Golden Excess

Eric R. Varner, Ph.D. (Yale 1993) is Associate Professor of Art History and Classics, Emory University. He has published extensively on ancient Roman portraits, including Mutilation and Transformation: Damnatio Memoriae and Roman Imperial Portraiture (Brill 2004).

Preface and Acknowledgments

List of Illustrations



1 Introduction: Chasing the Neronian Mystique

 1 Recuperating Multiple “Neros”

 2 Becoming Nero

 3 After Nero



2 Setting the Stage—the Aesthetics of Empire: Claudius, Agrippina, and the Augustan Inheritance

 1 Caligulan Aesthetics? Dynasty, Legitimacy, and Luxury

 2 Nero’s Earliest Images: Type I Portraits on Coins, Gems, and Sculpture

 3 Nero’s Sculpted Representations

 4 Antiquarianism: a Claudian Cultural Program?



3 The Dawn of a Golden Age? Nero, Seneca, and the Quinquennium Neronis

 1 An Ongoing Augustan Axis

 2 Agrippina: Optima Mater and Flaminica Divi Claudi

 3 Nero Imperator

 4 Theomorphic Rhetorics

 5 A New Emperor, a New Apollo

 6 A New Aurea Aetas

 7 The Quinquennium Neronis



4 Neropolis and the Urbs Nova: Nero’s Public Building Program in Rome

 1 Early Building Initiatives

 2 After the Fire: Neropolis and the Urbs Nova



5 Golden Excess Part 1: Nero’s Portraits and the Cult of Luxury

 1 Radical Portrait Strategies: Innovative Iconography and Physiognomy

 2 Learned Luxury Refined

 3 Innovations in Numismatic Imagery

 4 Headgear

 5 Traditional Statuary Formats

 6 Theomorphic Rhetorics Continued

 7 Solar Alignments Continued: Helios-Apollo-Neronianus

 8 Nero’s Women



6 Golden Excess, Part 2: the Residences—to Live Like a Human

 1 Adaptations and Expansions on the Palatine

 2 The Domus Transitoria: Transitive Architecture and Transcendent Decoration

 3 The Oppian Wing of the Domus Aurea: Revolutionary Architecture and Outrageous Opulence

 4 Collecting the Empire: Sculpture and Painting on Display at the Domus Aurea

 5 Topography and History: Exploiting the Oppian

 6 Opulence and Innovation Outside of Rome: the Imperial Villas at Subiaco and Anzio



7 Qualis Artefix: Martyr and Monster

 1 The Final Hours

 2 Rehabilitation under Otho and Vitellius

 3 Repurposing Nero’s Memory and Monuments

 4 Contesting Nero’s Memory in Flavian Rome

 5 Later Encounters with Nero’s Images

 6 The Return of Nero: Nero Redivivus

 7 Negative Constructions of Nero’s Memory in Ancient Authors

 8 Reviving Nero’s Memory on the Contorniates



8 Aftermath: Icon and Antichrist

 1 Establishing an Anti-Christ: Early Christian Assessments

 2 Medieval Nero

 3 Early Modern Nero

 4 The Domus Aurea and the Grotesque

 5 Re-assessing Nero’s Historical Legacy



Bibliography



Museum and Collections Index



General Index