Transcript Document

HUI216
Italian Civilization
Andrea Fedi
HUI216 (Spring 2008)
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Marble Portrait of
Agrippina (ca. 50 CE,
National Museum, Naples)
Aureus of Agrippina and Nero,
from Lyon (France, ca. 54 CE)
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11.6 The life of Nero: chronology of the main
events
• 49 Agrippina marries Emperor Claudius, who
adopts Nero (Agrippina's son from a previous
marriage)
• 53 Nero marries his stepsister Octavia
• 54 Claudius dies (poison?)
• Nero becomes Emperor, before his 17th
birthday
• Seneca and Burrus are his tutors: the first a great
philosopher, originally from Spain, the second a
former military officer
• 55 Britannicus (Claudius's son) dies (poison?)
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11.6 The murder of Agrippina and the life of
Nero: chronology of the main events
• 59-62 Agrippina is killed, Burrus dies, Seneca retires
• Nero is on his own, free to do whatever he likes
• 64 The Great Fire destroys more than half of Rome
• Nero builds his new palace on prime land that was
expropriated after the fire
• 68 Nero kills himself before he is captured by the
soldiers of an opposing faction
• 68-69: the year of the 4 Emperors
• in a short period, these 4 Emperors succeed one another
by defeating the previous Emperor in battle, or by gaining
larger support within the army
• the events of this year shows the weakness resulting from
the lack of a clear mechanism of succession in the Roman
Empire
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11.6 Emperor
Claudius
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11.7 Tacitus: how Roman Emperors are
chosen (54 CE)
• At noon on the 13th of October, the gates of
the palace were suddenly thrown open, and
Nero, accompanied by Burrus, went forth to
the cohort which was on guard
• There, at the suggestion of the commanding
officer, he was hailed with joyful shouts, and set
on a litter
• Some, it is said, hesitated, and looked around
and asked where Britannicus was
• then, when there was no one to lead a resistance,
they yielded to what was offered them
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11.7 How Nero becomes Emperor at the age of
17
• Nero is hailed Emperor by a small military unit, that
was guarding the palace
• A gift is promised to the soldiers in Rome, to
encourage them to welcome and support the new
Emperor
• The Senate follows "the voice of the soldiers"
• There is "…no hesitation in the provinces"
• "Divine honors" are decreed to Claudius
• Claudius's will is not "publicly read," for fear that it
might mention his son Britannicus, who was the
legitimate heir to the throne (even though younger than
Nero himself)
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11.7 The mechanism of accession to the
throne
• The mechanism of accession to the throne was not
clearly regulated in ancient Rome
• The practice of Kings in other regions dictated that
the firstborn son would succeed his father, but in
Rome that did not always happened, not even
during the monarchy (753-509 BCE)
• This lack of fixed rules allowed Nero and his
mother to act quickly and seize the throne
• Nero, after all, was Claudius's stepson, and although he
was barely 16 (all of this happened before his 17th
birthday), he was a few years older than Britannicus
• This course of events makes Claudius's death
suspicious
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11.8 The murder of Agrippina: a "long
meditated crime"
• Power and ambition
• Nero, justifiably, suspects that his mother wants a
share of the power that she has procured for her son
• It is not by chance that on the Roman coins produced
during the first years of his empire, one can see not
just the face of the Emperor Nero, as customary, but
also the profile of his mother
• The passion for Poppaea
• Nero wants to be free to divorce Octavia and marry his
lover
• Tacitus's narration is framed like a tragedy, rather
than an accurate and objective historical
narration
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11.8 The murder of Agrippina: political bias
inside the narration
• Tacitus, as a conservative Republican historian, was
biased, and his narration betrays his political agenda
• he lobbied for a more powerful Senate, capable of keeping
Emperors from abusing their position of power
• he thought it possible to revert to even a limited form of
democracy
• Tacitus and other historians, like Suetonius, are
largely responsible for the creation of the
stereotypical image of the decadent Roman empire
• The issue is not whether Nero or Caligula were not as
immoral or violent as these historians described them, but
how much their personality quirks really affected the
Empire, which survived for another 400 years
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11.8 Elements of a literary tragedy inside the
narration of the murder of Agrippina
• The sins and the impious behavior of the main
characters justify and prepare the story's
developments
• greed, murder, incest, perversion, simulation and
hypocrisy
• Growing anxiety results from the various
successful crimes, rather than elation and
tranquility (cf. Shakespeare's Macbeth)
• The theme of the fight of good vs. evil
• Seneca and some of the senators fight on the side
of democracy, justice and honesty against
Agrippina, Nero and their lackeys or accomplices
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11.8 Literary devices used inside the narration
of the murder of Agrippina
• Another typical literary device employed in this
episode is the historian's insistence on the
description of the frame of mind of the main
characters
• Traditional historians were expected not to speculate on
the thoughts and feelings of historical figures while
dramatic events were happening
• Unless they could rely on the report of an eyewitness,
real or legendary, they would either be silent or they
would convey those feelings and thoughts by
embellishing and re-creating public speeches given by
those historical figures, under the pretense that
eyewitness existed who heard the speech and could
confirm its contents
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11.8 Tacitus: the sin of incest, the art of
innuendo
• Consider how Tacitus treats the alleged
incest of Agrippina and Nero, introducing a
variety of sources and eyewitnesses, never
fully supporting or denying the allegations of
incest, all the while giving the impression
that he wants to keep an objective stand
• Cluvius relates that Agrippina in her eagerness
to retain her influence went so far that more than
once at midday, when Nero, even at that hour,
was flushed with wine and feasting, she
presented herself attractively attired to her half
intoxicated son and offered him her person
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11.8 Tacitus: incest, superstition,
verisimilitude
• Acte, the freed-girl, told him [=Seneca] that the
incest was notorious, as his mother boasted of
it, and that the soldiers would never endure the
rule of an impious sovereign
• Cluvius's account is also that of all other
authors, and popular belief inclines to it,
whether it was that Agrippina really conceived
such a monstrous wickedness in her heart, or
perhaps because the thought of a strange
passion seemed comparatively credible
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11.8 Agrippina's theatrical death: a tragic fate
• Agrippina's death, in this episode, is associated
with the idea of fate, typical of classical
tragedies
• First you find the description of the shipwreck, at
night (darkness and evil acts go hand in hand, in
tragedies and literary fiction)
• Then, after Agrippina's messenger is accused of
being a murderer and is killed, she dies in the most
theatrical way
• "as the centurion bared his sword for the fatal deed,
presenting her person, she exclaimed, 'Smite my
womb!'"
