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Page 42
This accusation of poisoning, therefore, seems to be of precisely the
same sort as, and not a whit more serious than, all those other similar
accusations which were brought against the members of the Augustan
family. Claudius, who was already sixty-four, in all probability died
a sudden but natural death, and from the point of view of the interests
of the house of Augustus, which Agrippina had strongly at heart, he
died much too soon. It was a dangerous and difficult matter to ask the
Roman senate to appoint one of these striplings commander of the armies
and emperor, even though they were the only survivors of the race of
Augustus. So true is this that Tacitus tells us that Agrippina kept
the death of Claudius secret for many hours and pretended that the
physicians were still struggling to save him, when in reality he was
already dead, _dum res firmando Neronis imperio componuntur_ (while
matters were being arranged to assure the empire to Nero).
Consequently, if everything had to be hurried through in confusion at
the last moment, it is plain that Agrippina herself must have been
taken by surprise by the illness and death of Claudius. She therefore
cannot be held responsible for having caused it.
It is not, however, difficult to reconstruct the course of events. On
the nights of the twelfth and thirteenth of October, soon after
Claudius had been suddenly stricken down by his violent malady, the
doctors announced to Agrippina that the emperor was lost. Agrippina
immediately understood that since the family of Augustus could at that
moment present no full-grown man as candidate for the imperial office,
there was grave danger that the senate might refuse to confer the
supreme power either upon Nero or Britannicus. The only means of
avoiding this danger was to bring pressure to bear upon the senate
through the pretorian cohorts, which were as friendly to the family of
Augustus as the senate was hostile. She must present one of the two
youths to the guards and have him acclaimed not head of the empire, but
head of the armies. The senate would thereby be constrained to
proclaim him head of the empire, as they had done in the case of
Claudius.
But which one of the two youths was it best to choose, Claudius's son
by blood or his son by adoption? Nero was chosen as the result of the
unrighteous ambition of Agrippina, so Tacitus says. It is very
probable that Agrippina was more eager to see her own son at the head
of the empire than to see Britannicus there; but this does not seem to
have been the real reason of her choice, for it could not have been
otherwise, even if Agrippina had detested Nero and had cherished
Britannicus with a maternal affection. Nero was four years older than
Britannicus, and therefore he had to be given the preference over the
latter. It was a very bold move to propose that the senate make a
youth of seventeen emperor; it would have been nothing less than folly
to ask that they accept a thirteen-year-old lad as commander-in-chief
of the imperial armies of Rome.
Through the help of Seneca and Burrhus, the plan developed by Agrippina
was carried out with rapidity and success. On the thirteenth of
October, after matters had been arranged with the troops, the doors of
the imperial palace were thrown open at noon; Nero, accompanied by
Burrhus, advanced to the cohort which was on guard. He was received
with joyous welcome, placed in a litter, borne to the quarters of the
pretorians, and acclaimed head of the army. The senate grudgingly
confirmed his election. There resulted in Rome a most extraordinary
situation: a youth of seventeen, educated in the antique manner, and,
though already married, still entirely under the tutelage of a strict
mother, had been elevated to the highest position in the immense
empire. He was ignorant of the luxury, pleasure, and elegance which
were becoming general in the great families; outside of a lively
disposition and docility toward his mother, he had up to this point
shown no special quality, and no particular vice. Only one peculiarity
had been noticed in him: he had studied with great zest music,
painting, sculpture, and poetry, and had made himself proficient in
these arts, which were considered frivolous and useless for a Roman
noble. On the contrary, he had neglected oratory, which was held a
necessary art by an aristocracy like the Roman, whose duty it was to
use speech at councils, in the tribunals, and in the senate, just as it
used the sword on the fields of battle. But the majority believed that
this was merely a passing caprice of youth.
[Illustration: Statue of Agrippina the Younger, in the Capitoline
Museum, Rome.]
Agrippina, then, with the assistance of Seneca and Burrhus, had kept
the highest office in the state in the family of Augustus, and she had
done so by a bold move which had not been without its dangers. She was
too intelligent not to foresee that a seventeen-year-old emperor could
have no authority, and that his position would expose him to all sorts
of envy and intrigue, and to open as well as secret opposition. She
succeeded in mitigating this evil and in parrying this danger by
another very happy suggestion--the virtually complete restoration of
the old republican constitution. After the funeral of Claudius, Nero
introduced himself to the senate, and in a polished and modest
discourse, seemingly intended to excuse his youth, he declared that of
all the powers exercised by his predecessors he wished to keep only the
command of the armies. All other civil, judicial, and administrative
functions he turned over to the senate, as in the times of the republic.
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