Sextus Afranius Burrus

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Sextus Afranius Burrus, Praetorian Prefect, was Nero's tutor and later advisor. He was chosen by Agrippina the Younger as Prefect in order to secure her son Nero's place as Emperor after the death of Claudius. For the first eight years of Nero's rule of the Roman Empire, he and Seneca the Younger helped maintain a stable government. He acquiesced to Nero's murder of Agrippina the Younger, but he lost his influence over Nero anyway. Died in 62, some say of poison. Burrus was born in Gallia Narbonensis.

The Roman cognomen "Burrus" is the Latin version of the name Pyrrhus, the Greek King whose costly victory over the Romans gives us the term "pyrrhic victory."

Burrus has been quoted as saying to the young Emperor Nero, "When once I have spoken, do not ask me again."

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