The Jewish War: First half of Book 2

[cahn]

Last week: Discussion on how Herod stacked up against various Roman emperors in terms of body count of his nearest and dearest; how Friedrich Wilhelm might hear the Josephus text; Herod throwing money around; Cleopatra!

This week: ...uhhhh there was a lot going on and I haven't actually finished the reading yet *ducks* -- I am doing that right now and I should most likely be able to comment tomorrow. (I don't anticipate this being a problem again for at least two more months, and most likely not then either; this was a confluence of various time sinks that doesn't usually happen all at the same time.) But I wanted to go ahead and get the post up because I know you guys have read it... (ETA: have finished the reading now :P :) )

Next week: finishing up Book 2!

Comments

Death of Britannicus: Suetonius

[selenak]

The death of Britannicus is one of the great horror soap set pieces of Nero’s reign. Bear in mind though that both Tacitus and Suetonius, whom I’m about to quote, wrote decades later about this. Also worth recalling is everyone’s age. Britannicus is thirteen about to turn fourteen (meaning he’s due to the transition to adult status by Roman custom) (so is young Titus, son of Vespasian, who is a witness to all of this due to being bff with Britannicus and I dare say it made an impression and influenced how historians treated Nero in his own reign), Nero is seventeen about to be eighteen. After the first few weeks of being Emperor, it became rapidly apparant that giving a teenager the all powerful position wasn’t the best idea. Also he won’t be bossed around by Mom anymore! If he wants to have sex with a freedwoman and with adult men, HE WILL HAVE SEX WITH THEM, and stay up late, so there, and also Agrippina is not allowed to receive ambassadors with him anymore the way she used to do with Claudius, and boss everyone else around and tell them what to politically do, SO THERE! Agrippina supposedly shouts right back that he’s an ungrateful little shit whom she made Emperor by killing her husband and some other people (allow me to doubt Agrippina shouted the later part in front of other people), and if he keeps this up, she will throw her weight behind Britannicus and make him Emperor instead! (Let me add Tacitus names this threat as the trigger for ensueing events but not Suetonius, who doesn’t report it at all.) Nero totally thinks she can do this and decides to kill off Britannicus. I’ll first give you the short version from Suetonius and then the whole lengthy horror soap opera set piece from Tacitus.

Suetonius (who thinks Nero killed his stepbrother not for some Agrippina threat but out of singer and general jealousy): He attempted the life of Britannicus by poison, not less from jealousy of his voice (for it was more agreeable than his own) than from fear that he might sometime win a higher place than himself in the people's regard because of the memory of his father. He procured the potion from an archpoisoner, one Locusta, and when the effect was slower than he anticipated, merely physi­cing Britannicus, he called the woman to him and flogged her with his own hand, charging that she had administered a medicine instead of a poison; and when she said in excuse that she had given a smaller dose to shield him from the odium of the crime, he replied: "It's likely that I am afraid of the Julian law;"⁠ and he forced her to mix as swift and instant a potion as she knew how in his own room before his very eyes. Then he tried it on a kid, and as the animal lingered for five hours, had the mixture steeped again and again and threw some of it before a pig. The beast instantly fell dead, whereupon he ordered that the poison be taken to the dining-room and given to Britannicus. The boy dropped dead at the very first taste, but Nero lied to his guests and declared that he was seized with the falling sickness, to which he was subject, and the next day had him hastily and unceremoniously buried in a pouring rain. He rewarded Locusta for her eminent services with a full pardon⁠101 and large estates in the country, and actually sent her pupils.

Suetonius also mentions the death of Britannicus in his Titus biography:

(Titus) was brought up at court in company with Britannicus and taught the same subjects by the same masters. At that time, so they say, a physiognomist was brought in by Narcissus, the freedman of Claudius, to examine Britannicus and declared most positively that he would never become emperor; but that Titus, who was standing near by at the time, would surely rule. The boys were so intimate too, that it is believed that when Britannicus drained the fatal draught,⁠2 Titus, who was reclining at his side, also tasted of the potion and for a long time suffered from an obstinate disorder. Titus did not forget all this, but later set up a golden statue of his friend in the Palace, and dedicated another equestrian statue of ivory, which is to this day carried in the procession in the Circus, and he attended it on its first appearance.

