Tiberius - Revision history

Paulreed: /* Tiberius the Cruel Emperor */

2020-01-02T19:28:16Z

Tiberius the Cruel Emperor

← Older revision		Revision as of 13:28, 2 January 2020
Line 78:		Line 78:
	''Nor did he perish, they said, by his own hand, but by that of one sent to be his executioner. Neither of these statements would I positively affirm; still it would not have been right for me to conceal what was related by those who lived up to the time of my youth'' <ref>Tacitus the Annals Book III</ref>		''Nor did he perish, they said, by his own hand, but by that of one sent to be his executioner. Neither of these statements would I positively affirm; still it would not have been right for me to conceal what was related by those who lived up to the time of my youth'' <ref>Tacitus the Annals Book III</ref>

	The reluctant emperor was now a more unpopular Emperor, and Tiberius become further reclusive. After sharing much of his duties with his son [[roman::Drusus]] he retired for longer periods to [[place::Campania]]. Yet a year later in AD 23 Drusus died. Yet again the suspicion was poisoning. It was said that [[roman::Sejanus]] (''think of Star Trek's Captain ~~Kirk~~ for a second'') seduced Drusus' wife [[roman::Livilla]] and had her poison him. That is what Cassio Dio believed. It took 8 years for the ''truth'' to come out but with Sejanus' downfall he was executed along with his closest relatives so that no heirs would survive.		The reluctant emperor was now a more unpopular Emperor, and Tiberius become further reclusive. After sharing much of his duties with his son [[roman::Drusus]] he retired for longer periods to [[place::Campania]]. Yet a year later in AD 23 Drusus died. Yet again the suspicion was poisoning. It was said that [[roman::Sejanus]] (''think of Star Trek's Captain Picard for a second'') seduced Drusus' wife [[roman::Livilla]] and had her poison him. That is what Cassio Dio believed. It took 8 years for the ''truth'' to come out but with Sejanus' downfall he was executed along with his closest relatives so that no heirs would survive.

	[[File:Germonian_stairs.jpg\|thumb\|Illustration of the Germonian Stairs where traitors like Sejanus were flung]]		[[File:Germonian_stairs.jpg\|thumb\|Illustration of the Germonian Stairs where traitors like Sejanus were flung]]

Paulreed at 13:54, 23 October 2019

2019-10-23T13:54:29Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 07:54, 23 October 2019
Line 1:		Line 1:

	Tiberius (42 ~~BCE–date~~::37 CE)		Tiberius (42 BCE– [[date::37]] CE)

	{{Infobox Roman emperor		{{Infobox Roman emperor

Paulreed: /* Tiberius - Fact or Fiction? */

2019-10-22T14:38:26Z

Tiberius - Fact or Fiction?

← Older revision		Revision as of 08:38, 22 October 2019
Line 120:		Line 120:

	==Tiberius - Fact or Fiction?==		==Tiberius - Fact or Fiction?==
	Tacitus, Suetonious and by extension Cassio Dio each have their reasons to criticize Tiberius for their own agenda as noted elsewhere. It plays to the 'rise and fall' anti-Caesar arc of their stories of a great general seduced quite literally in later years by wealth boredom and sex. A reluctant Emperor who by the time of Drusus's death was by [[author::roman::Pliny the Elder\|Pliny the Elder's]] account very morose. A once happily married man, ready to retire to Rhodes, who is railroaded by his mother to take on an overwhelming yet tedious task of running an empire rife with factions and in-house quarrelling and double-dealing.		Tacitus, Suetonious and by extension Cassio Dio each have their reasons to criticize Tiberius for their own agenda as noted elsewhere. It plays to the 'rise and fall' anti-Caesar arc of their stories of a great general seduced quite literally in later years by wealth boredom and sex. A reluctant Emperor who by the time of Drusus's death was by [[author::roman::Pliny the Elder\|Pliny the Elder's]] account very morose. A once happily married man, ready to retire to Rhodes, who is railroaded by his mother to take on an overwhelming yet tedious task of running an empire rife with factions and in-house quarrelling and double-dealing. It was said ''that filial duty and State necessity were merely assumed as a mask''

