The Julio-Claudian dynasty

During the play, Romulus names many of the chickens he raises – focusing almost more on his poultry than keeping the empire of Rome up and running – after emperors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, he himself though as Rome’s last emperor, ruled long after the dynasty’s existence. This dynasty refers in particular to the first five emperors of Rome – Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero – who ruled from the second half of the 1st Century (44/31/27 BC), when the Empire was formed, until AD 68, when Nero committed suicide. A father-to-son style succession of leaders is notably absent amongst the five emperors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Tiberius and Claudius are the only amongst the five to have fathered sons both natural and legitimate. Tiberius’s son, Drusus, died prior to him; Claudius was the only one of the five emperors to die before his son. Even though Britannicus, his son, outlived him, he opted to promote Nero to the throne using the same method of selecting a successor to the throne that most of the emperors of the dynasty utilized: adoption.