Tacitus, Annals, 15.20­-23, 33­-45. Latin Text, Study Aids with Vocabulary, and Commentary, 2013a

as the youthful emperor starts to ring the changes on murder. A (very)
selective survey may include reference to his ‘fratricide’, insofar as Nero
does away with his stepbrother Britannicus, the son of his predecessor
Claudius and third wife Messalina (Agrippina, the mother of Nero, was
Claudius’ fourth spouse). 51 Matricide follows, the gruesome slaughter of
Agrippina. 52 Nero’s two wives Octavia and Poppaea Sabina (implicated in
the murder of her predecessor) fall victim to, respectively, deliberate and
accidental ‘uxoricide’, the latter combined with ‘foeticide’: Poppaea was
pregnant at the time when Nero, in a fit of anger, kicked her to death. 53
The set text concludes with the unsuccessful attempt at the ‘senicide’ of
Seneca, a failure made up for in the wake of the Pisonian conspiracy. 54
The surviving portion of the Annals ends with a killing spree (or wave of
suicides) that includes the death of Thrasea Paetus. 55 In addition, ancient
sources – though not necessarily Tacitus – charge Nero with ‘urbicide’, that
is, the killing of the city of Rome in the great fire (Ann. 15.38–4, part of the
set text).
But Subrius Flavus, one of the conspirators around Piso, singles out
not only matricide and arson as his reason for treason, but a third factor
of a rather different nature: Nero’s attempt to turn Rome into an ancient
variant of Broadway, with the emperor himself getting top billing. 56 This
was part of a more general embrace of public spectacle moralists like
Tacitus considered frivolous and Greek: Nero’s reign is marked by a heavy
investment in festivals (including his own, the Neronia); games, not least
chariot-races; the whole culture of mousike (including poetry competitions
and singing to the lyre); and the building of Greek cultural institutions
such as gymnasia. Towards the end of his life, he even took his talents
abroad, first to Southern Italy (a step covered in the set text: see 15.33), then
with a trip to Greece (AD 66–67, i.e. not covered in the surviving portion
of the Annals). Relying on Tacitus and other sources, Ted Champlin argues
that ‘Nero’s progression from private to public performance, and from
amateur to professional, develops in three distinct stages’ both for music
and charioteering: 57
51 Ann. 13.15–17.
52 Ann. 14.1–9.
53 Ann. 14.60–64; 16.6.
54 Ann. 15.45; 15.60–64.
55 Ann. 16.14–35.
56 Ann. 15.67.
57 Champlin (2003) 76.