Narcissus (freedman)

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Narcissus († October 54 ) was a freedman at the court of the Roman emperor Claudius . As head of the chancellery ( from epistulis ) he had great political influence.

Narcissus initially enjoyed the trust of Claudius' wife Messalina , with whom he led Claudius in 42 AD to have Gaius Appius Junius Silanus executed. In the same year he was also involved in the suppression of the uprising that Lucius Arruntius Camillus Scribonianus tried against Claudius. Contrary to the tradition for freedmen, Narcissus was also active in military matters: he is said to have given the later Emperor Vespasian command of a legion and tried to change the mind of the mutinous legions of the invading army before the conquest of Britain in 43.

In 48, Narcissus arranged for Claudius to take action against Messalina and her lover, Gaius Silius , for which he received the awards of a quaestor . His relationship with Agrippina , Claudius' new wife, was clouded because he had advised the emperor to choose another wife. Immediately after the death of Claudius and the accession of her son Nero to the throne, she had the very wealthy freedman arrested and executed.

literature

  • Werner Eck : The importance of the Claudian reign for the administrative development of the Roman Empire. In: The administration of the Roman Empire. Volume 2, Reinhardt, Basel 1998, ISBN 3-7245-0962-6 , p. 149 ff.
  • Werner Eck: Narcissus [1]. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 8, Metzler, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-476-01478-9 , column 710 f.
  • Steven H. Rutledge: Imperial Inquisitions. Prosecutors and informants from Tiberius to Domitian . Routledge, London 2001, ISBN 0-415-23700-9 , pp. 246-249 .
  • Matthew Bunson: Encyclopedia of the Roman Empire . Infobase Publishing, 2009, ISBN 9781438110271 , p. 381 ( excerpt (Google) )

Remarks

  1. ↑ There is no clear evidence of the full name form Tiberius Claudius Narcissus , which can occasionally be found . The water pipes (fistulae aquariae) CIL 15, 7500 only call it Narcissi Aug (usti) l (iberti) ab epistulis .
  2. ↑ Tacitus , Annals 11, 29, 1; Suetonius , Claudius 37, 2; Cassius Dio 60, 14.
  3. ^ Cassius Dio 60: 15-16.
  4. ^ Suetonius, Vespasian 4, 1.
  5. ↑ Cassius Dio 60, 19, 3-4.
  6. ↑ Tacitus, Annalen 11, 29-38; Cassius Dio 60, 31.
  7. ↑ Tacitus, Annals 13, 1, 3; Cassius Dio 60, 34.Seneca lets Narcissus in his satire Apocolocyntosis (13) anticipate his dead master in the underworld.
personal data
SURNAME Narcissus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Claudius Narcissus, Tiberius; Narcissus, Tiberius Claudius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Freedman of the Roman Emperor Claudius
DATE OF BIRTH before 42
DATE OF DEATH October 54