Factional politics of the Neronian Principate

Most writers, both ancient and modern, on the Roman world following the downfall of the Republic and the rise of Augustus have centered their narratives on the person of the emperor, with emphasis primarily placed on dynastic intrigue and the larger-than-life figures that made up the imperial court. This approach, although useful, has the effect of sidelining other potential loci of power within the Roman world. In order to bring these independent political actors back to the forefront, my thesis rejects these traditional approaches and instead applies political science and sociological theories to prosopographic analysis and case studies from the works of Tacitus, Cassius Dio, Suetonius, and Plutarch, among others. I begin this thesis with a brief section outlining Roman perceptions of historical philosophy within ancient historiography, the imperial governmental apparatus, and Jeffrey A. Winters’ oligarchic theory of wealth defense and Richard Alston’s depiction of the Late Republic through the competition of patrimonial networks to the political history of the Neronian Principate. The center of the thesis is divided into two overarching sections: the first one, the product of an extensive prosopographic analysis of political figures mentioned in the historiographic tradition during the reign of Nero, centers on the court factions in the city of Rome; the second is split between a pair of case studies discussing the political participation of Roman soldiers and a second prosopographic analysis, this one on provincial figures of the Batavian Revolt. These analyses combine to shed light on a complex web of political factions, each seeking their own personal interests, that defined the Roman political sphere during the first century CE.M.A.Includes bibliographical reference