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11.8 Agrippina's death: prelude (greed,
ambition) and consequences (guilt, fear)
• Her death apparently had even been
anticipated, as it was written in the stars
• "when she consulted the astrologers about Nero,
they replied that he would be emperor and kill his
mother. 'Let him kill her,' she said, 'provided he is
emperor'"
• After the crime, only guilt and fear follow
• Where are the political considerations?
• In reality Agrippina and Nero had probably become
estranged, as it happens often to members of a
royal family, and they were fighting for power and
supremacy like political rivals do
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11.8 After the crime: guilt, panic, hypocrisy,
cowardice
• [Nero], when the crime was accomplished, realized
its portentous guilt
• The rest of the night, now silent and stupefied, now
and still oftener starting up in terror, bereft of
reason, he awaited dawn as if it would bring with it
his doom
• He himself, with an opposite phase of hypocrisy,
seemed sad, and almost angry at his own
deliverance, and shed tears over his mother's
death
• he retired to Naples and sent a letter to the Senate
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11.8 The responsibility and incompetence of
the Senate: the opposition has high moral
values, lacks a political plan
• He told the story of the shipwreck
• but who could be so stupid as to believe that it
was accidental, or that a shipwrecked woman
had sent one man with a weapon to break
through an Emperor's guards and fleets?
• Thrasea Paetus then walked out of the Senate,
thereby imperiling himself, without
communicating to the other senators any
impulse towards freedom
• Paetus will later will commit suicide, following a
'noble' tradition in the Roman upper classes
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11.8 Tacitus highlights the consequences of
Nero's sinful behavior
• Nero had not omitted a single abomination
which could heighten his depravity, till a few
days afterwards he stooped to marry himself
to one of that filthy herd
• A disaster followed, whether accidental or
treacherously contrived by the emperor, is
uncertain, as authors have given both
accounts, worse, however, and more
dreadful than any which have ever
happened to this city by the violence of fire
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11.9 Suetonius (circa 110 CE), Life of Nero
(transl. by J.C. Rolfe): the Golden House
• Its vestibule was large enough to contain a colossal statue
of the Emperor 120 feet high; and it was so extensive that it
had a triple colonnade a mile long
• There was a pond too, like a sea, surrounded with buildings
to represent cities, besides tracts of country, fields,
vineyards, pastures and woods, with great numbers of wild
and domestic animals
• There were dining-rooms with fretted ceilings of ivory,
whose panels could turn and shower down flowers and
were fitted with pipes for sprinkling the guests with
perfumes
• The main banquet hall was circular and constantly revolved
day and night, like the heavens
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11.9 The first Roman Emperors: chronology
• Augustus 27 BCE-14
CE
• Tiberius 14-37
• Caligula 37-41
• Claudius 41-54
• Nero 54-68
• Galba 68-69
• Otho 69
• Vitellius 69
•
•
•
•
•
•
Vespasian 69-79
Titus 79-81
Domitian 81-96
Nerva 96-98
Trajan 98-117
Hadrian 117-138
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11.9 Optional readings on Nero and the events
narrated by Tacitus
• Nero's Golden House (Domus aurea)
• Pictures of the archeological site of the palace
• read more about Nero
• Nero, his family, the court
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/nero.sh
tml
• http://www.pbs.org/empires/romans/empire/nero.ht
ml
• The great fire of Rome
• http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/case_rome/index.ht
ml
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11.10 Claudio Monteverdi's opera on Nero
• The coronation of Poppea was staged in Venice in
1642 or '43
• Venice, as a Republic, "prided itself on its direct
lineage from the Roman republic, retaining the values
that had been so distorted as classical Rome moved
from republican strength to imperial decadence, a
decadence still apparent, it was felt, in the Rome of the
early 17th-century" (Tim Carter, "Towards the creation
of genre: Monteverdi's Poppea," p. 18)
• There is a thesis clearly at work throughout this opera:
when the state is in the hands of a tyrant, immorality
thrives, especially near the source of power, at the
court, while the fate of the whole state must also be
affected
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11.10 Monteverdi's Poppea: Nero the immoral
tyrant
• It is not surprising that, even before Nero appears on
the scene, at the beginning of the 1st act he is
introduced (during the conversation that takes place
between two Roman soldiers) as a most hateful
character, who has no regard for the sanctity of
marriage, neglects the care of the empire at a critical
juncture, and favors those like him who lack moral
values and self-control
• Second soldier: Our Empress
consumes herself with weeping,
and Nero neglects her for Poppaea.
