In De Clementia , Seneca praises Nero - after the murder of Britanicus. R. correctly notes that Lucan's pessimism about Roman politics covers not merely the Julio-Claudian dynasty, but the oligarchy of Republican times. He is accurate about Caesar's absolutism in the poem and about Pompey's inadequacy, but is too ready to endorse Cato as 'supreme sage'. R. is also too ready to deny a satirical edge to Lucan's apparent eulogy of Nero towards the beginning of Book 1. In his best chapter, R. argues convincingly that the characters in Petronius' Satyricon are outcasts who mirror on the social plane the political dissidents of Nero's reign.
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The motif of theatre and of acting that permeates Nero's court is reflected in the Satyricon' s emphasis on imposture and hypocrisy. It is likely that Petronius' sexual themes mirror Nero's activities, and that his poem Troiae Halosis parodies Nero's Troica . And it is possible that Trimalchio's vast estate suggests Nero's dreams of conquest. Finally, R. makes the interesting suggestion that Tigellinus brought these correspondences to the attention of Nero, and so engineered Petronius' downfall. Responsibility for, and ownership of, copyright remains with the author of each article.