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Tiberius Claudius Caesar Britannicus (12 February AD 41 – 11 February AD 55), usually called Britannicus, was the son of Roman Emperor Claudius and his third wife, Valeria Messalina.
Britannicus is a five-act tragic play by the French dramatist Jean Racine. It was first performed on 13 December 1669 at the Hôtel de Bourgogne in Paris. Britannicus is the first play in which Racine depicted Roman history. The tale of moral choice takes as its subject Britannicus, the son of the Roman emperor Claudius, and heir to ...
May 23, 2023 · Britannicus (41-55 CE) was the second child and only son born to the Roman emperor Claudius (r. 41-54 CE) and Valeria Messalina (c. 20-48 CE).
Britannicus, a tragedy in verse in five acts by Jean Racine, performed in French in 1669 and published the following year. The play, a political drama, is set in imperial Rome. It centres on the machinations of the emperor Nero, who, though he has been placed on the throne by his mother, Agrippina.
Claudius planted a colony of veterans at Camulodunum and established client-kingdoms to protect the frontiers of the province; these were afterward a source of trouble, such as the revolt in 47 of Prasutagus, client-king of the Iceni, and later the general revolt instigated by his wife Boudicca (also called Boadicea).
Britannicus is, like Nero, the son of Claudius, and being older, has prior claim to the throne but has been dispossessed by the machinations of Agrippina. Nero too falls in love with Junia, and forces her to reject Britannicus, secretly observing her as she does so.
Britannicus, one of Racine’s greatest plays, dramatizes the crucial day when Nero—son of Agrippina and stepson of the late emperor Claudius—overcomes his mother, his wife Octavia, his tutors, and his vaunted “three virtuous years” in order to announce his omnipotence.
The tragedy represented in Britannicus is precisely that of the Roman Empire, for in Nero Racine has created a character who embodies the most infamous qualities of that empire - its cruelty, its depravity, and its refined barbarity. 978-0-271-06531-1. Language & Literature, European Studies, Performing Arts.
Imperial palace in Rome within whose public area the tragedy takes place. In his preface to the play—which bears the name of Néron’s half-brother—Jean Racine wrote that Néron was never a ...
