Nero [Paperback]

Edward Champlin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 30, 2005

The Roman emperor Nero is remembered by history as the vain and immoral monster who fiddled while Rome burned. Edward Champlin reinterprets Nero's enormities on their own terms, as the self-conscious performances of an imperial actor with a formidable grasp of Roman history and mythology and a canny sense of his audience.

Nero murdered his younger brother and rival to the throne, probably at his mother's prompting. He then murdered his mother, with whom he may have slept. He killed his pregnant wife in a fit of rage, then castrated and married a young freedman because he resembled her. He mounted the public stage to act a hero driven mad or a woman giving birth, and raced a ten-horse chariot in the Olympic games. He probably instigated the burning of Rome, for which he then ordered the spectacular punishment of Christians, many of whom were burned as human torches to light up his gardens at night. Without seeking to rehabilitate the historical monster, Champlin renders Nero more vividly intelligible by illuminating the motives behind his theatrical gestures, and revealing the artist who thought of himself as a heroic figure.

Nero is a brilliant reconception of a historical account that extends back to Tacitus, Suetonius, and Cassius Dio. The effortless style and artful construction of the book will engage any reader drawn to its intrinsically fascinating subject.

(20031214)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Nero is infamous for his persecution of Christians, for fiddling while Rome burned and for matricide-among other acts of brutality. In a graceful and lively tale of Nero's short reign (A.D. 54-68)-he committed suicide at age 30-Champlin, a professor of classics at Princeton, invites us to reconsider the emperor's ways and work, drawing on the three major histories of the empire, by Suetonius, Tacitus and Dio. Although none of these writers was a contemporary of Nero, Champlin argues that each likely drew on eyewitness sources to paint their portraits of the emperor. Each indicts Nero for the excesses of his reign. However, Champlin persuasively demonstrates that these accounts can be questioned by focusing on Nero's disposition to think of himself as an actor on a stage. Champlin argues that Nero thought of his matricide, the murder of his wife (there is a question still about whether he intended to kill her) and his burning of Rome as elements in what was for him a great drama in which he was the star. He loved to play the roles of Orestes and Oedipus, two ancient matricides, performed pantomime, played the lyre and raced chariots in the Olympic games. He also cast himself as descended from the god Apollo and the hero Hercules. Champlin shows that although the Senate ran Nero off the throne because of their jealousy and fear of his eccentric behavior, the populace loved him and mourned his death. This is a first-rate study and a compelling re-evaluation of an oft-maligned ancient figure who created his own myth out of the fabric of his life. Illus., maps.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

A compelling reevaluation of an oft-maligned ancient figure who created his own myth out of the fabric of his life. (Publishers Weekly 20040625)

Champlin's Nero...is a compelling reminder that historical 'truth' is usually a lot more complex and elusive than we realize and that history is rarely written without bias or hidden motives, conscious or otherwise. You will not love Nero any more after reading Champlin's account of him, but you will have a far keener understanding of him, and his context, than you likely had before.
--Jonathan Yardley (Washington Post Book World 20040902)

Champlin argues that Nero saw himself first and foremost as an artist, a sort of Oscar Wilde figure whose love of theatricality dominated his life...Champlin judges Nero to have been an artist, aesthete, showman and PR man of considerable talent, ingenuity and energy, who understood what the people wanted to see--and this, he concludes, accounts for Nero's remarkable afterlife. Whether one believes that conclusion or not, Champlin's brilliant interpretation of Nero's stage activities strikes me as an important advance in our understanding of what drove that dreadful man.
--Peter Jones (Sunday Telegraph 20041101)

Nero is an excellent read, an atmospheric retelling of the wonders and horrors of its fascinating subject. Champlin piles up contexts and materials to fill out the shorter accounts offered by ancient authors in an attempt to find meaning in Nero's extraordinary actions...It is vivid and exciting. Nero's world appears in a series of brilliant tableaux and the central character entrances as he horrifies.
--Greg Woolf (Times Literary Supplement 20050601)

