Extract

Nero (Nero Claudius Caesar), Roman emperor 54–68 ce, was born 15 December 37 of Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus (consul 32 ce) and *Iulia Agrippina.To strengthen his doubtful claim to the throne, stories had been spread of his miraculous childhood (Suet. Ner. 6; Tac. Ann. 11. 11) and stress laid on his descent from the divine *Augustus. In 49 his mother, as *Claudius' new wife, was able to have the younger Seneca (L. *Annaeus Seneca(2)) recalled from exile in order to teach her son rhetoric and to secure his betrothal to Claudius' daughter *Octavia (3); in 50 Lucius Domitius Aheno-barbus was adopted by Claudius, thus becoming Tiberius Claudius Nero Caesar or, as he is sometimes called, Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus. In the next year he assumed the toga virilis at the early age of 13 and was clearly marked out for the accession by being given the same privileges as Augustus' grandsons Gaius and Lucius had received (see iulius caesar (3), c.