Читать книгу Letters from a Stoic - Donald Robertson - Страница 16

A year into Nero's reign, the question of his claim to the throne came to a head. His step-brother, Britannicus, was about to turn fifteen, making him an adult under Roman law. Whereas Nero had merely been adopted by Claudius, Britannicus was his flesh and blood, and therefore had a strong claim to the throne. However, Locusta the poisoner was now in Nero's service. ‘All of a sudden, unsurprisingly, Britannicus dropped dead', as Emily Wilson puts it. Thus began Nero's spiralling descent into paranoia and tyranny.

The murder of Britannicus caused public outrage, in part because he was still only a child. Seneca responded by composing and publishing another open letter, this time addressed to the emperor, and titled On Clemency. In it he encourages Nero to show forgiveness and mercy towards his opponents. Seneca also used it as an opportunity to praise his former student as a paragon of virtue and a philosopher-king in the making. More importantly, perhaps, he also used it to publicly assert Nero's innocence of any killing:

You, Caesar, have granted us the boon of keeping our state free from bloodshed, and that of which you boast, that you have not caused one single drop of blood to flow in any part of the world, is all the more magnanimous and marvellous because no one ever had the power of the sword placed in his hands at an earlier age. (On Clemency, 11)

Although Seneca does not mention the death of Britannicus, the timing makes it obvious that he was seeking to acquit Nero in the court of public opinion. The slyness with which Seneca here claims that Nero, who retained a poisoner, had never spilled a drop of blood, is very typical of his writings – it's technically true but obviously intended to mislead.

Many readers of the letter found it hard to believe that Seneca could have had the gall to shamelessly praise and exonerate Nero in the aftermath of his younger brother's murder. However, as Wilson suggests, ‘the evidence that Seneca did indeed compose this work right after the death of Britannicus is incontrovertible. Some hope to excuse Seneca's comments by claiming that they can perhaps be read in a more nuanced way. Perhaps Seneca's letter's should be seen as part of the genre known as mirrors of princes', seeking to convey not Nero's true reflection but the potential within him for virtue. However, Seneca's letter would have been widely circulated, and we must assume that many Romans would have taken them at face value. Seneca does not only say that Nero has the potential for wisdom and virtue, ‘a great mind and great gentleness’, but that he already possesses these gifts. Moreover, Seneca's claim that not even ‘one single drop of blood’ had ever been spilled at Nero's behest, probably came across to some as a twisted joke. Yet it may be that, in private, Seneca was troubled by the death of Britannicus. After all, the brutal murder of children is a theme that recurs in his plays, most notably Thyestes.