By Jurgen Malitz
The 5th Roman emperor, Nero has long gone down in heritage because the archetypal narcissistic tyrant. during this attention-grabbing new biography, Jürgen Malitz invitations readers to re-examine Nero’s attractiveness.
Malitz specializes in the becoming rigidity among Nero’s creative trends and the political function for which his bold mom, Agrippina the more youthful, groomed him. the writer finds how, after sound beginnings below Seneca and different severe males, Nero succumbed to his love of appearing; and the way, whereas utilizing the humanities to thrill the folk, Nero alienated the senate along with his more and more autocratic kind. eventually, he explains how Nero met his premature finish following a failure of nerves within the face of uprising.
Nero’s crimes are infamous: he murdered his mom and all attainable contestants to the throne and brutally persecuted the Christians. regardless of Nero’s notoriety, Malitz outlines the customarily forgotten points of his reign: his early, unusually liable political schedule, his preliminary reputation, patronage of the humanities, and suggestions in structure.
This unique biography permits readers to shape a balanced judgment of this divisive and debatable Emperor.
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Extra resources for Nero
Sample text
They correspond to his identification as an artist, which increased in the final years of his life, especially as a kithara player, a specific meaning of the word artifex. Nero’s pleasure in appearing on stage contradicted all social standards of the Roman ruling class. He was reproached for this kind of “artistry” by the conspirators of the year 65. In the political pamphlets of 68, too, shortly before his fall, the accusations of being a “zither player” assumed a not insignificant role. The death of so many real or supposed rivals, the murder of Agrippina, and Octavia’s cruel end presumably did not harm him any more than his irritating fixation on “art,” since it was impossible to be both at the same time at that time in Rome: a princeps who lived up to the role expectations that had been binding since Augustus and at the same time a “marginal” artist – marginal according to the standards of his fellow aristocrats.
Not until 64 did he perform as publicly as other artists did; even then, however, he performed not in Rome, but in Naples, which had a strong Hellenistic influence. Nero was thus fully aware of the risks he would have faced by performing in Rome. His first audience was made up of his civilian and military entourage, curious residents from the surrounding Malitz_C05 42 13/5/05, 5:12 PM “what a loss for the theater” 43 Figure 5 Nero as Apollo with a lyre. As (brass), ca 64 –65 ce. Hirmer Fotoarchiv towns, and especially the enthusiastic populace of Naples.
The most famous kithara singer at the time, Terpnus, was called to the court at first to sing for the emperor day after day into the night and later also to instruct him. Menecrates, another “star” of the age, was also called in. From that time on, Nero worked untiringly on his training as a singer, rigorously trying to improve what was not a perfect singing voice. He left no effort by professional artists untried to prepare him for a veritable stage career. Wearing lead plates on his chest, he tried to strengthen his muscles.
