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NOTES
107 Pappano, ‘The False Neros’ (n. 105), 387. On the number (two or three?) of false
Neros see the collection of material in P.A. Gallivan, ‘“The False Neros”: A Re-
Examination’, Historia 23, 1973, 364f., and Tuplin, ‘The False Neros’ (n. 105),
382f.
108 Multi ad celebritatem nominis erecti rerum novarum cupidine et odio praesentium: Hist.
2.8.2; cf. Ann. 5.10: per dolumque comitantibus adliciebantur ignari fama nominis et
promptis Graecorum animis ad nova et mira.
109 On support for Nero, especially in the Greek East, see Tuplin, ‘The False Neros’
(n. 105), 393.
110 Tac. Hist. 2.9.2: ut eum in Syria aut Aegypto sisterent. Cf. Ann. 5.10: Aegyptum aut
Syriam invasurum.
111 This idea is supported not least by the fact that in his introduction to the ‘Histories’
(1.2.1) Tacitus counts the appearance of the first false Nero among the great
disasters which he uses to justify his gloomy assessment of the state of the Empire
in June 68.
112 Tac. Hist. 2.8.1: servus e Ponto sive, ut alii tradidere, libertinus ex Italia. Tuplin, ‘The
False Neros’ (n. 105), 369f.
113 Dio 66.19.3 b–c (= Zon. 11.18). John Ant. frg. 104, FHG IV 578f. F. Münzer, s.v.
Terentius no. 59, RE V A, 1934, 666. Pappano, ‘The False Neros’ (n. 105), 390f.
Tuplin, ‘The False Neros’ (n. 105), 372–7. Terentius Maximus as the second false
Nero was the inspiration of Lion Feuchtwanger’s novel Der falsche Nero, published
in 1936. The circumstances in which its author sets this novel about the appearance
of a second false Nero on the Roman-Parthian frontier under Titus (in particular
Nero’s popularity in the East, the rumours that he was not dead but in hiding
ready to reappear when the time was right, a Flavian policy towards Parthia that
was quite different from that of Nero) give it a great feeling of authenticity. Even
the idea that this false Nero was just a pawn, put in play by a leading opponent of
the Flavians, does not seem impossible. Without powerful backers, unknown to us,
none of the Neros could have had the success they did.
114 John Ant. frg. 104, FHG IV 578.
115 A reference to an emperor, forever cursed by his mother for the foul way in which
he murdered her and the perpetrator of many other crimes, who will flee over the
Euphrates dressed as a slave, appears in the Sybilline Oracles (Or. Sib. 4.119–24;
4.137–9); see Pappano, ‘The False Neros’ (n. 105), 389; 391; K. Christ, Geschichte
der römischen Kaiserzeit, Munich 1988, 239f.; Tuplin, ‘The False Neros’ (n. 105),
397. Certain verses in the book of Revelation (13.3 and 17.9–14) are also interpreted
as referring to Nero’s return: Th. Mommsen, Römische Geschichte, vol. V 5 ,
Berlin 1904, 396f.
116 John Ant. frg. 104, FHG IV 578.
117 Tac. Hist. 1.2.1. Suet. Nero 57.3f. Pappano, ‘The False Neros’ (n. 105) 391f. Tuplin,
‘The False Neros’ (n. 105), 372–7.
118 Suet. Nero 57.3.
119 Suet. Nero 57.4.
120 Mota prope etiam Parthorum arma falsi Neronis ludibrio: Tac. Hist. 1.2.1.
121 In their planning, all three false Neros will have exploited rumours, in circulation
while Nero was still alive, that he would lose then regain his power, in particular in
the East: cf. Suet. Nero 40.3.
122 Suet. Nero 57.3f.:
Quin etiam Vologaesus Parthorum rex missis ad senatum legatis de instauranda
societate hoc etiam magno opere oravit, ut Neronis memoria coleretur. (...) post
viginti annos (...) favorabile nomen eius apud Parthos fuit ( ...).
Pappano, ‘The False Neros’ (n. 105), 390: ‘The masterly eastern policy of the
Neronian régime had planted a lasting warmth for Nero in Parthian hearts.’
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