Nero prediction

The Nero Prediction is a 2005 historical novel by Humphry Knipe that portrays the musical emperor as an artistic visionary rather than a sadistic lunatic.

Plot

The setting is an age where astrology exceeds every religion in power and influence. The narrator is Epaphroditus, an Egyptian library slave who is brought to Rome by Agrippina, Nero’s ambitious mother, because she believes his horoscope predicts that he is destined to help her make Nero emperor. Epaphroditus, who becomes the power behind Nero’s throne, helps him launch his musical career and foils several conspiracies plotted by Nero’s senatorial rivals. The last of these centers around the prophecy that Nero will die at dawn on June 11, 68 A.D. Ironically, events compel Epaphroditus to fulfill the prediction himself.

Principal Characters

*Epaphroditus (historical): The narrator. He becomes Nero’s closest advisor.
*Gaius Ofonius Tigellinus (historical): Ex-lover of Agrippina, later Prefect of Nero’s Praetorian Guard.
*Julia Agrippina (historical): Nero’s mother, wife of Claudius, later styled Augusta.
*Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus (historical): Later adopted by Claudius as Nero Claudius Caesar.
*Claudius (historical): Roman emperor who married Agrippina and adopted Nero.
*Poppaea Sabina (historical): Nero’s mistress and second wife.
*Tiberius Claudius Balbillus (historical): Astrologer to both Claudius and Nero.
*Ptolemy Seleucus (historical): Astrologer to Poppaea.

Major Themes

The novel attempts to demonstrate how a belief system like astrology can become a major historical force. Some astrologically inspired events dramatized in the story are:

Nero’s acclamation: Tacitus (Annals 12:66) says that after the emperor Claudius’s death, Nero’s mother Agrippina “waited for the propitious moment forecast by the astrologers” before having Nero announced as his successor “at midday on October 13”.

Nero’s death: Knipe draws attention to two 2nd century astrological charts by Vettius Valens of an unnamed person (speculation about an emperor’s death was a capital offence) who was born at the same time as Nero but who died on July 11, two days later than generally believed. This is also the death date for Nero arrived at by Cassius Dio (66:17) who digresses to correct the historical record. This prediction might have become a self-fulfilling when it was leaked, Knipe believes, because it would have sapped Nero’s self-confidence, dismayed his supporters and emboldened his enemies. The novel also attempts to make a hero out of one of history’s favorite villains. Knipe portrays Nero as a brilliant musician and entertainer doomed to be the military dictator of a superpower whose ruling classes believed that it was shameful for emperors to perform in public. Knipe is eclectic in his choice of ancient sources to support this controversial claim. • Tacitus, who is relentlessly hostile to Nero, reports (Histories 2.8) that one of the many Pseudo-Neros who sprang up after Nero’s death was a skillful kithara player and singer which, “when added to a facial resemblance, made the imposture all the more plausible.” Knipe argues that if Nero had not been a skillful performer it would not have been necessary for his imposter to be one.• Suetonius (Vitellius 11) reports that after Nero’s death the emperor Vitellius “called for something from ‘the Master’s Book’ as an encore. When the flutist obliged with one of these compositions, Vitellius jumped up delightedly and led the applause.”

The Great Fire of Rome 64 A.D.

Nero is notorious for having “fiddled” while he burnt Rome and to have falsely accused the Christians for starting or stoking the conflagration. Knipe takes the opposite view. He points out that July 19, the night the fire broke out, was the anniversary of Rome’s sack and burning by the Gauls in the 4th century B.C., a day which was afterwards mourned as Rome’s most ill-omened day. Dawn of July 19 was also the first day of the Egyptian New Year when Sirius was first visible rising before the sun – a day signifying new beginnings in the Near East where Christianity originated. Apocalyptic literature of the period frequently mentions fire as a cleansing force (for example Revelation 17:16). Knipe dramatizes the case that apocalyptic Christians, not Nero, were guilty as charged.