Catherine Escobar

Professor Gowing

Classics 401

1 March 2004

Abstract: A Corpse Apart: The Role of the Body in Tacitus

This paper will address the use and abuse of the body in Tacitus. Specifically it will discuss the bodyπs treatment, independent of the person inhabiting it, as a physical manifestation or monument of concept in Tacitusπs Neronian Rome. I will look at bodies after and during assassination with the murders of Agrippina, Rubellius Plautus, Octavia, and Poppaea as well as bodies that are still occupied found in the events around Boudicca and Britannicus.

References to desecrated corpses and battered bodies abound in Tacitusπs account of Neroπs Rome. The body, often in the form of the corpse, appears in the text as an object that can be acted upon separate from its occupant. Though not of course wholly disassociated from it. Instead we have the body representing the individual or, more elaborately, representing some separate concept attached to the individual. Tacitus gives us people separating themselves from their bodies and what they represent through Agrippina bidding soldiers to strike at her womb. A portion of Agrippinaπs body becomes an enemy to herself. She wishes to strike out against it along with the soldiers. He also gives us people attacking bodies for what they represent, Octaviaπs head is presented to Poppaea after her death by smothering. Octaviaπs body remains to be abused for what Octavia herself once signified. The body is treated as a memento of the living person. It is moreover treated as if it too holds a unique threat or offence. Tacitus uses this idea himself when he gives us Poppaeaπs death at Neroπs hands while pregnant with Neroπs heir (ending the hope of more Julio-Claudian emperors) and then follows with the account of her now barren body being unnaturally preserved by embalming. The body continues though Poppaea has become a goddess. So it is that, in Tacitus, bodies are treated as more than just bodies, they treated as testaments of individuals or circumstances.