Champlin has a keen eye for the parallels between Neronian history and the mythic inheritance of Greco-Roman culture...There is much else in the book that is the fruit of careful and astute analysis.
--Mary Beard (London Review of Books 20050601)

Nero is fascinating because he epitomizes the decadence of Rome. This book--a rare combination of scholarship with elegance of expression and wit--explains why. It reveals him as the ultimate performance artist who plundered history and mythology for themes and props with which to give purpose and justification to his aberrant behaviour. His life was pure theatre, played out for his people and for posterity to marvel at.
--Adam Zamoyski (Good Book Guide 20060420)

[Champlin's] Nero is as dazzling an achievement as the Sun King and his creations.
--D. Wardle (Classical Review 20060101)

Not the least of the many fine features of Edward Champlin's brilliant new book on Nero, however, is a refreshing discussion of the lost sources on which extant accounts drew...By far the most enjoyable and rewarding modern work on Nero I know...The book is imaginative, evocative, stylishly written, and a delight to read (and re-read). It is based on impeccable research and a fine sense of Roman topography.
--Keith Bradley (Scholia Reviews )

This book is a tour de force...Champlin weaves a stunningly cohesive picture of a man of unlimited power confined only by the theatrical capacity of his imagination; but among the multiplicity of roles that Nero played, is there no room for contradiction or inconsistency? Nero and Champlin share the same dexterity in persuading their audience of the logic of their vision; their dual act will be very hard for the next biographer of Nero to follow.
--Kathleen Coleman (Journal of Roman Archaeology )

A glittering achievement...Champlin represents Nero as a brilliant interpreter and exploiter of mythological exempla, an ironic Saturnalicus princeps whose inversions of societal norms and power-structures were embedded within an overarching program of populist public imagery that sought constantly to confirm and extend the connection between the emperor and his audience...It is hard to praise Champlin's achievement sufficiently...Anyone interested in the emperor or the early empire must consult this work. It is indispensable.
--Paul Roche (Bryn Mawr Classical Review )

[Champlin's] working method is efficient, his style is vivid, especially in description and narrative...Champlin's book, a real tour de force, will certainly appeal to a large audience.
--Bertrand Goffaux (Classical Bulletin )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (September 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674018222
• ISBN-13: 978-0674018228
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #516,415 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Reevaluation of Nero The Emperor/Entertainer, April 11, 2005

By 

Octavius (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nero (Hardcover)

Edward Champlin's book provides a revolutionary approach to understanding the commonly misperceived Nero, who now is often portrayed as a demented fool who watched Rome burn while reciting the Iliad; who brutally executed Christians for entertainment; and, whose death was celebrated far and wide. Champlin dispels these misconceptions as products of bias and shows that Nero remained a positive mythological hero for over 400 years after his death even to some Christians and, that he was well loved by a great majority of the people: particularly in Greece and Asia Minor.

The book retraces the common sources on Nero as being Suetonius, Tacitus, Plutarch and Dio. Champlin demonstrates how the Latin and Christian sources tend to be severely negative while the Greek ones are either neutral or positive. Champlin then shows how Nero was really a Hellenic phillantropist who freed Greece from taxes and gave it its autonomy. He notes that, after his death, three impostors pretending to be Nero came out of Greece and Asia Minor with significant followings and explains that this could not have happened unless a significant group of people saw Nero as an enlightened folk hero. Champlin reveals also many other biases in Suetonius and Tacitus depicting Nero as tone-deaf and without talent. Champlin shows that other writers commented significantly well on his skills and that the impostors were tested as to their claimed identities by being asked to sing and/or play the lyre. He also demonstrates how members of all classes in Rome willingly participated in both his public and private spectacles and that this wasn't just flattery on their part. More importantly, Champlin shows that Nero was very conscious of his public image and that his public appearances and performances met the collective needs of his audience in being assured of his benevolent rule despite his misdeeds such as incest and matricide. Champlin argues that this well calculated propaganda and interplay with the crowd was the key to Nero's sense of self and power: Nero the artist, entertainer, and idol whose mythological persona wooed the crowds who in turn approved of him as their champion. Champlin thus shows that Nero was hardly a depraved imbecil but a very creative and intelligent self-propagandist.

