Latest / Nero: Mad Tyrant or Misunderstood Emperor? — Fexingo History / Nero's Persian Dream: The Unfinished Eastern Campaign
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've spent a lot of time with Nero's Rome, his building projects, his conspiracies, his money. But there's one part of his reign we haven't touched, and it's one of the strangest what-ifs in imperial history: his plan to invade the Caucasus and open the Caspian Gates. Luna: The Caspian Gates? I've heard that name, but I always thought it was just a mountain pass somewhere. Lucas: It was, but not just any pass. In antiquity, the Caspian Gates referred to a narrow defile through the Elburz mountains, southeast of the Caspian Sea, on the route between Media and Parthia. Some sources also used the name for passes in the Caucasus. Either way, it was the choke point between the Roman world and the peoples of the steppe. Lucas: And Nero, according to Suetonius, had a plan to send a legion to that region, ostensibly to open the gates and secure the route. Pliny the Elder says the same, that Nero was preparing an expedition to the Caspian Gates. But it wasn't just a survey mission. This was a full-scale military project. Luna: Wait, so he actually wanted to conquer the Caucasus? Lucas: That's the implication. Suetonius lists it among the projects Nero contemplated, along with a canal through the Isthmus of Corinth and a campaign against the Ethiopians. He says Nero summoned a legion from Germania, the Italica, but that's not quite right, because the legion that was actually moved was the XV Apollinaris, which was sent from Pannonia to the East in 62 or 63, under Corbulo's command. Lucas: So by the mid-60s, Nero had built up a massive military presence in the East. He had the XV Apollinaris, the XII Fulminata, the III Gallica, the V Macedonica, the X Fretensis, the IV Scythica, all under Corbulo, and then later under Mucianus. That's a lot of legions, far more than needed to defend the frontier. Luna: So they were gathering for an offensive. Lucas: Exactly. And the target was the Parthian vassal kingdoms in the Caucasus, specifically Iberia and Albania, and beyond that, the people they called the Sarmatians and the Alans. Nero wanted to secure the passes, maybe even establish a Roman protectorate over the whole region. Lucas: But here's the twist. The plan never went beyond the preparatory stage. Nero died in June 68, and the legions in the East were left in limbo. Then, in the chaos of the Year of the Four Emperors, those same legions became the instrument of Vespasian's rise. So the Caspian campaign was not just a footnote, it's a hinge. Luna: That's a wild connection. So the army he was building to invade the Caucasus ended up making his successor emperor? Lucas: Precisely. When Nero's generals in the East, Mucianus and Vespasian, decided to challenge Vitellius in 69, they had at their disposal the very legions that had been massed for the eastern campaign. Vespasian didn't create that army, he inherited it. Nero's ambition, in a way, handed him the throne. Lucas: And there's an even deeper irony. The Armenian historian Movses Khorenatsi, writing centuries later, preserves a tradition that Nero actually did send an expedition to the Caucasus, and that he had some kind of contact with the kings of Iberia and Albania. It's a legendary account, but it might echo a real, if abortive, Roman push. Luna: So there's evidence beyond the Roman sources? Lucas: There is, though it's late and tangled. But it's striking that the tradition survived. And there's also the archaeological hint: inscriptions from the reign of Vespasian show that he ordered fortifications built in the Caucasus region, in Iberia and Albania, as if completing a project Nero had started. Vespasian, the man who ended Nero's dynasty, finished his eastern wall. Luna: So Nero's plan wasn't just scrapped, it was quietly continued. Lucas: In a sense, yes. Vespasian saw the strategic value of the passes, and he secured them, but he didn't aim for conquest the way Nero might have. He was more pragmatic. And that's one of the reasons Nero's plan is so fascinating: it was grandiose, but it wasn't insane. The Caucasus was a real concern. Lucas: To understand why, you have to look at the map. The passes through the Caucasus, particularly the Darial Gorge and the Caspian Gates, were the invasion route for nomads from the steppe. The Alans, a nomadic Iranian people, had already raided into Armenia and Media in 72 AD, just a few years after Nero's death. Nero's plan might have been a preemptive strike. Luna: So he wasn't just trying to emulate Alexander, he was trying to protect the frontier. