Oedipus and actors

Abstract As a former consul, Aulus remained a senator. Early in Nero’s reign it became even easier to combine the roles of senator and courtier. A senate meeting was held at the palace so that Agrippina could listen from behind a curtain. When the senators used coins, they saw Agrippina on the obverse and Nero relegated to the back, sometimes together like a kissing couple. But like Seneca, Agrippina began running out of ways to control Nero. She looked for others who might keep him in line, perhaps Rubellius Plautus, descendent of Augustus and son of Tiberius’s friend, Blandus of Tibur. As her influence further waned, the mother was reduced to seeking any affection from her son that she could. She played the seductress. Whether by sex or heavy flirtation, few could certainly say.