DOMVS IVLIO–CLAVDIATHE IMPERIAL FAMILY ARCHIVE
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Eldest surviving son of Germanicus

Nero Caesar

Nero Caesar

Dynastic role
Eldest surviving son of Germanicus
Life
c. 6 – 31 CE
Archive group
Heirs and princes

Nero Julius Caesar was a son of Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder. He and his younger brother Drusus Caesar followed closely linked political paths, but they were not twins.

The senior son of Germanicus

Nero Caesar was the eldest of Germanicus’s sons to survive his father. Tiberius publicly advanced him and he married Julia Livia, daughter of Livilla and Drusus the Younger. He was not the emperor Nero, who belonged to the next generation.

Condemnation and exile

Conflict between Agrippina the Elder’s family and Sejanus’s faction destroyed Nero’s prospects. The Senate declared him a public enemy, and he was exiled to the island of Pontia, where he died in 31 CE. Ancient reports differ over whether he was driven to suicide or deliberately starved.

Historical sources

Tacitus, Annals 3.29; 4.59–60; 5.3
Nero’s advancement, marriage, prosecution, and exile.

Suetonius, Tiberius 54; Caligula 7
The downfall of Germanicus’s elder sons and their relationship to Caligula.

About the sources and further reading