Sextus Afranius Burrus

Sextus Afranius Burrus
Born	1 Gallia Narbonensis, Vasio
Died	62 (age 61) Rome
Allegiance	Roman Empire
Years of service	50 AD – 62
Rank	Praetorian prefect
Commands held	Praetorian Guard

Sextus Afranius Burrus (born AD 1 in Vasio, Gallia Narbonensis;^[1] died AD 62) was a prefect of the Praetorian Guard and was, together with Seneca the Younger, an advisor to the Roman emperor Nero, making him a very powerful man in the early years of Nero's reign.^[2][3]

Agrippina the Younger chose him as Prefect in 51 to secure her son Nero's place as emperor after the death of Claudius.^[4] 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.^[5]

The cognomen "Burrus" is the Latin version of the name Pyrrhus, king of Epirus.

Sources

• Tacitus Annales 12.42; 14.51
• Suetonius Nero 35.5

References

1. CIL XII 5842 = ILS 1321
2. Albino Garzetti (1974). From Tiberius to the Antonines: A History of the Roman Empire AD 14-192. Routledge. pp. 611f. ISBN 978-1-317-69844-9.
3. Robert K. Sherk (1988). The Roman Empire: Augustus to Hadrian. Cambridge University Press. p. 99. ISBN 978-0-521-33887-5.
4. Anthony A. Barrett (1996). Agrippina: Sex, Power, and Politics in the Early Empire. Yale University Press. pp. 122f. ISBN 978-0-300-07856-5.
5. Boris Rankov (1994). The Praetorian Guard. Osprey Publishing. p. 11. ISBN 978-1-85532-361-2.