	If executions did take place then was that not just a sign of the times. Just enough gore to keep potential plotting and intrigue to a minimum. In contrast [[roman::author::Velleius Paterculus]] writes of Tiberius during his lifetime in glowing but also sycophantic terms so he is not reliable either		If executions did take place then was that not just a sign of the times. Just enough gore to keep potential plotting and intrigue to a minimum. In contrast [[roman::author::Velleius Paterculus]] writes of Tiberius during his lifetime in glowing but also sycophantic terms so he is not reliable either
Line 126:		Line 126:
	It would be double-standards indeed to have erotic paintings removed, public kissing banned and other acts of public decency only to be a cruel and closet pervert. Would it stretch the imagination to think the worst of an Emperor turning his back on the affairs of state that he maybe indulging in crude sexual acts and monstrous torture away from public gaze?		It would be double-standards indeed to have erotic paintings removed, public kissing banned and other acts of public decency only to be a cruel and closet pervert. Would it stretch the imagination to think the worst of an Emperor turning his back on the affairs of state that he maybe indulging in crude sexual acts and monstrous torture away from public gaze?

	So we are left with a conundrum. He started life as an able general, became a reluctant emperor who would rather let the affairs of state rest with the senate or some trusted lieutenant, He was not profligate in the way that Nero was and the economy hummed along pretty good. He trusted Sejanus who either undertook his ruthless suppression orders from Tiberius or by himself. A miscalculation or just negligence. And its not just exaggerated accounts by Tacitus, at al that lead us to believe that he brought the accusation of Treason as a way of convicting then executing detractors by throwing them off cliff sides. Yet by the end of his reign Romans rejoiced at his death and were clearly eager for a young good-looking ~~progress~~ son of Germanicus[[Caligula]] ~~to take over~~!		So we are left with a conundrum. He started life as an able general, became a reluctant emperor who would rather let the affairs of state rest with the senate or some trusted lieutenant, He was not profligate in the way that Nero was and the economy hummed along pretty good. He trusted Sejanus who either undertook his ruthless suppression orders from Tiberius or by himself. A miscalculation or just negligence. And its not just exaggerated accounts by Tacitus, at al that lead us to believe that he brought the accusation of Treason as a way of convicting then executing detractors by throwing them off cliff sides. Yet by the end of his reign Romans rejoiced at his death and were clearly eager for a young good-looking progressive son of Germanicus, [[Caligula]]!
	<references/>		<references/>


	[[category:Ancient Rome]]		[[category:Ancient Rome]]

Paulreed: /* Tiberius the Cruel Emperor */

2019-10-22T14:36:36Z

Tiberius the Cruel Emperor

← Older revision		Revision as of 08:36, 22 October 2019
Line 118:		Line 118:

	In the movie the men are forced to drink gallons of wine and eventually their stomachs are cut open to let the wine burst out. Gruesome!		In the movie the men are forced to drink gallons of wine and eventually their stomachs are cut open to let the wine burst out. Gruesome!

	~~TIBERIUS attracted both types (Suetonius, Tiberius 43.1, Caligula 16.1);~~
	~~Vitellius was even nicknamed “Spintria” because as a boy he was rumored to have~~
	~~prostituted himself with Tiberius at Capri to obtain his father’s political advancement~~
	~~(Suetonius, Vitellius 3.2).~~

	~~Critics have questioned his honesty of purpose, and~~
	~~have declared that the Tiberius of the Annals is a creation of~~
	~~Tacitus' own imagination. They have hardly stopped to con-~~
	~~sider the possibility of the existence, in the literature of the first~~
	~~century, of an opinion unfavorable to Tiberius, which Tacitus~~
	~~could have adopted. It is the purpose of this paper to demon-~~
	~~strate that an unfavorable opinion, whether a correct one or not,~~
	~~existed, and to show, by pointing to significant details of it,~~
	~~that Tacitus, though he made use of it, clearly did not create It~~

