13: STAGING NERO:PUBLIC IMAGERY AND THE DOMUSAUREA Eugenio La Rocca

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Nero understood that the best outlet for his boundless enthu siasm for the arts was in stagecraft and in the grandiose use of theatrical forms that were congenial to his tastes. The master work of Neronian stagecraft was the emperor’s private imperial house, the DomusAurea,designed as it was to amaze with surprises and sudden changes of vista. Such effects were achieved by introducing into Rome’s heavily populated urban center certain architectural elements that had previously belonged only to rustic and maritime villas, and by fusing those schemes with structures drawn from the world of theatrical production. Paradoxically, then, even Nero’s home represents such a fusing of elements. For the most part, judging from portrait sculptures and coins of the period, as well as from the sparse remains of other kinds of figurative evidence (very little of which can be dated with certainty), the arts of the Neronian age are not characterized by grand innovations, but as novel developments of the traditions established by Nero’s Julio-Claudian ancestors (for the chronological development of the portrait sculptures of Nero into four distinct types, see the Appendix to this volume). In fact, some of the more grandly theatrical aspects of Nero’s personal character might be explained in terms of the larger tastes and trends of the period. In what follows, I will explore the ways in which these received tastes and trends came together in bold new forms during Nero’s reign, in highly theatrical articulations that put Nero on public display as a bearer of light, a rising sun, and the herald of a new golden age. 13.1 A GOLDEN SUN ON THE RISE Following a Greek precedent redeployed by Augustus, the sun was conflated with the god Apollo. The resulting solar Apollo was then 195 EUGENIO LA ROCCA exploited as a symbol of the emperor’scapacitytowieldthereinsofthe empire, and thus to steer the arrival of a new golden age. In literature, the comparison between a newly enthroned Nero and Apollo/Sol appears already in Seneca’s Apocolocyntosis, the small satiric work written shortly after the death of Claudius. But the turn toward a more complete assimila tion of Nero/Sol came about much later. In 63 CE, the twenty-six-year old emperor contracted an important accord with Vologaeses, the king of the Parthians, concerning the fate of Armenia. As a result of the accord, Tiridates (Vologaeses’ brother) agreed to lay the symbols of his kingly rule over Armenia at the feet of an image of Nero and, as if a vassal, to receive them back from the hands of the emperor himself. To confirm the pact, amagnificent spectacle celebrating Armenia’spacification was staged in Rhandeia in Mesopotamia. On one side, squadrons of Armenian cavalry were lined up wearing their tribal uniforms, and on the other side were Roman legions arranged in columns with military insignia and images of the gods. Between them was a raised platform that supported a curule seat, and on the seat was a statue (an effigies, according to Tacitus; not one, but several eikones, according to Dio) of Nero. Tiridates approached the statue(s) and, after the customary victims were sacrificed, he lifted the diadem from his own head and put it at the feet of the image (Ann. 15.29). Though it was not an actual military victory, the political settlement was celebrated as a triumph in Rome. By decree of the Senate, trophies were erected in Rome and a triumphal arch on the Capitoline. The figurative program of the Capitoline arch can be inferred from coins of the period, which show a single arch with columns protruding at the corners of the piles, with a statue of Mars(?) inserted in a niche on one of the short sides and Nero riding a four-horse chariot on top, situated between a winged victory and a female personification with a cornucopia (Fortuna?) (Figure 13.1).1 Remains ostensibly belonging to the arch were found during excavations conducted in the area of today’s Via del Tempio di Giove. Foundations that may correspond to the slab on which the arch was constructed have also been discovered, along with one of the figured plinths that held the protruding columns. On it were represented female figures, some with wings (certainly Victories) and others without (one of which is well known from a drawing attributed to Fra Giocondo). Behind them one can see the porticus Triumphi (Figure 13.2). Numismatic evidence suggests that the sidewalls inside the archweredecoratedwithVictories and trophies. Halfway up were dancers whose classical design dates back to the fifth century BCE. Under Augustus they had been used to represent the 1 OnNero’s arch on the Capitoline, see Kleiner 1985 and La Rocca 1992. 