The History of Rome: Rise and Fall of the Empire. John Bagnell Bury
place in 53A.D.. In the meantime Britannicus, who was only a little younger than Nero, was regarded and treated as a child. Misunderstandings and estrangements were treacherously brought about between him and his father. On one occasion, when the two young princes met, and Nero saluted Britannicus by name, Britannicus saluted him as “Domitius”. Agrippina complained of this to the Emperor, as implying a contempt of Nero’s adoption and the decree of the senate. Claudius was moved by her representations to punish one of the instructors of his son by death, and others by banishment, and place him under the charge of the creatures of his stepmother. By her machinations, also, the two prefects of the praetorian guard, who had been adherents of Messalina, and were anxious to secure the succession of her son, were deposed, and replaced by Afranius Burrus, who was devoted to the interests of his patroness. All the officers who were attached to the cause of Britannicus, were then removed. But the son of Messalina had not only a strong party in the senate, but a powerful supporter in the imperial household. This was the freedman Narcissus, who exerted all his energy and influence to weaken the power of Agrippina, and keep Nero from the throne. After the marriage of Octavia, the struggle between the two parties became keener. Vitellius, who had shown his devotion to the Augusta, was threatened with a criminal prosecution. The condemnation of Tarquitius Priscus also showed the uncertainty of her position. She coveted the house and gardens of Statilius Taurus, a man of noble ancestry and great wealth, who had been governor of Africa. Priscus brought against him charges of extortion in his administration of that province, and of practicing magic. Taurus disdained to reply, and chose to die by a voluntary death; but the senate expelled the accuser from their body, although Agrippina exerted all her power to protect him. There were other signs, too, which might alarm the Empress. Claudius showed himself inclined to reinstate his son Britannicus in his proper position, and spoke of allowing him to assume the toga virilis. An ominous remark is said to have dropped from his lips, that it was his fate first to endure the offences of his wives, and afterwards to punish them. It looked as if the influence of Narcissus were likely once more to get the upper hand.
Agrippina made an attempt to ruin Narcissus by ascribing to his mismanagement the failure of the tunnel of Lake Fucinus. She failed, but she soon enjoyed a triumph in the ruin of her most formidable female rival, Domitia Lepida. This lady, as the daughter of the elder Antonia and L. Domitius, was the grandniece of Augustus; as the mother of Messalina, was the grandmother of Britannicus; and as the sister of Cn. Domitius, was the sister-in-law of Agrippina. In beauty, age, and wealth, there was not much difference between them. Both were immodest, infamous, and violent. They were rivals in their vices no less than in the gifts which fortune had given them. During the exile of Agrippina, Lepida had given a home to the child Nero, and ever since had endeavored to secure his affections by flattery and liberality, which contrasted with his mother’s sternness and impatience. Lepida was charged with making attempts against the life of the Empress by means of magical incantations, and with being a disturber of the public peace by maintaining gangs of turbulent slaves on her Calabrian estates. The indictment seems to have been brought before the Emperor, and it was a trial of strength between Agrippina and Narcissus, who did all he could to save Lepida. But Agrippina triumphed; Lepida was sentenced to death. Yet notwithstanding this victory, and notwithstanding the fact that Claudius had been induced to make a will favorable to her son, the Empress did not feel sure of her ground, and dreaded a reaction.
Under these circumstances the greatest luck that could befall her was the death of Claudius; and Claudius died (Oct. 13, 54 A.D.). It was generally believed that he was poisoned by his wife; and though we cannot say that her guilt is proved, it seems highly probable. Claudius was in his sixty-fourth year, and in declining health. His death took place when Narcissus was absent it Sinuessa for the sake of the medicinal waters; and this coincidence supports the traditional account that there was foul play, for Narcissus suspected the designs of Agrippina. According to the received story, she employed the services of a woman named Locusta, notorious for the preparation of subtle poisons, who, according to the historian Tacitus, was long regarded as “one of the instruments of monarchy”. She compounded a curious drug which had the property of disturbing the mind without causing instant death, and it was administered to Claudius in a dish of mushrooms. But for some reason the poison failed to work; and Agrippina, fearful lest the crime should be discovered, called in her confidential physician Xenophon, who did not hesitate to pass a poisoned leather into the Emperor’s throat, on the plea of helping him to vomit.