	~~Josephus has to relate about Tiberius we get for the~~
	~~first time information based undoubtedly on earlier literary~~
	~~sources, and not on personal knowledge. In the Jewish~~
	~~Antiquities, published about 94 A. D., he emphasizes the extrava-~~
	~~gant rejoicing at Eome on the death of Tiberius~~

	~~Pliny, the Elder, comments in his Natural History on the~~
	~~character of Tiberius : " tristissimum, ut constat, hominum." 22~~
	~~It was generally established in Pliny's time, it will be noted,~~
	~~that Tiberius was very morose~~

	~~Dio Cas-~~
	~~sius has a similar section not dependent on Suetonius, but very~~
	~~possibly from a common source. 42 Dio confines this good conduct~~
	~~to the first period, which ended with the death of Germanicus~~

	~~It was said, on the other hand, "that filial duty and State necessity were merely assumed as a mask~~

	That same year Julia ended her days. For her profligacy she had formerly been confined by her father Augustus in the island of Pandateria, and then in the town of the Regini on the shores of the straits of Sicily. She had been the wife of Tiberius while Caius and Lucius Caesar were in their glory, and had disdained him as an unequal match. This was Tiberius's special reason for retiring to Rhodes. When he obtained the empire, he left her in banishment and disgrace, deprived of all hope after the murder of Postumus Agrippa, and let her perish by a lingering death of destitution, with the idea that an obscurity would hang over her end from the length of her exile. He had a like motive for cruel vengeance on Sempronius Gracchus, a man of noble family, of shrewd understanding, and a perverse eloquence, who had seduced this same Julia when she was the wife of Marcus Agrippa. And this was not the end of the intrigue. When she had been handed over to Tiberius, her persistent paramour inflamed her with disobedience and hatred towards her husband; and a letter which Julia wrote to her father, Augustus, inveighing against Tiberius, was supposed to be the composition of Gracchus. He was accordingly banished to Cercina, where he endured an exile of fourteen years. Then the soldiers who were sent to slay him, found him on a promontory, expecting no good. On their arrival, he begged a brief interval in which to give by letter his last instructions to his wife Alliaria, and then offered his neck to the executioners, dying with a courage not unworthy of the Sempronian name, which his degenerate life had dishonoured. Some have related that these soldiers were not sent from Rome, but by Lucius Asprenas, proconsul of Africa, on the authority of Tiberius, who had vainly hoped that the infamy of the murder might be shifted on Asprenas

	==Tiberius - Fact or Fiction?==		==Tiberius - Fact or Fiction?==

Paulreed: /* Tiberius the Cruel Emperor */

2019-10-22T14:32:49Z

Tiberius the Cruel Emperor

@@ Line 101: / Line 101: @@
-[[Roman::Aggripina]]At last, falsely charging her with a desire to take refuge, now at the statue of Augustus and now with the armies, he exiled her to Pandataria, and when she loaded him with reproaches, he had her beaten by a centurion until one of her eyes  p369 was destroyed. Again, when she resolved to die of starvation, he had her mouth pried open and food crammed into it.
+[[Roman::Agrippina the Elder]] or Vipsania the Elder (14BC - 33AD) was the well-connected wife of [[roman::Germanicus]], second granddaughter to [[roman::Augustus]]; sister-in-law, stepdaughter and daughter-in-law to Tiberius; mother to [[roman::Caligula]]; maternal second cousin and sister-in-law to [[roman::Claudius]] and maternal grandmother to [[roman::Nero]]. The second daughter and fourth child of [[roman::Agrippa]] and [[roman::Julia the Elder]], Agrippina married her second maternal cousin Germanicus between 5 and 1BC. In 29AD, Agrippina and her sons Nero and [[roman::Drusus]], were arrested on the orders of Tiberius, and she was banished with her sons to the island of [[place::Pandataria]] (modern Ventotene) in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the coast of Campania.
-, emperor Julius Caesar Augustus (14–37 CE), son of Tiberius Claudius
+Tiberius had a thin skinned prickly personality. Germanicus was a hero in the Roman Empire but that did not help his widow. After complaining after Germanicus' death (we are not told what about)she is banished.
 TIBERIUS attracted both types (Suetonius, Tiberius 43.1, Caligula 16.1);

