tacitus paragraphs 1-5 summary

paragraph 1

So basically the first death under Nero’s rule was that of Junius Silanus, who was the governor of Asia and killed by Agrippina (Nero’s mum) because she was worried that he was going to gain power instead of Nero following the death of Claudius because Nero was too young to be emperor, and Silanus was older, not a dick and from a good family (he was the great-grandchild of Augustus). Agrippina had Publius Celer and Helius kill Silanus by poisoning him at dinner, and then she got Narcissus (Claudius’ freedman) to kill himself by isolating him(?).

paragraph 2

Burrus (good, austere guy) and Seneca (Nero’s tutor, very scholarly and eloquent) intervened, conflicting with Agrippina, to make sure that Nero wasn’t indulging in indulgences too indulgently. Agrippina was a little bit drunk with power, and Pallas (freedman/secretary of Claudius) was loyal to her, who had a little bit of a hand in Claudius’ fall by encouraging his marriage to his niece (ew). Nero didn’t wasn’t a fan of Pallas. Everyone was very complimentary of Agrippina in public, but the senate gave her body guards and made her a priestess to Claudius, which was… backhanded.

paragraph 3

On the day of Claudius’ funeral Nero gave a eulogy (written by Seneca (obvs)), talked about how brilliant his family, his literary achievements, stuff he did abroad, and then talked about his foresight and wisdom which obviously he didn’t have because he was literally murdered, and so everyone had a little giggle. The speech was really good, because Seneca wrote it, and the old people watching were like ‘usually emperors don’t need their tutors to write their speeches for them’. For example! Caesar was a really good speechmaker, Augustus was a clear speaker, Tiberius was not only a good writer, but also expressed his views powerfully (even in the face of intentional ambiguity), even crazy Caligula could talk. Claudius might have been a bitch, but at least his speeches slapped. Even though Nero wasn’t very good at rhetoric, however, he did carve! He sang, he painted, he rode horses, and sometimes his poetry was not that bad.

paragraph 4

After the funeral was over, Nero went to the senate house and praised the senators for the admirable system of government they ran, since his youth wasn’t poisoned by civil war or family strife (not true). He said he was glad to be emperor, and outlined how he didn’t want to make himself judge, jury and executioner, but was going to make sure that defendants and accusers weren’t jailed together, or let certain people do whatever they wanted. He said that under his reign, the state would not be corruptible, would be kept separate from the palace, and that the senate would to keep its usual duties. He said that all he really intended to do was run the army, and the consuls and public would take their stand before the senate.

paragraph 5

He kind of kept to his word, the senate got to make its own decisions about stuff. The legal system was less corrupt, and less people were sent into gladiator fights. Agrippina was pissy about (something? whatever ‘the latter point’ was) but the senate managed it anyway, although Agrippina did get a curtain in the senate house that she could hide behind and listen in, without anyone knowing she was there. Queen. At one point she was going to step up to the tribunal to advise Nero about something an Armenian deputy was pleading about, but Seneca was had Nero step down to talk to her, rather than causing a scandal in the senate.