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The Unmaking of Rome

Nero, Seneca, and the Fire(s) of 64 in the Roman Imagination
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Urban Disasters and the Roman Imagination
This chapter is in the book Urban Disasters and the Roman Imagination
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110674736-009Virginia ClossThe Unmaking of Rome:Nero, Seneca, and the Fire(s) of 64 in the Roman ImaginationDespite its doubtful veracity, the legend that “Nero fiddled while Rome burned”1has long functioned as an important cultural touchstone, bringing urban disas-ter, leadership, and creative expression together in a single potent image. The baroquely villainous portraits drawn by later authors, working under new re-gimes and concerned with casting Nero as an exemplar of the “bad emperor,”2have contributed much to the story’s enduring mystique. Historians including Tacitus, Suetonius, and Dio found notable success in portraying Nero as a deca-dent and depraved ruler who, at best, failed his city in its most disastrous hour, and, at worst, may have been responsible for the conflagration.3 In this essay, rather than attempting to evaluate the accuracy—or lack thereof—of the various historical accounts of the fire, I explore the two earliest surviving creative re-sponses to the 64 disaster.4 1 On the development of this phrase in the English language see Gyles 1947. This essay has ben-efited immensely from the comments and suggestions of Catharine Edwards, Kirk Freudenburg, Elizabeth Keitel, Timothy Joseph, James Ker, and Lauren Donovan Ginsberg. My student assis-tants Dina Al Qassar and Luke Morrell were of the utmost assistance in proofing and editing.2The point is summed up well in the introduction of Elsner/Masters 1994, 4–5. See also Champlin 2003passim, and Libby 2011, 209–11. With Libby 2011, 211, when I speak of Nero, I refer “to the legendary Nero as characterized by the historiographical sources and the poetry of the first and second centuries.”3 Eleven ancient authors mention the fire altogether: Tac. Ann. 15.38–43; Suet. Ner. 21.1, 38; Cass. Dio 62.16–18; Plin. HN 18.5; Pseud. Sen. Ep. ad Paul. 11 (12); Stat. Silv. 2.7.60–61; anon. Oct.831–33; Aur. Vict. Caes. 5; Euseb. Chron. 64; Eutr. Brev. 7.14; Sulp. Sev. Chron. 2.29; Oros. 7.7.4–6. Lucan’s De incendio urbis does not survive. Most scholars are of the opinion that Nero is un-likely to have started the fire deliberately. The argument for Nero’s innocence is most clearly laid out in Bradley’s 1978 commentary on Suetonius. See also (e.g.) Warmington 1969, 123–24; Griffin 1984, 133; Wiedemann 1996, 250–51; Dyson 2010, 164–65; Panella 2011a, 85–86; see also Pollini 2017, 213–14 and n. 1. The outlier is Champlin 2003, 178–209, who asserts Nero’s probable guilt.4 Tacitus’ Annals 15.38–41, the earliest historical account to survive, already shows every sign of having borrowed heavily from a rich supply of previous accounts of disaster, both poetic and historical. See Keitel 2010 and 1984; Woodman 1992, 173–88. Woodman 2012b, 392 suggests both Lucan’s De incendio urbis and Nero’s own Troy composition as possible stylistic models for Tac-itus’ account. For the use of Troy in Roman disaster narratives, see the contributions of Brom-berg, Farrell, and Joseph in this volume.
© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Munich/Boston