Paulreed at 20:44, 15 October 2019

2019-10-15T20:44:00Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:44, 15 October 2019
Line 80:		Line 80:
	The reluctant emperor was now a more unpopular Emperor, and Tiberius become further reclusive. After sharing much of his duties with his son [[roman::Drusus]] he retired for longer periods to [[place::Campania]]. Yet a year later in AD 23 Drusus died. Yet again the suspicion was poisoning. It was said that [[roman::Sejanus]] (''think of Star Trek's Captain Kirk for a second'') seduced Drusus' wife [[roman::Livilla]] and had her poison him. That is what Cassio Dio believed. It took 8 years for the ''truth'' to come out but with Sejanus' downfall he was executed along with his closest relatives so that no heirs would survive.		The reluctant emperor was now a more unpopular Emperor, and Tiberius become further reclusive. After sharing much of his duties with his son [[roman::Drusus]] he retired for longer periods to [[place::Campania]]. Yet a year later in AD 23 Drusus died. Yet again the suspicion was poisoning. It was said that [[roman::Sejanus]] (''think of Star Trek's Captain Kirk for a second'') seduced Drusus' wife [[roman::Livilla]] and had her poison him. That is what Cassio Dio believed. It took 8 years for the ''truth'' to come out but with Sejanus' downfall he was executed along with his closest relatives so that no heirs would survive.

	[[File:Germonian_stairs.jpg\|thumb\|Illustration of the Germonian Stairs where traitors were flung]]		[[File:Germonian_stairs.jpg\|thumb\|Illustration of the Germonian Stairs where traitors like Sejanus were flung]]

	''Apicata (ex-wife of Sejanus by now)... on learning that her children were dead, and after seeing their bodies on the Stairway, she withdrew and composed a statement about the death of Drusus, directed against Livilla'' <ref>Cassius Dio, Roman History, LVIII.11</ref>.		''Apicata (ex-wife of Sejanus by now)... on learning that her children were dead, and after seeing their bodies on the Stairway, she withdrew and composed a statement about the death of Drusus, directed against Livilla'' <ref>Cassius Dio, Roman History, LVIII.11</ref>.

Paulreed at 20:40, 15 October 2019

2019-10-15T20:40:01Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:40, 15 October 2019
Line 62:		Line 62:

	==Tiberius the Cruel Emperor==		==Tiberius the Cruel Emperor==
	Tiberius was they say a reluctant Emperor. As much as he tried to not take the same roles and titles of Augustus, the senate prevailed. His ethos was, at least as he interpreted, was to rule a 'servant' to the Empire and the senate and delegate the running of Rome and the provinces to the Senate. But this only succeeded in causing mayhem and he agreed to take on more titles and assuming a greater degree of control. Having said that the military successes of his adopted son [[roman::Germanicus]] took some of the heat off his poor stewardship of the Empire but with Germanicus suspicious death he was robbed of services of a great general who was thought of as a modern day [[person::Alexander the Great]]. Many Romans believed that Tiberius was envious of the popularity of Germanicus and was behind a plot by [[roman::Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso\|Piso]] to poison Germanicus. [''see also and not to be confused with [[roman::Gaius Calpurnius Piso\|Piso]] who was behind to bring down [[roman::Nero]]'']. Tiberius tried to distance himself from the controversy telling the senate that on the one hand Piso was a loyal and trusted confidante of Augustus but on the other		Tiberius was they say a reluctant Emperor. As much as he tried to not take the same roles and titles of Augustus, the senate prevailed. His ethos was, at least as he interpreted, was to rule a 'servant' to the Empire and the senate and delegate the running of Rome and the provinces to the Senate. But this only succeeded in causing mayhem and he agreed to take on more titles and assuming a greater degree of control. Having said that the military successes of his adopted son [[roman::Germanicus]] took some of the heat off his poor stewardship of the Empire but with Germanicus suspicious death he was robbed of services of a great general who was thought of as a modern day [[person::Alexander the Great]]. Many Romans believed that Tiberius was envious of the popularity of Germanicus and was behind a plot by [[roman::Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso\|Piso]] to poison Germanicus. [''see also and not to be confused with [[roman::Gaius Calpurnius Piso\|Piso]] who was behind to bring down [[roman::Nero]]'']. Tiberius tried to distance himself from the controversy telling the senate that on the one hand Piso was a loyal and trusted confidante of Augustus but on the other hand

