Nero Caesar Augustus was ‘a New Augustus’
by Damien F. Mackey “ Augustan ideas, designed to reinforce power, ambition and links with the divine and the mythological history of Rome were adopted by Nero who further attempted to embed his character within Roman history and thereby emulate Augustus” . Paul D. Found Introduction As I have pointed out in not a few articles, now, I can become suspicious when some historical character is referred to as being ‘a [the] new’, or ‘second’, someone, or other. For instance, we have new David’s, new Solomon’s, new Jezebel’s, second Judith’s, and so on. Or even someone supposedly much emulating ‘another’. While sometimes this is simply a case of a later historical entity being very much like, in various ways, one who has gone before, it can also mean that a duplication has occurred, that history is actually repeating itself, rather than merely rhyming. A colleague’s suggestion to me years a...