Re: Death of Britannicus: Suetonius

[cahn]

If he wants to have sex with a freedwoman and with adult men, HE WILL HAVE SEX WITH THEM, and stay up late, so there

omg LOL!

Agrippina supposedly shouts right back that he’s an ungrateful little shit whom she made Emperor by killing her husband and some other people (allow me to doubt Agrippina shouted the later part in front of other people), and if he keeps this up, she will throw her weight behind Britannicus and make him Emperor instead!

Ha. It's funny to imagine that she shouted all those things, anyway (even if it seems rather unlikely)

The boys were so intimate too, that it is believed that when Britannicus drained the fatal draught,⁠2 Titus, who was reclining at his side, also tasted of the potion and for a long time suffered from an obstinate disorder. Titus did not forget all this, but later set up a golden statue of his friend in the Palace

Gosh, Titus :/ (I mean, it's obviously worse for Britannicus, but I can't imagine that wasn't super traumatic for Titus.)

Re: Death of Britannicus: Suetonius

[selenak]

It must have been super traumatic, yes. However, note there is one inconsistency: if Nero really did bully Locusta to make a super fast killing poison instead of a more slow one, and ended up with such a strong tested poison which instantly killed the animal it was given to - how come Titus survived? (Suetonius has both stories in "Twelve Caesars" , the one about the instant poison in the Nero biography, and the one about Titus being a witness and surviving in the Titus biography. (This isn't the only time Suetonius contradicts himself - in the Tiberius biography, he both early on claims Tiberius was a generous ex when Augustus banished his daughter (and Tiberius' stepsister and wife Julia and pleaded her case despite her being an undeserving slut, and later says that Julia was much pitied by everyone when Augustus banished her, public sympathy was on her side, just Tiberius didn't do anything for her and even had her starved the moment Augustus was dead.) (Suetonius clearly needed a beta reader.) More Nero friendly modern historians have speculated that maybe Britannicus wasn't poisoned at all but really died of an epileptic fit, with everyone just assuming it must have been poison because of the situation.

My own take is that the whole story about Nero forcing Locusta to make an ever stronger poison is the result of the tale growing in the telling (remember, Suetonius and Tacitus are writing lots of Emperors later) and rethorical flourish, but that Nero most likely did kill Britannicus, just as Caligula had ordered Gemellus killed early in his reign, and for that matter, just like the much praised Augustus had ordered Caesarion killed the moment he could. "There can only be one" and all that. Especially with Nero himself being a late teen just emerging on the other side of a power struggle with his mother and realising he really CAN do anything he wants now. Either way, Titus evidently never forgot the experience. Having a statue for Britannicus errected many years later in the Flavian age wasn't of use to him propaganda wise; I doubt at this point many people still remembered Britannicus had existed. But to him, this was a friend who died incredibly young.

(BTW, I always thought Titus would make a great pov character for a YA short story or novella for the early Nero days. As Britannicus' bff, he's around, he's a teenager, he's not a slave but also not a member of the imperial family or even the high aristocracy. His father at htis point is an ok general from the countryside, that's it. So he's not completely powerless the way a slave would be, but he's still disposable if he speaks to the wrong people or shows what he knows. Titus trying to find out how Britannicus really died: the YA novel or story yet to be written!

Re: Death of Britannicus: Suetonius

[cahn]

Oh -- yeah, I was discounting the whole Titus-was-poisoned stuff (which, idk, maybe true but I'd think it would be hard to show) and mostly just thinking it must have been pretty traumatic to have your best friend basically die horribly in front of you and, even if it was an epileptic fit, everyone around you assuming it was poison and that you might well have been gone with it.

Titus trying to find out how Britannicus really died: the YA novel or story yet to be written!

Oh yeah! I'd read this!

Re: Death of Britannicus: Suetonius

[selenak]

Next Yuletide?

Re: Death of Britannicus: Suetonius

[cahn]

yesssss remind me!!