain (60 CE)

Nero

Nero (54 CE-68 CE)Deterioration: Nero the Hero to Nero the Monster (Historiographical Convention?)

Murder of Agrippina: 59 CE

Death of Burrus and Retirement of Seneca: 62 CE

The Praetorian Prefect Tigellinus

The Great Fire/Christian Scapegoats: 64 CE

The Domus Aurea (“Golden House”) and the Tour of Greece

“He believed that fortunes were made to be squandered, and whoever could account for every

penny he spent seemed to him a stingy miser…His wastefulness showed most of all in the

architectural projects….When the palace had been decorated throughout in this lavish style,

Nero dedicated it, and condescended to remark: “Good, now I can at last begin to live like a

human being!”.”

Suetonius, Nero, 30-31

“Nero practiced every kind of obscenity, and after defiling almost every part of his body finally

invented a novel game: he was released from a cage dressed in the skins of wild animals, and attacked the genitals of men and women who

stood bound to stakes.”

Suetonius, Nero, 29

Domus Aurea:Octagonal revolving Domed Hallin Center ofPalace.From M. Griffin,Nero: The End of A Dynasty

Julio-Claudians in Historiographical Perspective

Flavian Discrediting?

Senatorial Hatreds?

Historiographical Commonplaces

Stereotypical “Bad” EmperorsConfiscations from Wealthy

Sexual Depravities