Seneca and Burrus in Nero's reign

When he became emperor, Nero was only 17.  Some writers, therefore, speak of the early years of his reign as a ‘regency’, in which the young emperor was guided by Agrippina, Seneca and Burrus.

Different writers have different interpretations of the relationship between the three.

 

The Primary Record

The traditional interpretation is that Agrippina dominated Nero at first but that, after a power struggle, she was replaced as Nero’s favoured advisers by Seneca and Burrus.

This is the interpretation offered by Tacitus (especially in Book 13.2), and Dio (61.3-4) says much the same thing without the hyperbole: 

At first Agrippina managed for him all the business of the empire… When this had been going on for a considerable time, it aroused the displeasure of Seneca and Burrus, who were at once the most sensible and the most influential of the men at Nero's court ... and they put a stop to it [by preventing Agrippina mounting the Tribunal at an embassy of the Armenians.] When they had accomplished this, they took the rule entirely into their own hands and administered affairs in the very best and fairest manner they could, with the result that they won the approval of everybody alike.  As for Nero, he was not fond of business in any case, and was glad to live in idleness.

Modern Interpretations

Modern historians have offered other, slightly different interpretations. Dana Gioia (1995) speaks of ‘an uneasy coalition’ between the three, where Robert A Kaster (2010) ignores Agrippina as ever having had any influence on policy at all.

Most writers speak of Seneca and Burrus exercising ‘tremendous influence’ – ‘considerable power’. The first five ‘good’ years of Nero’s reign are associated with them, and called the ‘Quinquennium Neronis’. Only Vasily Rudich (1993), in his study of political dissidence under Nero, points out that – for all their supposed power – they failed to undertake any government reforms.

Seeing as Seneca was a senator, you will read some historians who suggest that he was behind Nero’s offer to rule more in concert with the Senate – he certainly wrote the speech which so thrilled the Senate at the start of Nero’s reign. However, you need also to know that, in c.ad54-55, Seneca wrote De Clementia, a handbook of advice for the young ruler, in which he accepted the abolsute power of the emperor, and only advised that he rule mercifully:

‘While a Caesar needs power, the state also needs a head’.

Everybody agrees that Seneca and Burrus gradually lost power, though they postulate different dates when that process started.  Dio dated it from the murder of Britannicus in ad55.  Dana Gioia put it in ad56, when Seneca found himself having to yield to Nero’s wild excesses.  Most historians would date the beginning of the end in ad59, when Seneca and Burrus proved so useless in the murder of Agrippina.  Robert Kaster puts it after the death of Burrus in ad62.

Christina Moose (1998) has the interesting observation that, as Seneca and Burrus lost their control over Nero they found themselves increasingly morally compromised as they became involved in his 'despicable' actions.

So, there are five questions to consider about Seneca and Burrus:
1.  Who held power in the early years of Nero’s reign?
2.  What were relations like between Agrippina and Seneca & Burrus?
3.  How much power over the government did Seneca and Burrus have?
4.  Were they ‘good rulers’?
5.  When did their influence begin to wane?