La politica religiosa di Nerone tra luci ed ombre

The dichotomy of light-shadow present in the sources related to the Neronian princedom is clearly in favour of the solar element: while the two episodes of Nero’s biography set at night which could be interpreted religiously (participation to nocturnal fights and Tigellinus’ banquet) can be intended as an attempt to reach for popularitas and as an expression of the philhellenic direction that the son of Agrippina wanted to give to his princedom, Nero employs Apollo’s radiant light, the Augustan divinity par excellence, as a response to some of the darkest moments of his reign (matricide, fire, Piso’s conspiracy) and as an expedient to highlight the political-military-cultural success (Tiridates’ crowning, artistic triumph) which occurred as a result of the peculiar protection that Apollo/Sun granted him.