Sextus Afranius Burrus

Sextus Afranius Burrus (1 - 62), Praetorian prefect, was advisor to Roman Emperor Nero and, together with Seneca the Younger, very powerful in the early years of Nero's reign.

Agrippina the Younger chose him as Prefect in 51 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 Nero's former tutor Seneca helped maintain a stable government. He acquiesced to Nero's murder of Agrippina the Younger but he lost his influence over Nero anyway. He died in 62, some say from poison.

The Roman cognomen "Burrus" is the Latin version of the name Pyrrhus, king of Epirus.