	''For my part, I sorrow for my son and shall always sorrow for him; still I would not hinder the accused from producing all the evidence which can relieve his innocence or convict Germanicus of any unfairness, if such there was'' <ref>Tacitus the Annals Book III</ref>		''For my part, I sorrow for my son and shall always sorrow for him; still I would not hinder the accused from producing all the evidence which can relieve his innocence or convict Germanicus of any unfairness, if such there was'' <ref>Tacitus the Annals Book III</ref>
Line 78:		Line 78:
	''Nor did he perish, they said, by his own hand, but by that of one sent to be his executioner. Neither of these statements would I positively affirm; still it would not have been right for me to conceal what was related by those who lived up to the time of my youth'' <ref>Tacitus the Annals Book III</ref>		''Nor did he perish, they said, by his own hand, but by that of one sent to be his executioner. Neither of these statements would I positively affirm; still it would not have been right for me to conceal what was related by those who lived up to the time of my youth'' <ref>Tacitus the Annals Book III</ref>

	The reluctant emperor was now a more unpopular Emperor, and Tiberius become further reclusive. After sharing much of his duties with his son [[roman::Drusus]] he retired for longer periods to [[place::Campania]]. Yet a year later in AD 23 Drusus died. Yet again the suspicion was poisoning. It was said that [[roman::Sejanus]] (''think of Star Trek's Captain Kirk for a second'') seduced Drusus' wife [[roman::Livilla]] and had her poison him. That is what Cassio Dio believed. It took 8 years for the ''truth'' to come out but with Sejanus' downfall he was executed along with his closest relatives so that no heirs would survive		The reluctant emperor was now a more unpopular Emperor, and Tiberius become further reclusive. After sharing much of his duties with his son [[roman::Drusus]] he retired for longer periods to [[place::Campania]]. Yet a year later in AD 23 Drusus died. Yet again the suspicion was poisoning. It was said that [[roman::Sejanus]] (''think of Star Trek's Captain Kirk for a second'') seduced Drusus' wife [[roman::Livilla]] and had her poison him. That is what Cassio Dio believed. It took 8 years for the ''truth'' to come out but with Sejanus' downfall he was executed along with his closest relatives so that no heirs would survive.

			[[File:Germonian_stairs.jpg\|thumb\|Illustration of the Germonian Stairs where traitors were flung]]

	''Apicata (ex-wife of Sejanus by now)... on learning that her children were dead, and after seeing their bodies on the Stairway, she withdrew and composed a statement about the death of Drusus, directed against Livilla'' <ref>Cassius Dio, Roman History, LVIII.11</ref>.		''Apicata (ex-wife of Sejanus by now)... on learning that her children were dead, and after seeing their bodies on the Stairway, she withdrew and composed a statement about the death of Drusus, directed against Livilla'' <ref>Cassius Dio, Roman History, LVIII.11</ref>.