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the key to his motivation. The ancient sources are divided. Suetonius, who loved to paint Nero as a madman, presents the Caspian plan as one of his irrational whims. But Pliny, who was a military man and a scholar, speaks of it with respect, as a serious strategic objective. And Nero himself, remember, had already shown interest in the East. Lucas: He had received Tiridates, the king of Armenia, with great ceremony in 66. Tiridates, a Parthian prince, had been crowned by Nero, and he famously refused to kneel before the emperor, or so the story goes, because he was a Magian and would only kneel before the sun god Mithras. Nero was delighted, and he closed the doors of the Temple of Janus, signaling peace. Luna: But then he turns around and plans an invasion. That's a bit contradictory. Lucas: It seems contradictory, but it's actually consistent. The peace with Parthia was a diplomatic settlement, but it didn't resolve the deeper issue of the nomadic tribes beyond the Caucasus. Tiridates was on the Roman side, but the Alans and the Sarmatians weren't, and they could sweep through the passes into Roman territory. Securing the passes would protect Armenia and Syria. Lucas: And there's another layer. Nero was an admirer of Greek culture, and the Caucasus had a special resonance in Greek myth. The Argonauts sailed past the Caucasus, and Prometheus was chained to a rock there. Nero, who loved to perform as a new Apollo, might have seen the campaign as a mythic feat. Luna: So it was part strategy, part mythmaking. Lucas: And part pure ambition. The historian Cassius Dio, writing later, says that Nero planned to make the Caspian Sea a Roman lake. That might be an exaggeration, but it shows how he was remembered. The eastern campaign was meant to be his crowning achievement, a conquest to rival Trajan's, which came later. Lucas: But it never happened. And we have to ask why. There are a few possibilities. The first is that Nero's death cut it short. The second is that the plan was never really feasible, that the logistics were too difficult, and the gains too uncertain. And the third is that Nero was distracted by the crises in the West, like the revolt of Vindex in Gaul. Luna: But he had already sent the legions east. They were ready. Lucas: Yes, the legions were in place. So the invasion could have been launched in 68 or 69. But it required Nero's presence, or at least his authority, and he was busy dealing with the rebellion. And then he died, and the whole thing collapsed. The legions were left in the East, and they eventually chose a new emperor. Lucas: This is the point where I want to step back and mention something about our show. We've been talking about Nero's legions and how they were repurposed by Vespasian, and it reminds me that the way we tell history is often about repurposing the past. And that's exactly why we keep doing this show without ads. Luna: Yeah, it's a choice we make. Lucas: We want you to hear the story straight, without interruptions. If that matters to you, and you'd like to help keep it that way, there's a simple way to support us: buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, just a way to keep the history flowing. Luna: And every little bit helps. I know our listeners are the kind of people who appreciate that. Lucas: So, back to the Caucasus. The fascinating thing is that Nero's plan didn't die with him in a total sense. The legions he had gathered remained in the East, and they were used by Vespasian to secure his own power. And Vespasian, as I said, did fortify the passes. But he didn't try to conquer the Caucasus. Lucas: Why not? Because Vespasian was a practical man. He knew that holding the passes was more important than conquering the mountains. And he also had to deal with the aftermath of the civil war, so he couldn't afford a big adventure. So he sent a detachment to the Caspian Gates, but he didn't launch a full invasion. Luna: So Nero's plan was too ambitious for his successor. Lucas: In a way, yes. And that's the tragedy of Nero's last years. He had grand visions, but he couldn't carry them out. He was overthrown before he could even start. And we can only imagine what would have happened if he had succeeded. Would the Caucasus have become a Roman province? Would the Alans have been stopped? Lucas: We'll never know. But we do know that the legions he gathered were the same ones that made Vespasian emperor. So Nero's dream, in a strange way, changed the course of Roman history, even though it was never realized. It's a reminder that intention can matter as much as action, and that the road not taken can still shape the path. Luna: That's a profound thought to end on.