The History of Rome: Rise and Fall of the Empire. John Bagnell Bury
Perhaps at this time the stronghold of Venta Icenorum was established to control the districts north of Camalodunum.
Suetonius was a severe ruler; his counsels were always of sternness, never of lenity. Charges of oppression were brought against him by a procurator, and Polycletus, an imperial freedman, was sent to the island to investigate the matter. His decision was practically adverse to Suetonius, who was recalled (61A.D.) and replaced in the command by Petroniuo Turpilianus, a man of more conciliatory temper. Under his auspices southern Britain seems to have become contented with Roman rule. The towns which had been sacked by the Iceni, were rebuilt, and soon resumed their former prosperity—Camalodunum, as the centre of the Roman administration, and Londinium, as the centre of British commerce. By this time all the most important stations in the province were connected by Roman roads. The two most important roads, Watling Street, leading to the west, and Ermine Street to the north (through Camalodunum) met at Londinium. The chief seaports were Rutupiae (Richborough) and Portus Lemanis, which preserves its old name as Lymne, It is highly probable that these places—as well as inland centres such as Calleva (Silchester, near Reading), and Corinium, (Cirencester)—were already beginning to become centres of Roman civilization.
Chapter XVII.
The Principate of Nero (54-68 A.D.)
SECT. I. — THE ASCENDENCY OF SENECA AND BURRUS
The new Princeps belonged to the house of the Brazen-beards, one of the most illustrious families of the Domitian gens. His father, Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobardus, a man infamous for his vices and crimes, is reported to have said on his child’s birth, that the offspring of such a father as himself, and such a mother as Agrippina, must turn out ill-omened and disastrous to the state. The child lost his father at the age of three, and was despoiled of his inheritance by the Emperor Gaius. His mother was in banishment, and his training devolved for a time upon his aunt Dumitia Lepida. The accession of Claudius restored to him both his mother and his possessions, and under the eye of Agrippina he was brought up with a view to future greatness. It has been already mentioned that she recalled the philosopher Seneca from exile, and entrusted to him the education of her son. This remarkable man, who played an important part in the administration of the Roman world during the early half of Nero’s reign, professed to be a Stoic, superior to the ordinary desires and ambitions of mankind. But he amassed an immense fortune, and did not disdain the arts of a courtier. He was not a politician who amuses himself with philosophy, nor yet a pure philosopher who steps out of his sphere to give advice in politics. On the contrary, his theory was that philosophy should be applied to government, and that thought should be combined with action. He may not have adhered over strictly to all his precepts of morality, but it there can be no doubt that whatever were his faults, he rose “far above the ordinary pedagogues of the day, the cringing slave or the flattering freedman to whom the young patricians were, for the most part, consigned. Doubtless it was Seneca’s principle of education to allure, possibly to coax, rather than drive his pupil into virtue. He yielded on many points in order to borrow influence on others. He deigned to purchase the youth’s attention to severe studies by indulging his inclination to some leas worthy amusements”. The young prince was surrounded by the temptations which beset the patrician youth of Rome, and accustomed to the indulgences which tended to relax the vigor of mind and body. His favorite studies were artistic, especially music and singing; in oratory he was not thought to be proficient. It was a matter of remark that he required the help of Seneca to compose the funeral oration of his uncle.
The succession of Nero to the Principate was readily acquiesced in by the people, the soldiers, and the senate. Yet there was a feeling that Britannicus, as the real son of Claudius, had a better claim than the adopted Domitius. It is significant that the will of Claudius was not read, but was silently passed over. No one, however, felt called upon to undertake the cause of Britannicus. This may have been partly due to the fact that the infidelity of his mother had cast a slur on his birth. The senators may have even preferred an Emperor whose claim was doubtful, in the hope that they might exert more influence in the administration, if he felt dependent on their goodwill. It must be remembered that, from a strictly constitutional point of view, Britannicus had no more claim to the Principate than Nero, and Nero, through his mother, was descended in direct line from Augustus. The first speech of the new Emperor in the senate, dictated doubtless by Seneca, produced a favorable impression. He promised not to interfere with the senate in the exercise of any of its functions, but to confine his activity to the armies. The senators lost no time in repelling a law of Claudius, by which lawyers were allowed to accept rewards for pleading causes, and in exempting quaestors from the burden of exhibiting gladiatorial shows, which the same Emperor had laid upon them.
The early years of Nero’s rule were marked by a struggle for power between his mother and his two chief advisers, Seneca and Burrus. Agrippina had staked everything for power, and she did not intend to surrender the reins on her son’s accession. It was not enough for her that Nero should rule; she desired to rule herself. And Nero was devoted to her. His first watchword was “the best of mothers”, and during the first months she behaved as the regent of the Empire. On coins her head appeared along with that of the Princeps, and she took upon herself to receive the ambassadors of foreign states. She hastened to remove from her path two enemies, the freedman Narcissus, and M. Silanus, proconsul of Asia. She feared the vengeance of the latter for the death of his brother Lucius, whom she had destroyed as a possible rival of her son. Nero, who cared only to enjoy the pleasures of his position, and not to fulfill its duties, had himself little objection to his mother’s political activity; but Burrus and Seneca were resolved not to concede the assumption of such power to a woman, especially as it seemed likely to be cruelly and unscrupulously exercised. In order to counteract her influence, they encouraged Nero in an intrigue with a Greek freedwoman named Acte. Agrippina was incensed, and her violent language drove the Emperor to attach himself more closely to the indulgent Seneca. She then changed her policy, and attempted to bid against the philosopher by still greater indulgence; but the eyes of her son had been opened to her overbearing ambition. The first decisive triumph of the rivals of Agrippina was the disgrace of the freedman Pallas, with whom she had closely leagued herself, and on whose political experience she leaned. Nero, who had never liked him, and would not submit to his counsels, deprived him of his office, and dismissed him from the court (before February 13, A.D. 55).
This was felt as a serious blow by Agrippina, and she made a desperate move to recover her power by espousing the cause of her stepson Britannicus. She declared that he was the true heir of Claudius; she threatened to rush with him to the camp, and ask the soldiers to judge between the daughter of Germanicus, and Burrus and Seneca. Whatever were her own crimes, she said, she had at least preserved the life of Britannicus. This action on her part proved fatal to the unlucky son of Claudius. Nero saw that his own seat was not secure as long as Britannicus lived, and he determined to remove him. The services of Locusta, which Agrippina had employed to hasten the death of Claudius, were now employed by her son to kill Britannicus. A warm wine-cup was presented to the boy at table, and when he found it too hot, bold water was added, into which a drop of deadly poison had been poured. He died instantaneously, to the alarm of all those who were present, and the unaffected consternation of Agrippina. The body was burnt the same night in the Campus, in the midst of a great storm, which was interpreted as a sign of divine wrath. It is impossible to know whether Seneca was privy to this deed, or whether it was solely due to the calculation of Nero. It is clear that the death of Britannicus was a decisive check to the plans of Agrippina, and the question is whether Seneca would have been ready to go to the length of poisoning in order to foil her and preserve his own position. But there is no evidence to prove him guilty, and therefore we must suppose him innocent. The death of Britannicus was represented as natural, and Nero professed to lament the loss of a dear brother. He had no curious inquiries to fear from the senate; for the senate was content with the Emperor’s policy, guided as it was by Seneca, and as long as the senate was content, fratricide and other crimes might he committed in the palace without interference.
Popularity with the senate was indeed