196 STAGING NERO:PUBLIC IMAGERYAND THE DOMUS AUREA 13.1 Nero’s sestertius of 63 CE ca. Detail of reverse with the Arch of Nero. sacred dances before the Palladium, a symbol of Rome’s eternity. Also attributable to the arch is a depiction of prisoners on the ferculum (a triumphal parade float) sitting amid a panoply of arms (Figure 13.3). Unlike the other remains, this fragment was discovered not on the Capitoline, but in the Campus Martius. But the style and iconography make clear that it belongs either to the Arch of Nero, oratleast toa Neronianmonumentdedicatedto mark the celebrations of 63 CE (the base of one of the trophies?). 13.2 THECOLOSSUSOFSOL/NERO, ANDTHESOLAR SPECTACLE OF 66 CE Up to this point, Nero’s “solar” associations are in keeping with tradi tion. But beginning in 63 CE, coins were minted at Rome on which 197 EUGENIO LA ROCCA 13.2 Columnplinth with female figures and Victories, probably from the Arch of Nero on the Capitoline Hill. Rome, Capitoline Museums. Nero appears with a radiate crown on his head, whether as a portrait (Figure 13.4) or in full figure wearing atoga, sometimes accompaniedby his wife (it is unclear whether she is Poppaea Sabina, dead in 65 CE, or Statilia Messalina). The issue of these coins underscores the parallelism between theactivities of Augustus and those of Nero– just as with other coins issued for the same occasion showing a closed Temple of Janus and the Ara Pacis, both of these explicit references to a new and fertile age of peace and prosperity. Already at the beginning of his principate Nero had declared his desire to live up to the policies prescribed by Augustus and to follow in his tracks. But there proved to be one big difference between the two: no emperor in Rome, not even Augustus, had dared to wear a radiate 198 STAGING NERO:PUBLIC IMAGERYAND THE DOMUS AUREA 13.3 Fragment of relief with Parthian warrior, probably from the arch of Nero on the Capitoline Hill. Rome, Museo Nazionale Romano. 13.4 Nero’s dupondius of 63 CE ca. Obverse: Head of Nero (type 4) with corona radiata. 199 EUGENIO LA ROCCA crown. The minting of coins, and perhaps also the raising of statues that featured a radiate image of Nero, must have caused quite a stir in conservative circles. In Rome, where members of the Senate were in theory primi inter pares, emperors wisely chose not to go too far in taking oniconographic formulae that would renderthemgodlike. Such“theo morphism” was left to the realms of literature and incised jewelry, genres well suited to honorific and encomiastic representation. Coins showing a radiate Nero likely raised eyebrows. But their daring seems understated when compared to that of the colossal gilded bronze statue Nero installed in the vestibule of his Domus Aurea.2 The work of Zenodoros, the statue stood between 100 and 120 feet high (between 29.5 and 35.4 meters). It depicted Sol, but it seems to have worn the specific facial features of Nero. The overall design is known from gems (Figure 13.5). Atop the head were seven rays, each one twenty-two feet in length (Notitia Urbis regionum XIV12). It is unknown whether the work was completed while Nero was still alive or in 75 CE during the principate of Vespasian (Dio 66.15.1: at some point, the Colossus was supposed, certainly wrongly, to bear the facial features of Titus). It seems that Hadrian, when he moved the statue toward the Colosseum from its 13.5 Gem.TheColossusinthe Flavianage (from a plaster cast). Berlin, Pergamon Museum. 2 Onthe Colossus of Nero, see Bergmann 1994. The position of Ensoli 2000 entails a significant reassessment of the statue’s size that is, in my opinion, not entirely in keeping with the sources. 200 STAGING NERO:PUBLIC IMAGERYAND THE DOMUS AUREA 13.6 Multiplum of Gordianus III. Reverse: the Colosseum with the Colossus at left and the Meta Sudans at right. original spot in order to make room for the TempleofVenusandRome (as on coins issued in the age of Gordian III, Figure 13.6), may have reworked the statue’s head in order to erase any resemblance to Nero (Hist. Aug., Hadr., 19, 12 s). Commodus subsequently had the statue’s head replaced with a likeness of his own, and by changing the statue’s attributes he transformed it from Sol into Hercules (Dio, 73, 22, 3; Herodian., 1, 15, 9; Hist. Aug., Comm. 17, 9 s). Thestatue’s original version seems to have been ambiguous, in that it could be taken to represent Sol, and not Nero himself. The statue’s dedication suggests their assimilation without flatly asserting it. In like manner, on the reverse side of coins that can be dated to just before the emperor’s trip to Greece, an image appears of a citharode (a singer who accompanies himself on his cithar, a stringed wooden instrument) who resembles Nero, but who, because of his hairstyle, probably represents Apollo himself. And yet even this image poses a further puzzle in that in 67–8 CE, upon his return from his triumphal traverse across the stages and stadia of Greece, statues were dedicated to Nero showing him wearing the clothing of a citharode (Suet. Nero 25.2). Precedents for likening the emperor to Apollo/Sol are known from the age of Augustus.3 In Nero’s case, the symbolic assimilation to Sol may have had a specific motivation in and around the fateful year of 63 CE, a motivation that can be inferred from the grand spectacle that 3 OnNero’s political and cultural references to the age of Augustus, see Picard 1962. 