CSP 4 Nero: Roman Literature and Culture in a Time of Madness

The Roman emperor Nero reigned from 54 to 68 CE. According to ancient accounts, he was a madman. He murdered his own mother, assassinated opponents, burned down sections of the city of Rome, and executed Christians. He was also a poet and a singer, performing to packed theaters. Most people, unaware of his dark side, loved him for his extravagant and popular style. But those closer to him feared and hated him. A group of them conspired to assassinate him, including the philosopher Seneca, and the poet Lucan, who was a friend of Nero's from youth. We shall read works by these and other authors in order to try to see Nero and Neronian culture through the eyes of ancient historians, such as the senator Tacitus and the Jewish general Josephus, biographers, such as Suetonius, philosophers and tragic playwrights, such as Seneca, satirists, such as Persius, and comic novelists, such as Petronius.These ancient works will open up a variety of questions relevant to us now,such as: What is the role of the arts in a time of tyranny? How do contemporary concerns color the work of historians writing both during and decades after the period they are describing? How should philosophers and other "intellectuals" respond to a tyrant?