Armenia's in revolt,
yet he ignores it.
Pannonia's up in arms and he makes light of it.
As far as I can see, the empire's going from back to worse
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11.10 Monteverdi's Poppea: the tyrant affects
the moral stability of single individuals
• First soldier: One might add that our Prince robs everyone
to line the pockets of a few. The innocents suffer
while criminals are doing very nicely
• The introduction of historical details on the decadence
of Imperial Rome gives the author of the libretto,
Giovanni Francesco Busenello, an opportunity, in the
first act, to discuss more generic moral and political
issues, when Arnalta, Poppaea's old nurse and
confidant, tries to warn her about the dangers of
dealing with immoral, evil princes
• To have dealings with princes is perilous.
Love and hate count for nothing with them:
their emotions are governed by pure self-interest.
Nero's love for you is a but a fancy;
if he abandons you, you can't complain:
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it would only make matters worse
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11.10 Monteverdi's Poppea: tyranny may
corrupt the souls of the subjects
• POPPAEA No, no, I fear no setback at all.
• ARNALTA A great man honors you with his mere
presence,
and, having filled your house with wind,
pays in nothing but reflected glory.
Your good name's gone if you admit:
Nero beds me.
The vice of self-aggrandizement gets you nowhere:
I prefer the sins that yield returns.
You can never deal with him on equal terms,
and if your goal is marriage
you're asking for disaster.
• POPPAEA No, no, I fear no setback at all.
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11.10 Monteverdi's Poppea: power and
personal whims
• Following the historical sources, the opera presents the
suicide of Seneca as the simple result of Nero's almost
childish desire to free himself of his tutors, his only
reasonable counselors
• Power has all to do with personal whims and the
satisfaction of one's ego, rather than with politics or the
care of the well-being of the community
• NERO: Hey! One of you
make haste to Seneca; tell him
he must kill himself this evening.
I insist that my power to act depends on me,
not on the whims and sophistry of others!
I could almost be tempted
to disown my spirit
if I believed it base enough
to be ever subject to another's promptings
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11.10 Monteverdi's Poppea: Nero, the monster
• Even those who act as accomplices to Nero, and execute
his orders, feel a very natural and human repulsion for the
behavior and the devilish decisions of such a wicked man
• A freedman, sent by the Emperor to inform Seneca that he
should take his life, confesses that he cannot bear to be the
messenger of such cruel and irrational orders
• (The tyrant's commands
are quite irrational
and always involve violence or death.
I must convey them, and although
I am only the innocent mouthpiece,
I feel tainted by the evil
I am required to communicate.)
Seneca, I am sorry to have found you,
even though I sought you.
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11.10 Monteverdi's Poppea: an immoral
conclusion?
• The conclusion of the opera appears to be unusual, in that
Nero and his lover, Poppaea, sing together on stage
celebrating their success against all enemies and the
realization of their dream of love
• The extraordinary thing is that two characters who have
committed so many sins are allowed to close the story on
the sensuous notes of their (albeit temporary) triumph: does
crime pay?
• It is obvious, rather, given the standards and the restrictions
of the genre, that this conclusion implied the widespread
knowledge, in the audience, of the actual historical
conclusion of the events in the story, with Poppea
murdered and Nero killing himself right before he was
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captured by his opponents HUI216
11.10 Monteverdi's Poppea: the final duet
• POPPAEA, NERO
• I gaze at you,
possess you,
press you to me,
clasp you;
no more pain,
no deathly grief,
O my life, my treasure.
I'm yours,
yours am I,
my dearest, say you love me too.
You are the idol
of my heart,
oh yes, my love,
my heart, my life, oh yes.
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11.10 Petrolini's Nero: a parody of Mussolini?
• In 1930, Italian actor/comedian Ettore Petrolini
(1886-1936) played the part of Nero in a surreal
theatrical parody, that famous director Alessandro
Blasetti shot directly on the stage to produce a
movie
• Some suggested that Mussolini might have been
the target of this satirical representation of the
Roman tyrant, especially in the scene in which
Nero speaks to the people of Rome
• However, the first version of this play was staged in
1917, before Fascism
• see http://www.burcardo.org/mostre/petrolini/
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Emperor Nero
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