201 EUGENIO LA ROCCA concluded the treaty of peace with the Parthians and Armenians in 66 CE (Dio 63.4).4 Tiridates finally arrived in Rome to receive his royal crown from the hands of Nero himself. The main ceremony, after having once been “postponed because of overcast skies” (propter nubilum distulisset, Suet. Nero 13.1), took place in the forum, where it was arranged for Nero and Tiridates to enter at dawn, just as the sun was rising, so that the day’s first light might illuminate the togas of the Romans who, as in a theater, were arranged by rank and clad in white. The arms of the soldiers who were milling about also gave off a brilliant glare. Wearing triumphal garb, Nero came in from the east, directly in front of the rising sun. He was followed by Tiridates. The emperor then mounted the rostra and sat down on the sella curulis. As Tiridates approached him, Nero’s face and luxuriant garb were struck by the sun as it rose in the sky. Followed by his delegation, the Armenian leader passed throughtwolinesoftroopsthatweredrawnupfacingoneanother. When he reached the rostra, he turned to Nero and said: “Ihavecome before you, who are my god, adoring you as I adore Mithras. And I will accept the lot that you assign to me. You are my fate and my destiny.” Thenthe king, mounting the rostra, took a seat at the foot of Nero’s sella curulis. Nero raised him with his right hand and kissed him. Nero then removed Tiridates’ tiara, the symbol of a king’s authority in the East, and put on his head a diadem, the symbol of a king’s power according to traditions of the West, thus declaring him the king of Armenia. For those who followed the religion of Zoroaster, the sun was the eye of Mithras, and Mithras was associated with, if not identified as, the sun. It is for this reason that Tiridates in his rhetoric likened Nero to the sun. AndthatmusthavebeenhowRomansinterpretedtheceremony as well, especially since the second part of the spectacle took place in the Theater of Pompey, which had beengilded for the occasion. The theater was overhung by an awning of purple on which was depicted a gigantic f igure of Nero as the sun riding his chariot in the sky surrounded by stars resplendent with gold. On this occasion, the emperor’s assimilation to Apollo/Sol was flaunted, much more so than it was on the Colossus. Tobesure, this happened in a theatrical milieu, during a celebration that was ephemeral in its effects. Still, a basic motivation for Nero’s identifica tion withSolmayliewiththeconventionsofMithrasworshipintheEast. The homage Tiridates paid to Nero was itself fully in keeping with Parthian practice, and yet the times were not ready for an assimilation that went beyond the allusive and symbolic, extending to cult. 4 OnNero as Sol, see Bergmann 1998. 202 STAGING NERO:PUBLIC IMAGERYAND THE DOMUS AUREA 13.3 THEFIRE OF 64, ANDNERO’S “GOLDEN HOUSE” In 64 CE, the same year in which Nero celebrated the tenth year of his reign, a disaster took place that would forever change the face of Rome. Fourteen days before the calends of August (the first day of every month in the Romancalendar) on the night between July 18 and 19, a large part of the city’s center was destroyed by fire. The fire started near the Circus Maximus, in the area that touches the Palatine and Caelian Hills. It laid waste to the Palatine itself as it headed toward the Oppian and Esquiline Hills. Two-thirds of the city’s urban space fell prey to the flames. Historical sources disagree on whether blame for the disaster should be pinned on Nero(see John Pollini, Chapter 14 in this volume).5 Certainly if the fire was not caused by him, it granted him one of his wishes, one that he did not keep well hidden: a desire to refashion the center of the city by setting within the urban fabric a new and gigantic imperial house. The ambitious project had an important precedent in the Domus Transitoria, the so-called House of Passage, which Suetonius tells us was part of a plan to enlarge the residences of the Palatine toward the Esquiline Hill so as to include the Gardens of Maecenas and other horti (gardens) that