Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus (father of Nero)
Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus | |
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consul AD 32 | |
Antonia Major |
Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus (c. 2 BC – January AD 41) was a member of the imperial
Biography
Early life
Domitius' birthdate is uncertain; some interpretations are that he was born around 17 BC
Career
Describing him as "a man loathsome in every respect",
Domitius cheated on bankers for purchases he made. When he was praetor, Domitius would swindle the prize money of victorious charioteers. Managers would complain, but Domitius decreed that future prizes would be paid on the spot. Domitius was also considered a serious womanizer. The emperor Tiberius charged him with treason, adultery and incest with his sister and also with adultery with another noblewoman, but the ascension of Caligula saved him.
Domitius married his first cousin once removed Agrippina the Younger, Caligula's sister, after her thirteenth birthday in AD 28.[8] He was far older than her at the time. Tiberius arranged and ordered the marriage, which was celebrated in Rome. Domitius was wealthy, but apparently he and Agrippina chose to live between Antium and Rome.
Domitius was consul in AD 32 and appointed by Tiberius as a commissioner in early AD 37. His son Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, later emperor Nero, was born on 15 December AD 37 in Antium. According to Suetonius, when Domitius was congratulated by his friends for the birth of his son he replied that any child born to him and Agrippina would have a detestable nature and become a public danger, a fact that became true during the second part of Nero's reign. When Nero castrated a boy named Sporus and married him as a wife, Suetonius quoted one Roman who lived around this time who remarked that the world would have been better off if Nero's father had married someone more like the castrated boy.[9]
He died of edema at Pyrgi (an ancient Etruscan city) in January AD 41. In Domitius' will, Nero inherited one third of his estate, but Caligula, who was also mentioned in the will, took Nero's inheritance for himself. When Claudius became emperor, Nero's inheritance was restored.[10][11][12][13]
Legacy
During his lifetime, Domitius did not enjoy a good reputation. He was accused of being the accomplice of
His
See also
References
- ^ a b Smith, William (1867), "Ahenobarbus (10), Gnaeus Ahenobarbus", in Smith, William (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. 1, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, p. 86.
- ^ Roman Women: The Women who influenced the History of Rome: "In AD 28, on her thirteenth birthday, she was married off by Tiberius to her second cousin, the consul Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus (b. 17 BC)."
- ISBN 9780198147312.
- ^ Seutonius, "Lives of the Caesars", Nero 5, Oxford 2000.
- ^ Suetonius, Nero 5
- ^ R. Syme, The Augustan Aristocracy, Oxford, 1989, s. 155—156.
- ^ Gaius Stern, "Nero's Father, the Ara Pacis, and the Ravenna Relief," CAAS 2015.
- ^ Tac. Ann. 4.75.
- ^ Ancient History Sourcebook: Suetonius: De Vita Caesarum--Nero, c. 110 C.E.
- ^ Suetonius, Nero 5, 6.
- ^ Tacitus, Annales iv. 75, vi. 1, 47, xii. 64.
- Marcus Velleius Paterculusii. 72.
- ^ Cassius Dio, lviii. 17.