Religion and Memory in Tacitus' Annals

Kelly E. Shannon-Henderson holds a DPhil. in Greek and Latin Languages and Literature from the University of Oxford and is currently Assistant Professor of Classics in the Department of Modern Languages and Classics at the University of Alabama. She is the author of several articles on Roman religion, ancient historiography, paradoxography, and the literature of the Roman Empire.

• 0: Introduction: Religion, Memory, and Tacitus 0.1 Religion and memory 0.2 Tacitus, priest and historian: taking the religious dimension seriously 0.3 Types of material 0.4 The structure of this study 1: Tiberius the Autocrat 1.1 Introduction: Tiberius perinde divina humanaque obtegens 1.2 Funeral, apotheosis, and recusatio 1.3 The use and abuse of Divus Augustus: the maiestas disease 1.4 The emergence of religious flattery 1.5 Maiestas-disease meets adulatio-disease: the trial of Libo Drusus 1.6 Tiberius controlling the triumph 1.7 Conclusions 2: Germanicus as Religious Interpreter 2.1 Introduction: Germanicus and religious memory 2.2 Germanicus' religious rhetoric in the German mutiny 2.3 Memoria deformes: commemorating Varus 2.4 Gods on our side? Dreams, signs, and vengeance 2.5 Germanicus abroad 2.6 Death and Piso 2.7 Conclusions 3: Memory and Forgetting from the Death of Germanicus to the Rise of Sejanus 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Commemoration, flattery, vengeance: Germanicus' funeral and Piso's trial 3.3 Policing traditions: the flamen dialis 3.4 Temple asylum: the Senate and cultic memory 3.5 Augusta, Fetiales, and the Senate 3.6 Conclusions 4: Divine Wrath and Annals 4 4.1 Fortuna, divine wrath, and the rise of Sejanus 4.2 Amnesia and memory: temples and priesthoods 4.3 Cultic memory, Augustus' deification, and Tiberius' reputation 4.4 Aftermath of the Spanish temple refusal 4.5 Withdrawal, disaster, and the perversion of ritual 4.6 Conclusions 5: Fate, Astrology, and the End of Life 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Commemorating Livia 5.3 Remembering Sejanus 5.4 Sibylline books: an attempt at tradition 5.5 Tiberius the astrologer 5.6 Interpreting the phoenix 5.7 Commemorating Augustus, predicting Caligula 5.8 Conclusions 6: Claudius and the Failure of Tradition 6.1 Introduction: what we have lost 6.2 Trials and cultic memory for a new reign: Claudius the censor 6.3 Messalina and the misuse of ritual 6.4 Rise of Agrippina: flattery and impiety 6.5 Divine anger and the rise of Agrippina and Nero 6.6 Death, astrology, and deification 6.7 Conclusions 7: Nero: A Narrative in Prodigies 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Kin murder and divine wrath I: Britannicus 7.3 Kin murder and divine wrath II: Agrippina 7.4 When will Nero be punished? The problems of prodigies 7.5 Octavia's death and growing adulatio 7.6 The horrible year ad 64 7.7 Impiety and misinterpretation in the Pisonian conspiracy 7.8 Fortune's playthings 7.9 Wrath of the gods 7.10 Conclusions 8: Conclusions Endmatter Bibliography Index

Kelly Shannon-Henderson's book Religion and Memory in Tacitus' Annals offers an original and thought-provoking new way to read Tacitus' narrative of the Julio-Claudians in the context of Roman social memory and religious practice.