The book is comprehensive but would be even better if it emphasized certain points more clearly. First, for emperors such as Nero and Caligula it is important to supplement the historical analysis with a psychological one as both were psychotic in one way or another: Caligula being primarily a completely deranged sociopath while Nero demonstrated more an Oedipus complex and abandonment issues. Modern readers fail to appreciate that Nero, who died at 30, was very much a boy trapped in a man's body whose mother was none other than Caligula's sister: an overbearing, overambitious, and incestuous mother who sought to rule for herself through her son. With this in context, the image of Nero the monster becomes more of a sad story of a young man whose youth must have been a traumatizing ordeal: a shy and insecure boy of 16 put on the throne by a sinister and depraved mother. Nero's ascension to the throne and breaking away from his mother required strong approval for something that he achieved without his mother's meddling: he found that approval in the crowds and in the Hellenic world with his obsessive devotion to the arts. Nero wanted to act and play games where he would be loved and approved and his artistic talents were the key to that approval: he soon found that such approval could be manipulated into his own collage of the mythical hero for the collective Roman/Greek psyche. The book should have also clarified that many in the Hellenistic world also loved Nero because he was the promoter of major, mostly Greek, factions and guilds involving the arts that affected a broad spectrum of Roman society: most importantly, all of the 4 chariot factions in Rome had strong ties to Greece and Asia minor and they benefitted immensely from Nero's largesse. Finally, the book should have clarified more on the Christians and their place in society at the time. For most of the world at that time, Christianity was nothing more than an obscure and militant sect that followed the teachings of a Jewish rabble rouser crucified under Tiberius' reign. Christians were also very evangelical and apocalyptic at that time: devoted followers strongly believed that Judgment Day was near and Christ would come back to overthrow The Beast (The number 666 in the Apocalypse spells as 'Nero' in Hebraic numerology.) Such beliefs could only have been perceived by pagan Rome as threat to the State requiring strong and immediate punishment. Thus, the modern view of Nero as an Anti-Christ is rather misleading if put into context: Nero was a pagan and never believed in the Judeo-Christian model of the world, he therefore never chose to assume the role of Satan in the biblical sense as modern Satanists (who ultimately accept the notion of God/Satan/Christ/Heaven/Hell as a theological model) would do for example. In addition, the punishment inflicted on the Christians wasn't exceptionally more cruel than the punishment given to all other criminals at that time. Unfortunately, it is with this false paradigm that Nero has been misunderstood until today as a cruel Anti-Christ out to destroy a peaceful religious institution and the book should emphasize this misconception more clearly.

In any case, this is a fascinating reevaluation of Nero "The Monster/Anti-Christ" as Nero "The Mythical Hero" whose largesse and promotion of the arts made him a well loved emperor by a majority of the populace in the Empire, especially in Greece and Asia Minor. Indeed, his unpopularity was pervasive in the smaller but more powerful social circles of the nobility, army, and the imperial bureaucracy who felt the consequences of a bankrupt treasury much more than the common populace who were the ones who obtained all of the benefits from it. The book dispels the misconception of Nero being a depraved imbecil and shows him to have been a very intelligent and energetic artist/emperor who used his artistic talents to define his public image as a mythical hero. The book is easy to read both for the scholar and the casual reader. I recommend it for anyone who wants an unbiased evaluation of one of Rome's most facinating emperors.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Now Playing: Nero, November 14, 2003

By 

Alvaro Lewis "jwatson5" (Redwood City, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nero (Hardcover)

Champlin has written a delightful book about a troubled Caesar. As the current tends, the author glides much of the discussion of Nero into a course that resembles the sentence: that actor is the emperor whose performances are his politics. Nero's recognition of the real necessity for memorable spectacles as politcally provident does not separate him from other Caesars, however his rare compulsion to be the spectacle in its entirety does. Champlin works hard to identify the tainted strands of Nero's story and succeeds at separating some of the thoroughly tendentious traditions from the popular but less evident cheers for the better buildings and bigger spectacles he sponsored. It was exciting to learn of Nero's afterlife and of all those who expected his return in the fashion of some sort of ur-Elvis.

