The Roman Colony - Butrint, Albania
Butrint and Nero
There is no evidence that Nero ever visited Butrint. However, the emperors visit to Greece in 66-67 AD when he also stopped at Corcyra (Corfu) and at Nicopolis was to have a big impact on the city.
The Butrint mint was reinvigorated, producing more divers issues than ever before practically all of them carefully including the portrait of the emperor. The most popular image on the coinage is the aqueduct, just as it had been during the reign of Augustus; hence, it is possible that the construction started by Augustus was finished by Nero in this period. Indeed, it is possible that not only the aqueduct but also the settlement on the Vrina Plain was developed in this period.
Why should Nero have taken any interest in Butrint? Firstly, a rededication of the colony would have affirmed his links with Augustus from whom he was a direct descendant. Secondly, he might already have had a longstanding client-base in the area. Nero was the son of Agrippas granddaughter and it is possible that the links between that family and Butrint were still strong. Similarly, Neros grandfather Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus had been the patron of Butrint and undoubtedly there were still many supporters of this family in the city.
Visible signs of the support extended by the families of both of Neros parents would have been evident at Butrint. Statues show local women fashioning their hair in the style of Neros mother Agrippina the Younger, and the name of a freedman of his fathers family is still inscribed in the paving slabs next to the theatre. Cnaius Domitius Eros, paid for the relaying of the piazza and included his own name in lead letters inscribed in the floor: CN. DOMITIUS CN. L. EROS Gnaius Domitius Eros, freedman of Lucius Domitius [Ahenobarbus].
Promoting Butrint would also have served imperial objectives well. Nero was in Greece not only to take part in games and festivals, but to restore firm links between the province and Rome. An endorsement of Butrint with its long tradition of loyalty to Rome and to Augustus, Agrippa, Atticus and the Ahenobarbus family would have seemed an ideal way to create a Roman focal point in the region.
- The Roman Colony
- Caesar and the colony at Butrint
- The millionaire: Titus Pomponius Atticus
- Augustus and the refoundation of the colony
- Butrint and Nero
Ahenobarbus, patron of Butrint
The inscription was set up in 16 BC to accompany a statue of Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, the grandfather of Nero.
Ahenobarbus is honoured as the patron of the colony, that is, of Butrint.
Lucius own father was a successful naval commander, defeating, in 42 BC, Brutus and the conspirators in Caesars murder. In 31 BC, he had supported Marcus Antonius and Cleopatra defecting to the Augustan side only on the night of the Actium battle.
The honour paid to Lucius may have hence been a conciliatory gesture between the Augustan and the Ahenobarbus family. It may also have been in recognition of family ties, for Lucius was married to Augustus niece. 
- Butrint coin with portrait of Nero
- Box: Inscription honouring Domitius Ahenobarbus
- Inscription by Cn. Domitius Eros