Sextus Afranius Burrus (born AD 1 in Vasio,
Gallia Narbonensis
Gallia Narbonensis (Latin for "Gaul of Narbonne", from its chief settlement) was a Roman province located in what is now Languedoc and Provence, in Southern France. It was also known as Provincia Nostra ("Our Province"), because it was th ...
;
[ = ILS 1321. English translation ] died AD 62) was a prefect of the
Praetorian Guard
The Praetorian Guard (Latin: ''cohortēs praetōriae'') was a unit of the Imperial Roman army that served as personal bodyguards and intelligence agents for the Roman emperors. During the Roman Republic, the Praetorian Guard were an escort fo ...
and was, together with
Seneca the Younger
Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger (; 65 AD), usually known mononymously as Seneca, was a Stoic philosopher of Ancient Rome, a statesman, dramatist, and, in one work, satirist, from the post-Augustan age of Latin literature.
Seneca was born ...
, an advisor to the Roman
emperor Nero, making him a very powerful man in the early years of Nero's reign.
Agrippina the Younger
Julia Agrippina (6 November AD 15 – 23 March AD 59), also referred to as Agrippina the Younger, was Roman empress from 49 to 54 AD, the fourth wife and niece of Emperor Claudius.
Agrippina was one of the most prominent women in the Julio-Clau ...
chose him as Prefect in 51 to secure her son Nero's place as emperor after the death of
Claudius
Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54) was the fourth Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Drusus and Antonia Minor ...
.
For the first eight years of Nero's rule, Burrus and Nero's former tutor Seneca helped maintain a stable government. Burrus acquiesced to Nero's murder of Agrippina the Younger but lost his influence over Nero anyway. He died in 62, some say from poison.
The
cognomen "Burrus" is the Latin version of the name
Pyrrhus, king of
Epirus.
Sources
* Tacitus ''Annales'
12.4214.51
* Suetonius ''Nero'
35.5
* = ILS 1321
* Dio 62.13
References
1st-century Romans
AD 1 births
62 deaths
Burrus, Sextus
Praetorian prefects
People from Gallia Narbonensis
{{AncientRome-bio-stub