Ben Jonson’s Sejanus and the Middle Way of Annals 1–6

Abstract

Tacitus’s Annals 1–6 served as a guide to statesmen in the early Roman Empire, presenting the merits of a middle way in politics between the extremes of subservience and defiance. Drawing on Tacitus’s history, Ben Jonson’s Sejanus explores this Tacitean middle path, contrasting the prudent and moderate political strategy of the senator Lepidus with the destructive outspokenness of the Germanicans. Like Tacitus, Jonson engaged with contemporary political debates; he encouraged his audiences to observe parallels between the failure of the Germanicans and the downfall of the Earl of Essex.