This is a statue of the new Emperor, Nero aged 16, and his mother Agrippina. It is unique in the history of Rome. Here we see a woman sharing the status of the Emperor. In fact, in the first 2 years of his reign she ruled.
Vespasian was eating dinner with his eldest son, Titus. After the disaster in Greece, when he fell asleep during one of Nero's interminable concerts, Vespasian had been banished from court and told not to return to Rome. He had enjoyed the break from court and hoped that he would never have to return. How he loved the farm at Rieti.
"General," Stallos, his horse master, burst into the dining room, "There is a squad of Praetorians coming up the drive."
Titus gasped. Vespasian went white.
"Well my boy, it looks as if I didn't get away with it, after all."
Titus stood up, pulled his father to his feet and kissed him.
"They probably want me dead too. Divorcing Marcia was maybe not enough?"
The two men embraced again and stood back, preparing themselves to die like Romans.
"You know what annoys me the most about this, father?" said Titus.
"What?"
"That my brother will outlive me."
Vespasian smiled grimly.
Little did Vespasian know that the Praetorians were bringing a very different message for him. They had also been sent to the great General of the day, Corbulo, whose daughter would marry Domitian, with a message for him to kill himself. Included on the compulsory suicide-list were Corbulo's two brothers. They had all been implicated in the Pisonian conspiracy to kill Nero. Titus had been married to Marcia Furnilla, whose family had also been deeply implicated. Their old friend Nerva, who has exposed the plot, had advised the divorce and had promised that Titus would not be involved in the blood-letting that followed. This is the same Nerva that became Emperor after the murder of Domitian.
The message from Nero was not for Vespasian to kill himself but instead to take command of the forces to put down the Judaean Revolt. The deeper message was that Nero really did trust Vespasian. Vespasian was, in Nero's mind, just a good old boy from the country who did not even make himself rich when he was a governor. Even more important to Nero, Vespasian and the Familia Flavia had been enemies of his mother.
This post will focus on Agrippina who came close to wiping out the Familia Antonia and the new Familia Flavia.
Romans did not have any concept of evil or sin. These are Christian ideas. But in Roman culture, Agrippina was seen as being a "bad" woman. She was "bad" because she sought public power. Livia, the wife of Augustus, had been the power behind the throne. Antonia Minor, had always worked in the background as Caenis did. Women in Rome could have immense power. They just had to wield it from the wings and preferably through a man. Here we see why Caenis needed Vespasian.
Agrippina, the sister of Caligula, had had a hard life. Implicated in a plot to kill her brother, she was lucky and was only banished. Her son, Nero was abandoned and penniless and was looked after by his slaves. All of whom, as we will see, did very well later. Claudius recalled her on his accession. But she was only on the fringes of the court. Her big chance came when Narcissus exposed the plot of Messalina, Claudius' wife, and had her killed. There then ensued a horse race for which of three women would marry the Emperor. Pallas backed Agrippina, who was Claudius's niece! Narcissus another woman. Agrippina won. She married Claudius in 49 AD. She had the bluest blood of all the contenders and an older boy. They had to change the incest laws, but they were a minor hurdle for an Emperor.
Agrippina moved fast. She had Nero adopted and arranged that the 16 year would marry Claudius's daughter, Octavia. She was 13.
She also moved fast to gain public power. Here is a coin showing both Claudius and Agrippina. This public sharing of power was shocking and worse was to come when Nero came to the purple. Narcissus was now living on borrowed time and so were the rest of the Familia Antonia and Flavia.
But Claudius still protected Narcissus and it was in 51 that Vespasian is given a Consulship and that Titus is invited to live at court as Claudius' son Britannicus' companion. In 54, when Nero was old enough to be considered Emperor, he was 16, Claudius dies. The general consensus is that Agrippina had him poisoned. Narcissus is killed shortly after.
