Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/362

348 N E K of both parents, found a bare shelter in the house of his aunt Domitia, where two slaves, a barber and a dancer, commenced the training of the future emperor. With the death of Caligula in 41 A.D. his prospects improved, for Agrippina was recalled from exile by her uncle, the new emperor Claudius, and resumed the charge of her young son. Nero s history during the next thirteen years is summed up in the determined struggle carried on by his mother to win for him the throne which it had been predicted should be his. The fight was a hard one. Messalina, Claudius s wife, was all powerful with her husband, and her son Britannicus was by common consent regarded as the next in succession. But on the other hand Claudius was weak and easily led, and Agrippina daringly aspired to supplant Messalina in his affections. To outweigh Britannicus s claims as the son of the reigning emperor, she relied on the double prestige which attached to her own son, as being at once the grandson of the popular favourite Germanicus and the lineal descendant of Augustus himself. Above all, she may well have put confidence in her own great abilities, indomitable will, and untiring energy, and in her readiness to sacrifice everything, even her personal honour, for the attainment of the end she had in view. Her first decisive success was gained in 48 by the dis grace and execution of Messalina. In 49 followed her own marriage with her uncle Claudius, and her recognition as his consort in the government of the empire. 1 She now freely used her ascendency to advance the interests of her son. The Roman populace already looked with favour on the grandson of Germanicus, but in 50 his claims obtained a more formal recognition from Claudius him self, and the young Domitius was adopted by the emperor under the title of Nero Claudius Csesar Drusus Germanicus. 2 Agrippina s next step was to provide for her son the train ing needed to fit him for the brilliant future which seemed opening before him. The philosopher L. Annams Seneca was recalled from exile and appointed tutor to the young prince. On December 15, 51, Nero completed his fourteenth year, and Agrippina, in view of Claudius s failing health, determined to delay no longer his adoption of the toga virilis. The occasion was celebrated in a manner which seemed to place Nero s prospects of succes sion beyond the reach of doubt. He was introduced to the senate by Claudius himself. The proconsular imperium and the title of " princeps juventutis " were conferred upon him. 3 He was specially admitted as an extraordinary member of the great priestly colleges, and his name was included by the Arval Brethren in their prayers for the safety of the emperor and his house. Largesses and dona tions delighted the populace and the soldiery, and at the games in the circus Nero s appearance in triumphal dress contrasted significantly with the simple toga prsetexta worn by Britannicus. During the next two years Agrippina followed up this great success with her usual energy. Britannicus s leading partisans were banished or put to death, and the all-important command of the praetorian guard was transferred to Af ranius Burrus, formerly a tutor of Nero s, and devoted to his service. Nero himself was put prominently forward whenever occasion offered. The petitions addressed to the senate by the town of Bononia and by the communities of Rhodes and Ilium were grace fully supported by him in Latin and Greek speeches, and during Claudius s absence in 52 at the Latin festival it was Nero who, as prefect of the city, administered justice in the forum to crowds of suitors. Early in 53 his marriage with Claudius s daughter, the ill-fated Octavia, drew still closer the ties which connected him with the 1 Tac., Ann., xii. 26, 36 ; see also Schiller, Nero, 67. 2 Tac., A tin., xii. 26 ; Zonaras, xi. 10. 3 Tac., Ann., xii. 41. imperial house, and now nothing but Claudius s death seemed wanting to secure his final triumph. This event, which could not in the course of nature be long delayed, Agrippina determined to hasten, and the absence, through illness, of the emperor s trusted freedman Narcissus, favoured her schemes. On October 13, 54, Claudius died, poisoned, as all our authorities declare, by the orders of his unscrupulous wife. For some hours the fact of his death was concealed, but at noon the gates of the palace were thrown open, and Nero was presented to the soldiers on guard as their new sovereign. From the steps of the palace he proceeded to the praetorian camp to receive the salutations of the troops, and thence to the senate-house, where he was fully and promptly invested with all the honours, titles, and powers of emperor. 4 Agrippina s bold stroke had been completely successful. Its suddenness had disarmed opposition : only a few voices were raised for Britannicus ; nor is there any doubt that Rome was prepared to welcome the new emperor with genuine enthusiasm. To his descent from Germanicus and from Augustus he owed a prestige which was strengthened by the general belief in his own good qualities. He was young, generous, and genial. His abilities, really consider able, were skilfully assisted and magnified by Seneca s ready dexterity, while the existence of his worse qualities his childish vanity, ungovernable selfishness, and savage temper was as yet unsuspected by all but those immediately about him. His first acts confirmed the favourable impres sions thus produced. With graceful modesty he declined the venerable title of "pater patrise." The memory of Claudius, and that of his own father Domitius were duly honoured. The senate listened with delight to his promises to rule according to the maxims of Augustus, and to avoid the errors and abuses which had multiplied under the rule at once lax and arbitrary of his predecessor, while his un failing clemency, liberality, and affability were the talk of Rome. Much no doubt of the credit of all this is due to Seneca, and his faithful ally Burrus. Seneca had seen from the first that the real danger with Nero lay in the savage vehemence of his passions, and he made it his chief aim to stave off by every means in his power the dreaded outbreak of "the wild beast" element in his pupil s nature. He indulged him to the full in all his tastes, smoothed away opposition, and, while relieving him as far as possible of the more irksome duties of government, gave him every facility for easily winning the applause he craved for by acts of generosity which cost him little. Nor is it certain that any other policy would have succeeded better with a nature like Nero s, which had never known training or restraint, and now revelled with childish delight in the consciousness of absolute power. Provided only that the wild beast did not taste blood, it mattered little if respectable society was scandalized at the sight of an emperor whose chief delight was in pursuits hitherto left to Greek slaves and freedmen. At any rate the policy succeeded for the time. During the first five years of his reign, the golden "quinquennium Neronis," little occurred to damp the hopes excited by his behaviour on succeeding to the throne. His clemency of temper was unabated. His promises of constitutional moderation were amply fulfilled, and the senate found itself free to discuss and even to decide important administrative questions. Abuses were remedied, the provincials protected from oppression, and the burdens of taxation lightened. On the frontiers, thanks chiefly to Corbulo s energy and skill, no disaster occurred serious enough to shake the general confidence in the government, and even the murder of Britannicus seems to have been easily pardoned at the time as a necessary measure of self- 4 Tac., Ann., xii. 96 ; Suet., Nero, 8.