were by that time imperial property (Suet. Nero 31.1). But before 64, Nero had to content himself with the available spaces, which were few in this densely populated part of the city. The sheer bulk of the building activities that were successively pursued on the Palatine from the time of Augustus on makes it difficult to isolate with absolute certainty which works were completed under the direction of Nero. In fact it is Claudius, not Nero, who is to be credited with building the grand peristyle that rests atop the huge covered gallery or cryptoporticus. The peristyle features a fountain-basin that marks the very center of the Domus Tiberiana (n. 4 on Figure 13.7). On the other hand, the so-called Baths of Livia located under the triclinium of the Domus Flavia (n. 5 on Figure 13.7) belong to Nero. The structure’s principal feature is a nymphaeum made to resemble a theater façade, with a stage (pulpitum) and backdrop (scaena). From the central door of the backdrop a waterfall cascaded down a series of steps. From there the water fed a series of small fountains beneath the front of the stage. Opposite the stage was a small shrine (aedicula) held up by ten porphyry columns, with a basin beneath the anterior side. Here the 5 Onthe fire of 64, see Giardina 2007; Dando-Collins 2010; and Panella 2011. 203 EUGENIO LA ROCCA 13.7 PlanoftheGoldenHouse(inorange) superimposed onaplan ofthe valley of the Colosseum and surrounding areas: 1. The main entrance to the Domus Aurea from the ForumRomanum;2.ThehalloftheColossus;3.Thelake;4–5. Claudian or Neronian buildings on the Palatine; 6. The pavilion of the Colle Oppio; 7. The temple of Claudius with gardens on the Caelian Hill; 8. Neronian or Flavian buildings under the northwest corner of the Trajan’s thermae. emperor, likely reclining in a small apse at the base, could delight in his surroundings on hot summer days, as if shaded within a cave that was aglow and shimmering with precious marbles, inlaid with jewels and glass baubles, surrounded by stuccoes and paintings heavy with precious gold. Frescoes of the fourth “Pompeian” style still survive under the surrounding vaults. They feature lacy threads of vegetal motifs, among which are cut panels with Homeric and Dionysiac scenes (Figure 13.9). The whole of it seems attributable to Nero and to his taste for luxury and gold, but good arguments can be made for a Claudian provenance as well.6 The new imperial dwelling had the huge advantage of being drawn up exnovo atop the ruins of preexisting structures, and thus of not having to be laid out according to what was already there (Tac. Ann. 15.38–43, Suet. 6 Guze2008includes a splendid series of late eighteenth-century watercolor etchings by Vincenzo Brenna, Franciszek Smuglewicz, and Marco Gregorio Carloni depicting the frescoes of the Domus Aurea. 204 STAGING NERO:PUBLIC IMAGERYAND THE DOMUS AUREA 13.8 Virtual reconstruction of the Domus Aurea seen from the south (Katalexilux Project 2011): 1. The main entrance to the Domus Aurea from the Forum Romanum; 2. The hall of the Colossus; 3. The lake; 4. Neronian buildings on the Palatine; 5. The pavilion of the Colle Oppio; 6. The temple of Claudius with gardens on the Caelian Hill; 7. Neronian or Flavian buildings under the northwest corner of the Trajan’s thermae. 13.9 Rome,so-called Domus Transitoria on the Palatine Hill. Painted decoration from the vault. 205 EUGENIO LA ROCCA Nero 31). The project, attributed to builders Severus and Celer, was extremely ambitious. Nero wanted to redesign the entire city, which lacked an urban plan to match its political importance. Since the great Gallic fire of 390 BCE,Romehadgrownwithoutanyrealregularplan:the streets were narrow and dark, the buildings lofty and built without the least attentiontotherisksoffire that were endemic. Even Augustus, despite his aggressive efforts in the Campus Martius, did not have the courage to lay a hand on the chaotic jumble of overcrowded tenements at the city’s center, buildings that lacked even the most basic provisions for good hygiene. Instead, he preferred to build in narrowly circumscribed areas. In the aftermath of the Great Fire, Nero wanted to see that the city’s various needs were met, but at the same time he wanted to construct a luxurious home for himself and to transform Rome into a city that matched the grandeur of the great metropolises of the Greek East, all products of unified urban designs. Certainly Nero had in mind the splendors of Augustus’ Campus Martius as well. Already before the f ire Nero had exposed plans to remake the city by building an imposing bath complex. These baths had a Greek-style gymnasium attached on the south side that was built along with the baths in 60 CE, dedicated in 61, then destroyed by a fire the next year when it was struck by lightning. We need not believe that the people of Rome rejected the imperial residence Nero conceived. Sources hostile to Nero would have us accept this, as would Martial, who pounds home the idea of public displeasure by vaunting the munificence of the Flavian emperors who dismantled great sections of Nero’s palace in order to make space for public buildings, and the Flavian Amphitheater (Mart. de Spect. 