The book is tastefully written and compelling, particularly in its informative appraisal of the historians whose works mold most of the early modern and modern perceptions of this prince. Until his death, Nero sought to create a world that would correspond to his desires; Rome became his Golden Home and primary stage. Champlin reveals much about Nero and his world. This book overflows the boundary of biography to spread into the fields of performance, politics, popular reception, Roman religion, art and historiography. I heartily recommend it.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The man, the monster, the legend., October 13, 2005

By 

Jon Torodash (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Nero (Hardcover)

Champlin bravely asserts his own contribution to the great wealth of Neronian scholarship for the critics to pick apart. I find very little to quibble about.
It is difficult to write even-handedly about Nero for a Western audience. Who could forget the image of a man who "fiddled while Rome burned" or the terrible tyrant who had begun a nearly 170 year "persecution" of the early Christians, under whose reign both Peter and Paul were executed? As other reviewer comments reveal, you can easily earn the brand of a Nero "apologist" if you don't tow the party line, however inaccurate it might be.

Champlin's thesis can be stated simply as follows: many, if not most of Nero's grandstands and outrageous actions, were performed out of considerable political shrewdness and calculation - not the madness or puerile excess wrongly attributed to a "live fast, die young, and leave a good looking corpse" emperor. Nero's success, Champlin argues in the first chapter, is evinced by a shockingly prolonged "afterlife" manifested in pseudo-Neros, Judeo-Christian apocalyptic writings, and a disenfranchised populace openly lamenting his death. Nonetheless, I cannot help but wonder, (working on the same assumption,) whether he had truly orchestrated his public relations as well as Champlin suggests given his untimely demise at age 30.

Some reviewers disagree, but I reckon Champlin's original Nero-Periander link to be one of the most intriguing ideas in ancient biography I've ever seen. The ambivalent relationship with the mother, the Philhellenism, the artistic bent, and the numerous other links are too compelling to ignore outright, even if the conclusion a hard sell. Further research is warranted, but I suspect that Champlin, with his great intellect and energy, may have already exhausted all of the available evidence for advancing his thesis. He demonstrates the Augustus/Antony connections thoroughly. The discussion of the great fire of 64 is arrestingly well done: after convincingly presenting the defense for Nero's innocence, he suddenly shatters the deception in stating that despite this preceding evidence, Nero undoubtedly held direct responsibility for the coflagration. It hits you with dramatic effect almost equal to one of the primary sources comprising the centerpiece of his proof in this sudden reversal: Tacitus' Annales XV.67.

Champlin's organization is somewhat bothersome as it is in "Final Judgments," because he rejects chronological arrangement for thematic foci. This requires repetition of several facts, and I cannot understand his reasons for the chapter order. The post-mortem legacy of Nero, being most fascinating, he puts up front obviously to hook his reader. It serves as an interesting set piece for further discourse, because the inevitable wonder we feel about Nero's impression on the world ever after demands explanation: thus the rest of the book. But with Dio, Suetonius, and Tacitus unfolding the bulk of their own histories so methodically, the rearrangement isn't always a neat fit. Still, Champlin's brilliant weaving together of hundreds of sources, as before, vindicates his literary decisions several times over.

Champlin, like any other historian, has his hypotheses and directs his evidence toward proving them. His presentation however, is replete with past scholarship and primary sources presented candidly and fairly. One of the most appreciable inclusions is the extensive collection of Latin graffiti, which add a critical dimension to our knowledge. This book has been for me an introduction into full-strength Neronian scholarship and I found it both accessible and empowering enough to read further with confidence.