Difesa, esercizio e prezzo della libertas senatoria: Il Trasea Peto degli Annales di Tacito

Abstract

Thrasea Paetus, a senator originally from Patavium, is one of the key figures of senatorial politics in the books dedicated to Nero in Tacitus' Annales. This paper aims to focus on the representation of Thrasea Paetus by evaluating the political and ideological significance of his actions, starting from the terminological and conceptual recurrence of senatorial libertas in Tacitus' account. It will be shown that Tacitus did not portray Thrasea as a Stoic martyr fighting for an abstract cause against Nero's imperial regime. Thanks to the senator's prominent position, Tacitus staged, from a historical point of view, what would have been - in circumstances different from those of a decadent Principate such as that under Nero and Domitian - his ideal of libertas. This does not mean attributing to Thrasea (or Tacitus) a specific anachronistic desire to restore the senatorial libertas during the Principate. When necessary, in fact, the historian distances himself from his character, not without criticizing him for his more idealistic and less pragmatic actions. However, the figure of Thrasea is useful to the historian because it allows him to reflect, once again in relation to the Agricola, on what is the correct attitude that a political-intellectual elite should adopt when faced with an absolutist regime. Through the figure of Thrasea, Tacitus realizes one of the main themes of his Annales, virtus must never be silenced.