2). On the contrary, as with all of Nero’s other activities on behalf of the people, the palace would have resembled the Campus Martius in being a space available to all, open for common enjoyment. Weshould imagine the Domus Aurea as a cluster of buildings of different sizes spread out between the Palatine and Esquiline, all within a vast park that had gardens made to resemble the countryside, with vines, agricultural and pastoral zones, lakeside vistas, groves, and forests (Figures 13.7 and 13.8). Nero wanted to create an enormous suburban villa in the heart of Rome: a place for aristocratic leisure (otium), which usually took place in rural environments, but was now situated inside the city itself. The basic logic was similar to that of the kingly palaces (basileiai) of Alexandria and Pergamum, but inflected by a regard for aristocratic Roman traditions of the late Republic. Later Hadrian seems to have overturned Nero’s overly daring idea by conveniently constructing his own palace with its immense park far from Rome. 206 STAGING NERO:PUBLIC IMAGERYAND THE DOMUS AUREA Recent excavations of the Domus Aurea have helped give substance to the descriptions of the structure in ancient sources. The domus had a main street leading up to it, corresponding to a stretch of the Via Sacra that was surrounded by porticoes and multipurpose rooms (n. 1 on Figure 13.8). The enormous vestibule was equivalent in size to the terrace on which the Temple of Venus and Romesits (n. 2on Figure 13.8). In the vestibule stood the famous colossal statue of Sol (see earlier in this chapter) that, because of the statue’s later proximity to the Flavian Amphitheater, gave the Colosseum its name (Figure 13.5). In the valley where the Colosseum now stands there was a large rectangular lake surrounded by porticoes and terraces (n. 3 in Figure 13.8). A grandiose nymphaeum that functioned as a terrace on the Caelian Hill stood just below the Temple of Divine Claudius, which, under Nero, was in the process of being con structed, and later completed by Vespasian (n. 6 of Figure 13.8 and Figure 13.10). On the Oppian Hill stood the building that is usually called the Domus Aurea, but that is actually only one component of a vast complex of buildings that stood above the lake, like one of the great aristocratic villas that overlooked a lake or the waters of the sea (n. 6 of Figure 13.7 and Figure 13.11). 13.10 Virtual reconstruction of the east side of the nymphaeum-substruction of the temple of Divus Claudius on the Caelian Hill. 207 13.11 Plan of the Neronian building on the slopes of the Colle Oppio. STAGING NERO:PUBLIC IMAGERYAND THE DOMUS AUREA 13.12 Pompeii, Casa di Marco Lucrezio Frontone. Fresco painting: landscape with a villa, from the north wall of the tablinum. The pavilion of the Domus Aurea on the Oppian Hill resembles seaside villas such as those that appear in domestic wall paintings of the third andfourthstylesinPompeii(Figure13.12). The Oppian structures became famous for the fourth-style paintings discovered there during the Renaissance, giving impetus to a taste for “the grotesque” (from grotto, the term commonlyusedto definethe subterranean rooms of the building, buried as it was beneath the baths of Trajan). Undoubtedly by the time of the Domus Aurea the potentials intrinsic to the fourth style of painting, already adopted during the reign of Claudius, were in the process of becoming more pronounced. The fourth style replaces the cold and extremely refined geometric partitioning of walls in the third style, which trends toward both a vertical partition (base, main section, upper section) and a horizontal one (panels of mixed sizes, but in perfect propor tion to one another). On these “third-style” surfaces, themselves devoid of spatial depth, were inserted, by way of refined contrast, abstract decorations that give the illusion of thin architectural elements nearly devoid of three dimensionality. In this style, the exquisite decorative elements avoid the illusion of perspective, which is confined exclusively to the figured panels and to the vignettes that are framed centrally between the separate panels.7 It is in reaction to this decorative scheme that a “fourth” style develops that preserves its geometric partition, but trades its two-dimensionality for a plethora of fragile architectural elements that are rendered with a greater plasticity and that cover the base, the upper section, and also the 7 Onthe four painting styles, see further Vout, Chapter 12 in this volume. 