Claudia Acte

Claudia Acte was a freedwoman of ancient Rome who became a mistress of the emperor Nero. She came from Asia Minor and might have become a slave of the Emperor Claudius, following his expansion of the Roman Empire into Lycia and Pamphylia; or she might have been purchased later, by Octavia, Claudius' daughter.

The Emperor Claudius, uncle of Nero's mother, Agrippina the Younger, married his niece in 49 AD and therefore became Nero's stepfather. Claudius' daughter, Octavia (by his wife Messalina), became Nero's stepsister at the same time. Nero and Octavia themselves married in 53 AD, and Nero became emperor in 54 AD, after his great-uncle/stepfather died—apparently poisoned, in the belief of contemporary historians, by his niece/wife, Agrippina, Nero's mother.

A year into Nero's reign, encouraged by Seneca the Younger and Burrus, and against Agrippina the Younger's wishes, Nero took Acte as his mistress. Seneca especially was concerned that his young student would not be satisfied with his wife, Octavia, and might indulge in risky sexual exploits. This made Acte appear a safe outlet and a source of separation from Agrippina. Seneca and Burrus were on uneasy terms with Agrippina and were nervous about her political influence and methods, especially following the putative poisoning of her husband, the Emperor Claudius. However, the relationship with Acte was kept as quiet as possible so as to not damage Nero's politically significant marriage to Octavia. Otho, Claudius Senecio and Annaeus Serenus helped Nero and Acte with their secret meetings. Serenus, a protégé of Seneca, even pretended that Acte was his own mistress in order to avert suspicion.

The couple met when Nero was only 17, and their reportedly emotional, passionate relationship lasted at least three years. Nero expressed the desire to marry Acte and had a genealogy fabricated linking her royalty; he even bribed ex-consuls to prepare to swear to her royal birthright, a move that enraged his mother Agrippina, who was very conscious and proud of her own, well-established patrician ancestry.

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