The position of Nero at the death of Claudius was far stronger than that of Gaius at the death of Tiberius. Nero had to fear a declaration in favor of Britannicus, as Gaius had to fear the rivalry of the son of Drusus; but Nero possessed the proconsular power, as well as other dignities, which had not been conferred on Gaius. He had also the support of his mother’s influence, and above all, Burrus, the prefect of the praetorian guard, was devoted to his interest. Seeing that the accession of Gaius had proceeded so smoothly, there seemed no reason for doubt in the case of Nero. But Agrippina took every precaution for securing success. She concealed the Emperor’s death for some hours and made pretexts to detain his children in the palace, until her own son had been proclaimed Emperor by the guards. About midday the doors of the palace were suddenly thrown open, and Nero issued forth, accompanied by Burrus, into the presence of the cohort which was then on duty. The prefect gave a sign, and the soldiers received him with acclamations. It was said that some hesitated, and asked for Britannicus; but this demurring was only for a moment. Nero was then carried in a litter to the praetorian camp, where he spoke a few suitable words and was saluted Imperator. This was the second occasion on which the praetorians created an Emperor, and, following the example of his “father” Claudius, Nero promised them a donative. The senate did not hesitate to accept the will of the guards, and on the same day (Oct. 13, the dies imperii of Nero) decreed to him the proconsular power in its higher unlimited form, the prerogatives embodied in the lex de imperio, and the name Augustus. The tribunician power, which was necessary to complete the prerogatives of the Princeps, was conferred upon him by a comitia on the 4th December. The legions in the provinces received the news of the new principate without a murmur of dissent.
According to custom, the senate met to consider the acts of Claudius. He was fortunate enough to receive the honor, which had fallen to the lot of his model, Augustus, and which his two predecessors had missed. He was judged worthy to enter into the number of the gods and flamens were appointed for his worship.
All his acts were decreed to be valid. His funeral was ordered after the precedent of that of Augustus, and Agrippina emulated the magnificence of her great grandmother Livia. But the will of the deceased sovereign was not read in public. It was feared that the preference shown to the stepson over Britannicus would cause unpleasant remarks.
Nero pronounced a funeral oration, composed by L. Annaeus Seneca, over the dead Emperor. One of Agrippina’s first acts after her marriage with Claudius had been to recall Seneca from his exile in Corsica and entrust to him the completion of her son’s education. During his banishment he had attempted, by the arts of flattery, to get his sentence repealed, and had addressed a treatise to the freedman Polybius, into which he wrought an extravagant panegyric of the Emperor. But Claudius had paid no heed, and Seneca was resolved to have his revenge. He assailed the memory of the Emperor, soon after his death, in an unsparing and remarkably clever satire, entitled the Apocolocyntosis, “pumpkinification”—a play on “apotheosis”,—or, otherwise, the ludus de morte Claudii Caesaris. The arrival of Claudius in heaven, the surprise of the gods at seeing his strange shaking figure, and hearing his indistinct babble, are described with many jests. The gods deliberate whether they should admit him, and are inclined to vote in his favor, when the divine Augustus arises and tells all the crimes and iniquities which have stained the reign of his grandnephew. The gods agree that he deserves to be ejected from Olympus. Mercury immediately seizes him by the neck, and drags him to the place whence none return. On the way to the shades he passes through the Via Sacra, where he witnesses his own funeral, and sees the Roman people “walking about as if they were free” from a tyrant. When he reaches the lower regions he is greeted with a shout, “Claudius will come”. He is surrounded by a large company, consisting of the victims who had perished during his reign—senators, knights, freedmen, kinsfolk.
“I meet friends everywhere!” said Claudius. “How came ye hither?”
“Do you