209 EUGENIO LA ROCCA spaces between the main panels in the middle section– like little windows opening onto theatrical dreamscapes. Finally, amid this sumptuous prolif eration of decorative motifs, set within the architectural elements, and at the center of monochrome panels, are figures rendered in motion. In the Age of Nero, particularly in the Domus Aurea, this fourth style evolved toward a more expansive “theatricality” of its forms. The walls come to resemble actual theater stages set atop very high bases with backdrops several levels high. Inserted into the architectural partitions are figures resembling stage actors: mythological characters recite from stages and from among columns, or at times they stand on balconies or floors amid the grandiose flights of “flimsy” architectural fancy. Likewise in the Pavilion on the Oppian Hill are pictorial decora tions in the soffits that produce extraordinary effects: a play of fake curtains, finely woven, and of ribbons and lace decorated with floral andfaunal designs. These are spaced out with geometrical precision so as to leave regular spaces in the center and at the sides for panels painted with figurative designs (Figure 13.13). The fantastical elements of this decorative system are exceptional, but even here the “newness” onesees in the Neronian design is limited: as I proposed previously, the soffit paintings discovered in the “Baths of Livia” should be connected to building completed under Claudius. There is nothing particularly new in the “fourth style” decorative schemes of the Domus Aurea described earlier in relation to the artistic conventions of the Age of Claudius. There is perhaps an updating/ revision– but even here one would need a more certain chronology of the available evidence– in the use of a pictorial technique that, in modern terms, we might define as “impressionistic” and “blotted” (a macchia). As in an impressionistic painting, the effect is “optical” in the sense that the whole is best perceived not from close up, but from a certain distance, because only at that distance does the desired contrast of colors and of shadows and light come together into a coherent whole. Thedifference fromthe third style, whichwas morepreciseinits details, is obvious. The rapid-stroke a macchia technique dominates in the rusticizing landscapes of the Domus Aurea to the extent that it might be attributed to Famulus (or Fabullus), one of the few Roman painters actually named by ancient sources.8 Always dressed in a toga, Famulus painted only a few hours per day. Pliny refers to the Domus Aurea as the “prison-house of his art” (carcer eius artis, Plin. HN 35.120), apparently because the vast size of the project prevented Famulus from working 8 Onthe painter Fabullus (or Famulus), see Dacos 1968; Meyboom 1984 and 1995. 210 STAGING NERO:PUBLIC IMAGERYAND THE DOMUS AUREA 13.13 Rome, Neronian building on the slopes of the Colle Oppio. Vault fresco painting, from room 119. anywhere else. According to Pliny, his style of painting was dignified and severe and, at the same time, florid and watery. Pliny’s contrast betweenalimited set of colors and a full palette of colors offers little help in understanding Famulus’ style, but one might suppose that, despite his use of many colors, these colors were of complementary tones, or that they were harmoniously fused in such a way that the overall effect was not brightly splashed with color. Perhaps, as happened with the late 211 EUGENIO LA ROCCA paintings of Titian, an impressionistic technique, dictated less by the rapidity of the work’s execution than by the possibilities intrinsic to the process, along with its own methods of mixing and combining colors, came to be used in the service of a new artistic vision. Outside Rome, stylistic influences (whether in painting, architec tural design, or statuary) that are specifically attributable to Nero are severely limited, but provide further evidence of Nero’s interest in sustaining the figurative programs of the Augustan age to the very end of his reign. To conclude, the knowledge gained from the archaeolo gical discoveries of the past twenty years, primarily in Rome, and much less so in other parts of the Empire, have vastly improved our under standing of Nero’s political activities as a builder. It is by now obvious why the emperor could say with a certain air of impudence that he was (with the construction of his Domus Aurea) “at last beginning to be housed like a human being.” A human being, one should add, who wanted to seem abit too godlike, and whopaid atragic price for his lack of moderation.