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110674736-009Virginia ClossThe Unmaking of Rome:Nero, Seneca, and the Fire(s) of 64 in the Roman ImaginationDespite its doubtful veracity, the legend that “Nero fiddled while Rome burned”1has long functioned as an important cultural touchstone, bringing urban disas-ter, leadership, and creative expression together in a single potent image. The baroquely villainous portraits drawn by later authors, working under new re-gimes and concerned with casting Nero as an exemplar of the “bad emperor,”2have contributed much to the story’s enduring mystique. Historians including Tacitus, Suetonius, and Dio found notable success in portraying Nero as a deca-dent and depraved ruler who, at best, failed his city in its most disastrous hour, and, at worst, may have been responsible for the conflagration.3 In this essay, rather than attempting to evaluate the accuracy—or lack thereof—of the various historical accounts of the fire, I explore the two earliest surviving creative re-sponses to the 64 disaster.4 1 On the development of this phrase in the English language see Gyles 1947. This essay has ben-efited immensely from the comments and suggestions of Catharine Edwards, Kirk Freudenburg, Elizabeth Keitel, Timothy Joseph, James Ker, and Lauren Donovan Ginsberg. My student assis-tants Dina Al Qassar and Luke Morrell were of the utmost assistance in proofing and editing.2The point is summed up well in the introduction of Elsner/Masters 1994, 4–5. See also Champlin 2003passim, and Libby 2011, 209–11. With Libby 2011, 211, when I speak of Nero, I refer “to the legendary Nero as characterized by the historiographical sources and the poetry of the first and second centuries.”3 Eleven ancient authors mention the fire altogether: Tac. Ann. 15.38–43; Suet. Ner. 21.1, 38; Cass. Dio 62.16–18; Plin. HN 18.5; Pseud. Sen. Ep. ad Paul. 11 (12); Stat. Silv. 2.7.60–61; anon. Oct.831–33; Aur. Vict. Caes. 5; Euseb. Chron. 64; Eutr. Brev. 7.14; Sulp. Sev. Chron. 2.29; Oros. 7.7.4–6. Lucan’s De incendio urbis does not survive. Most scholars are of the opinion that Nero is un-likely to have started the fire deliberately. The argument for Nero’s innocence is most clearly laid out in Bradley’s 1978 commentary on Suetonius. See also (e.g.) Warmington 1969, 123–24; Griffin 1984, 133; Wiedemann 1996, 250–51; Dyson 2010, 164–65; Panella 2011a, 85–86; see also Pollini 2017, 213–14 and n. 1. The outlier is Champlin 2003, 178–209, who asserts Nero’s probable guilt.4 Tacitus’ Annals 15.38–41, the earliest historical account to survive, already shows every sign of having borrowed heavily from a rich supply of previous accounts of disaster, both poetic and historical. See Keitel 2010 and 1984; Woodman 1992, 173–88. Woodman 2012b, 392 suggests both Lucan’s De incendio urbis and Nero’s own Troy composition as possible stylistic models for Tac-itus’ account. For the use of Troy in Roman disaster narratives, see the contributions of Brom-berg, Farrell, and Joseph in this volume.
© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Munich/Boston

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents V
  3. Acknowledgments VII
  4. List of Figures IX
  5. Abbreviations XI
  6. Introduction 1
  7. Part I: Literary Elaborations of the Urbs Capta Motif
  8. Urban Disasters and Other Romes 17
  9. “One city captures us” 33
  10. Pliny’s Telemacheia 49
  11. Part II: The Causes of Urban Disasters
  12. Rome’s Sicilian Disaster 73
  13. Winning Too Well 93
  14. Urbs/Orbis 115
  15. Horace on Moral Clades in Odes 3.6 and the Carmen saeculare 131
  16. Part III: Commemoration of Disasters
  17. The Unmaking of Rome 155
  18. Josephus’ Memory of Jerusalem 181
  19. The Sacks of Rome, 390 BCE–2017 CE 201
  20. Bibliography 235
  21. List of Contributors 261
  22. Index Locorum 263
  23. General Index 273
Readers are also interested in:
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110674736-009

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents V
  3. Acknowledgments VII
  4. List of Figures IX
  5. Abbreviations XI
  6. Introduction 1
  7. Part I: Literary Elaborations of the Urbs Capta Motif
  8. Urban Disasters and Other Romes 17
  9. “One city captures us” 33
  10. Pliny’s Telemacheia 49
  11. Part II: The Causes of Urban Disasters
  12. Rome’s Sicilian Disaster 73
  13. Winning Too Well 93
  14. Urbs/Orbis 115
  15. Horace on Moral Clades in Odes 3.6 and the Carmen saeculare 131
  16. Part III: Commemoration of Disasters
  17. The Unmaking of Rome 155
  18. Josephus’ Memory of Jerusalem 181
  19. The Sacks of Rome, 390 BCE–2017 CE 201
  20. Bibliography 235
  21. List of Contributors 261
  22. Index Locorum 263
  23. General Index 273
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