CC 302: Introduction to Ancient Rome

October 21: Perspectives on Nero: I

I: Lingua Latina

• Words attributed to some Julio-Claudian emperors

1. Festina lente (a favorite motto of Augustus)
   
2. O homines ad servitutem paratos! (allegedly said by Tiberius about Roman senators)
   
3. Utinam populus Romanus unam cervicem haberet! (supposedly said by Caligula)
   

• From Livy's Ab urbe condita

1. ego me etsi peccato absolvo, supplicio non libero (Lucretia)
   
2. et facere et pati fortia Romanum est (Mucius Scaevola)

• From the Aeneid

1. arma virumque cano
   
2. sunt lacrimae rerum
   
3. timeo Danaos et dona ferentis
   
4. tu... Romane... memento...
   parcere subjectis et debellare superbos
   

• From Horace

1. carpe diem (from Odes 1.11)
   
2. nunc est bibendum (from Odes 1.37)
   
3. dulce et decorum est pro patria mori (from Odes 3.2)
   

• Phrases connected with Nero

1. occidat, dum imperet (from Tacitus)
2. ventrem feri (from Tacitus)
3. Quis negat Aeneae magna de stirpe Neronem?
   sustulit hic matrem, sustulit ille patrem
   (from Suetonius)
4. qualis artifex pereo (from Suetonius)

II. Horace 3.1

III. Nero's reign (54-68): central events and characters

IV. Hollywood's Nero: Quo Vadis (1951)
Rome and the Hollywood Epic

V. Sources for Nero

• Suetonius (born ca. 70), Lives of the Twelve Caesars
• Tacitus (born ca. 56), Annales

VI. Nero, Romans and the Rise of Christianity

VII. Nero, Romans, and popular entertainment

Images to accompany discussion

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