k climaxes at the point where Nero poisons Brittanicus' wine to secure his own right to the throne, taking on his mother Agrippina's murderous tactics. The fact that Lindsey Davis has concentrated more on the murderous and underhand tactics that both Agrippina and her son Nero have used to get their own way, rather than concentrate on the good they contributed to Rome is another indication of bias. Rather than being a directly written bias, she has used this bias more deceptively as a fictional writer, choosing to leave in all of these scandalous moments in Roman history to make "The Course of Honour" a dynamic book full of treachery and deceit, displayed in the following quote:"(Brittanicus) stopped breathing. He fell.... Nero said- and announced it perfectly coolly- made the claim without a stammer- uttered it without a blush- that Brittanicus was epileptic, he had been epileptic all his life, and he would soon recover his senses and his sight." (Davis, p.217)This has been backed up by the following primary source:"Nero still lay back unconcerned, and remarked that this often happened to epileptics, that Brittanicus had been one since infancy and soon his sight and consciousness would return" (Tacitus p.291)However, a good side to Nero which has definitely not been showcased in "The Course of Honour" is the following quote from Nero himself:"I bring with me no feud, no resentment or vindictiveness. From my house, bribery and favouritism will be excluded. I will keep personal and state affairs separate" (Tacitus p.286)By the time Vespasian comes to be emperor in "The Course of Honour", Rome seems to have gone through terrible strife, and as we near the end of the book Vespasian comes to the throne and all of Rome's problems seem to be over. Meanwhile, Caenis is having a hard time living by herself and is somewhat sympathised by Davis, which is another form of bias. After Vespasians wife dies, he returns back to Caenis, as is detailed i...