Here we see a unique Roman coin. An Emperor with a woman shown in half-face as equals. It was clear to everyone that Agrippina was going to act as regent for as long as she could. She had reinforced her position by inserting Seneca as the boy's tutor and Burrus as Commander of the Guard. The position of Britannicus, and so Titus, was now vulnerable. Vespasian had to keep his head down. I imagine that he left for Rieti and that Caenis may have gone to Alexandria where she had property and was a client of, and so protected by, the Familia Alexander.
The next year, 55, Britannicus is poisoned at dinner. On the couch next to him is Titus who gets a dose and is very ill. It is not clear who was responsible, Nero or his mother. I imagine, Titus illness may have been a good excuse for Titus to leave Rome and even Italy. I suspect that he was sent to Alexandria. I think this because of how close he is later to Tiberius Alexander. Tiberius was then on Corbulo's staff, but as this was a long term position, he may well have been home for a while. A year later, Titus is sent to Corbulo's old command, in Germany, where Titus becomes the protege of Pliny the Elder, who commands an Ala of cavalry. Titus spends the next 7 years away from Rome as a soldier. Along the way, he serves in Britannia after the Boudiccan revolt with another young soldier, Agricola. They both serve on the staff of the commander Gaius Suetonius Paulinus. Here is another example of how Vespasian and Titus have the gift of making lifelong friends. Titus I am sure would also have met his father's old ally Cogidubnus. Titus would place a lot of trust in both men later. Of course Domitian would replace Agricola on his accession.
What we do see after this is a shift in power. Now the coinage shows Agrippina still on the coin but now behind her son. In late 55, Agrippina is forced out of the palace. In 59, Nero has her killed.
Why does Nero go on to kill Agrippina? On the surface, the reason is that she was a threat to him. She had better blood than he did, and, like Mary Queen of Scots, the real risk could be that she could become the locus of a plot. Underneath this justification, that Roman society thought plausible are the interests of two other women that we will discuss later in some detail. They are Poppaea Sabina who later engineers the death of Nero's wife, Octavia and a mystery woman called Acte. I will devote an entire post to Acte. Like Caenis, a slave, she captured Nero's heart. She also never asked anything of him and not only survived her time at court but buried Nero and I think was present at his end.
Poppaea arrives at court in 54. She is the most beautiful woman in Rome.
She had her eye on Nero. Poppaea was an Anne Boleyn type of figure in this story. Nero was enraptured by her. So much so that when he inadvertently killed her by kicking her in a rage, he found a young man, Sporus, that looked like her, emasculates him and keeps him at court as a reminder of his beloved Poppaea. Sporus by the way attends Nero at his death which suggests that he had strong feelings for Nero as well. Isn't this complex?
I am sure that Poppaea made a strong case for her rival's death. She has Octavia murdered in 62, after a trumped charge of adultery and immediately becomes Empress;
I am not sure about Acte. Let's give her due in my next post.
With Agrippina dead and Titus safely in the army, Vespasian can return to Rome. In 63 he is made Governor of Africa, modern Tunisia. Much to everyone's surprise, he returns to Rome broke. Unlike most governors he did not enrich himself in his post. This may look stupid. But, there may be some guile here. Vespasian is reinforcing the impression that he is no threat. Even better for his image of being a good old boy, he retires to Rieti, borrows money from his wonderful brother Sabinus, and goes back into the mule haulage business.
A sign of his favour is that he is invited on Nero's grand music tour of Greece, where Nero enters every single competition and of course wins first place in every one. Here Vespasian makes his big mistake. Bored to tears, he falls asleep during one of Nero's recitals. Had he been a real threat, this might have led to a death sentence. I think that he got away with banishment back to his home, suggests that his policy was working.
In this post, I have hardly mentioned Caenis. I think that she was far too close to Narcissus to dare to be in Rome. In her absence, who was keeping Vespasian safe? I think that this was both Nerva and Acte.
More on Acte next.
