Epaphroditos (freed Nero)

Fragment of the large epitaph for the imperial freedman Epaphroditus from the 1st century ( AE 1914, 279 )

Epaphroditos ( Greek : Ἐπαφρόδιτος) or Tiberius Claudius Epaphroditus was probably of Greek origin and lived in the 1st century. He was probably already a freedman ( libertus ) of the emperor Claudius and served his successor Nero from around AD 62 as head of the a libellis office . Epaphroditus, thus himself a former unfree, had acquired the philosopher Epictetus , who came from Asia Minor and later became known, as a slave in Rome .

In 65, Epaphroditus learned from Milichus, a freedman of Senator Flavius ​​Scaevinus, of a planned conspiracy against Nero. The successful thwarting of the planned assassination attempt on Nero helped Epaphroditus to great fortune and extraordinary honors. Thus he received the dona militaria outside of any norm , without ever having held a military command or office and without having belonged to either the senatorial or the knightly class. This hitherto unprecedented novelty of an inappropriate honor, despite Nero's declaration as an enemy of the people ( hostis publicus ), Epaphroditus later had it put on his grave inscription.

Towards the end of the 1st century, around the year 95, Emperor Domitian ordered the exile ( deportatio ) of the freedmen. A short time later he was killed on his orders. The reason for the action against Epaphroditus was his participation in Nero's escape or the failure of the princeps to prevent his suicide.

literature

• Werner Eck : Nero's freed Epaphroditus and the uncovering of the Pisonian conspiracy , in Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, Vol. 25, H. 3 , ed. Franz Steiner Verlag 1976, pp. 381-384
• Rudolf Hanslik : Epaphroditos 2. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 2, Stuttgart 1967, Col. 283.

Remarks

1. ^ Suetonius , Nero 49, 3
2. ↑ Tacitus , Annalen , 15, 55, 1
3. ^ AE 1914, 279
4. ^ Cassius Dio , Roman History, 63, 27, 3
5. ^ Cassius Dio, Roman History, 63, 29, 2