Domiziano

On 18 September 96 AD Emperor Domitian was stabbed to death in his rooms. What were the reasons for his assassination? Who were the real instigators? What were the causes of the Domitian’s extraordinary posthumous unpopularity? Ulisse Morelli investigates the dark and little-known age of the last Flavian emperor and the ambiguous parenthesis of the reign of Nerva, above all focused on political struggle, not only between Emperor and Senate, but also between the different networks of interests present in the Curia. Flavian power was the result of an alliance between the most influential officers and political personalities who gathered the legacy of the great general Domitius Corbulo and then increased their power due to the patronage of the imperial house. When this alliance broke down under Domitian’s principate – at the same time as several new networks were developing, like that of Trajan and the homines novi, who had entered the Senate with the Flavians – the exclusive appanage of the imperium was put under discussion. The crucial matter was that of imperial succession. Domitian’s unfortunate dynastic policy and his incapacity to ensure a peaceful succession within his family, could have led to a progressive weakening of his power: the radicalization of the last Flavian absolutism could have been the consequence of this situation, rather than the cause of political dissent against him. Trajanic propaganda was then aimed at attributing everything to the tyrannical behaviour of Vespasian’s son. A fascinating reconstruction of the political history of Domitian’s reign through scandals of court, conspiracies, trials of maiestas. In the background, the hidden and cruel war for imperial succession. Written in Italian.