Editing Britannicus (section)

==Downfall and death==
[[File:Nerón y Agripina.jpg|thumb|200px|left|Agrippina crowns her young son Nero with a laurel wreath.]]
Immediately after the death of Claudius, Agrippina set upon removing those she had seen as a threat. [[Marcus Junius Silanus (consul 46)|Marcus Junius Silanus]], proconsul of [[Asia (Roman province)|Asia]] whose brother Lucius had been eliminated by her as well, was poisoned for no other reason than that he had been the great-great-grandson of Augustus. Claudius' freedman Narcissus, Britannicus' champion according to Tacitus, had been driven to suicide after a harsh imprisonment. In Tacitus XIII, that was carried out by Agrippina against the wishes of Nero.<ref name=Tacitusxiii1>Tacitus, ''The Annales'', [[s:The Annals (Tacitus)/Book 13#1|XIII.1]]</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Osgood|2011|p=250}}</ref>

Before Nero's consulship in 55, he had forbidden the persecution of a Julius Densus, an equestrian whose partiality for Britannicus had been construed as a crime.<ref>Tacitus, ''The Annales'', [[s:The Annals (Tacitus)/Book 13#10|XIII.10]]</ref>

During his consulship, Nero had become more independent from his mother's influence. He began a relationship with a slave girl, and removed [[Pallas (freedman)|Pallas]], a favourite of Agrippina, from his post as secretary of the treasury. In response, Agrippina threatened to champion the cause of Britannicus to keep her son in line.<ref name=Tacitusxiii12to17>Tacitus, ''The Annales'', [[s:The Annals (Tacitus)/Book 13#12|XIII.12]]–[[s:The Annals (Tacitus)/Book 13#17|17]]</ref> In the account of Tacitus, Agrippina says to Nero:<ref>Tacitus, ''The Annales'', [[s:The Annals (Tacitus)/Book 13#14|XIII.14]]</ref>

{{blockquote|that Britannicus was now of full age, he who was the true and worthy heir of his father's sovereignty, which a son, by mere admission and adoption, was abusing in outrages on his mother. She shrank not from an utter exposure of the wickedness of that ill-starred house, of her own marriage, to begin with, and of her poisoner's craft. All that the gods and she herself had taken care of was that her stepson was yet alive; with him she would go to the camp, where on one side should be heard the daughter of Germanicus; on the other, the crippled Burrus and the exile Seneca, claiming, forsooth, with disfigured hand, and a pedant's tongue, the government of the world.|Tacitus, ''The Annales'', 13.14}}

Tacitus recounts Nero's numerous attempts to undermine Britannicus' image publicly. In one such attempt, during the feast of [[Saturn (mythology)|Saturn]] (the [[Saturnalia]]), he and Nero were playing a game among a group of their friends, and Nero chose Britannicus to sing a song with the expectation that Britannicus would embarrass himself. Britannicus, however, not only avoided humiliation but also generated sympathy amongst the guests by singing a poem telling the tale of how he had been cast aside in favour of Nero. The young emperor immediately began plotting his stepbrother's assassination.<ref name=Tacitusxiii12to17/>

According to Suetonius, Nero moved against Britannicus, employing the same poisoner, [[Locusta]], who had been hired to murder his father, Claudius. The first dose failed, and Nero decided to throw caution to the wind. In the account of Suetonius, he had Locusta brought to his room to mix a faster acting poison before his very eyes. After many tests on kids, there was a mixture that killed an animal instantly. Being pleased, Nero had the concoction brought immediately to the dining room.<ref name=Suetonius33>Suetonius, Life of Nero, [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Nero*.html#33 33]</ref>

Britannicus was poisoned at a dinner party attended by his sister, Octavia, Agrippina and several other notables. Tacitus' account of the event is that Britannicus was given a hot drink, which was tested by a food taster, and when he asked for it to be cooled, the poison was added to it with the cold water. The substance was instantly effective, and he "lost alike both voice and breath".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0078:book=13:chapter=16 |title=Cornelius Tacitus, The Annals, BOOK XIII, chapter 16|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu|access-date=8 April 2018}}</ref>  Nero claimed to those present that Britannicus was merely experiencing an [[epilepsy|epileptic]] seizure and that he had been affected by the condition since childhood.<ref name="Tacitusxiii12to17" /> He died sometime between December 54 and 11 February 55, the day before his 14th birthday, when he was to assume manhood, just four months after his father's death.<ref name=Tacitusxiii12to17/><ref name=Osgood333/> For her service, the emperor had Locusta rewarded with large estates and even sent her pupils.<ref name=Suetonius33/>

There is a theory that Britannicus was not poisoned but died of a seizure.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Barrett |first=Anthony |title=Agrippina: Sex, Power, and Politics in the Early Empire |publisher=Yale University Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-0300078565 |page=171 |language=en}}</ref>