Notes

Introduction

Nero expressed his enthusiasm for the arts through stagecraft and grand theatrical forms.

The Domus Aurea

  • Designed to amaze with surprising architectural elements.

  • Fused rustic villas and theatrical production structures.

  • Not characterized by grand innovations but rather developed from Julio-Claudian traditions.

The Symbolism of Sun and Apollo

  • Nero's associations with the sun and Apollo formed a key political imagery.

  • In literature, a comparison between Nero and Apollo/Sol was noted in Seneca’s Apocolocyntosis.

  • In 63 CE, a significant accord with Vologaeses, king of the Parthians, enhanced these associations.

    • Tiridates agreed to lay symbols of kingly rule at Nero's feet, receiving them back as a vassal.

    • A spectacle staged in Rhandeia confirmed this political settlement as a triumph.

The Capitoline Arch

  • Trophies erected in Rome and a triumphal arch were decreed by the Senate.

    • Figurative programs inferred from coins of the period show glory connected to militaristic insignia.

    • Members of the arch included allegorical female figures and imagery of Nero.

The Colossus of Sol/Nero

  • Coins minted post-63 CE depict Nero with a radiate crown, paralleling Augustus's imagery.

  • The colossal gilded bronze statue of Nero in his Domus Aurea was between 100-120 feet high.

    • Created by Zenodoros, possibly representing Sol with Nero's features.

  • The statue played a significant role in public display, causing stir among conservative circles.

Cultural and Artistic Influence

  • The Domus Aurea is distinguished by its luxurious design and grandiosity, reflecting Nero's character.

  • Neronian fourth style evolved toward theatricality, resembling grand theater stages within its decoration.

  • Paintings by Famulus embody an impressionistic technique that characterized the artwork of this era.

Nero's Urban Vision

  • After the Fire of 64 CE, Nero aimed to redesign Rome to match his imperial ideologies.

  • He wished for a city with an urban plan and luxurious accommodations for imperial leisure.

  • Ideas similar to Alexandria’s and Pergamum's palaces influenced his vision.

Conclusion

Nero’s ambitious design of the Domus Aurea aimed to encapsulate both luxury and public availability, challenging traditional Roman urban design, but his association with divinity and extravagance brought societal challenges.