	If that was not bad enough, virgins, who undoubtedly the little girl was, were not allowed to be executed so the executioner had to rape her before the execution for good measure. Apicata then committed suicide and when Tiberius read the letter, he had Livilla tried, convicted and either, privately executed, or given the choice of suicide or the story preferred by Cassio Dio, given to her mother, locked in the room and starved to death!		If that was not bad enough, virgins, who undoubtedly the little girl was, were not allowed to be executed so the executioner had to rape her before the execution for good measure. Apicata then committed suicide and when Tiberius read the letter, he had Livilla tried, convicted and either, privately executed, or given the choice of suicide or the story preferred by Cassio Dio, given to her mother, locked in the room and starved to death!

			The downfall of Sejanus as Cassio Dio recounts it is interesting. Much like the Piso controversy years earlier, Tiberius is careful not to denounce Sejanus in straightforward terms. Sejanus lest it be forgot was a powerful leader of the Republic and had many in the Senate and Praetorian Guard on his side. Tiberius letter to the senate at first praises Sejanus then line by line suggests some flaw here, some misguided policy there.

			''At first, before it was read, they had been lauding Sejanus, thinking that he was about to receive the tribunician power''...first some other matter, then a slight censure of his conduct, then something else, and after that some further objection to him''...''first some other matter, then a slight censure of his conduct, then something else, and after that some further objection to him''<ref> Cassius Dio Roman History Vol. VII Book LVIII</ref>



	It's worth digressing a little to know a little about Livilla. Firstly, she was named (somewhat appropriately given the future events) after her grandmother [[roman::Livia]] wife of Augustus (i.e. ''Little Livia'') She was beautiful but was compared unfavourably with CITE [[roman::Agrippina the Elder]] who herself was the 'not so proud' mother of [[Roman::Caligula]] and [[roman::Agrippina the Younger]]. Livilla was married to two potential Emperors, including Drusus. She was also the ''embarrassed'' sister to the stuttering [[roman::Claudius]]. She had an affair with the son of [[roman::Marcus Agrippa]] he of [[place::Pantheon]] fame. Among her children was [[roman::Gemellus]] who Caligula had murdered as soon as he became emperor so that he would not have to rule jointly. She also had a daughter Julia. Who her uncle Claudius had executed (or allowed to pick suicide) based upon unsubstantiated charges of incest and immorality by his wife [[roman::Valeria Messalina]]		It's worth digressing a little to know a little about Livilla. Firstly, she was named (somewhat appropriately given the future events) after her grandmother [[roman::Livia]] wife of Augustus (i.e. ''Little Livia'') She was beautiful but was compared unfavourably with CITE [[roman::Agrippina the Elder]] who herself was the 'not so proud' mother of [[Roman::Caligula]] and [[roman::Agrippina the Younger]]. Livilla was married to two potential Emperors, including Drusus. She was also the ''embarrassed'' sister to the stuttering [[roman::Claudius]]. She had an affair with the son of [[roman::Marcus Agrippa]] he of [[place::Pantheon]] fame. Among her children was [[roman::Gemellus]] who Caligula had murdered as soon as he became emperor so that he would not have to rule jointly. She also had a daughter Julia. Who her uncle Claudius had executed (or allowed to pick suicide) based upon unsubstantiated charges of incest and immorality by his wife [[roman::Valeria Messalina]]

Paulreed: /* Tiberius - Fact or Fiction? */

2019-10-15T20:25:43Z

Tiberius - Fact or Fiction?

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:25, 15 October 2019
Line 166:		Line 166:
	It would be double-standards indeed to have erotic paintings removed, public kissing banned and other acts of public decency only to be a cruel and closet pervert. Would it stretch the imagination to think the worst of an Emperor turning his back on the affairs of state that he maybe indulging in crude sexual acts and monstrous torture away from public gaze?		It would be double-standards indeed to have erotic paintings removed, public kissing banned and other acts of public decency only to be a cruel and closet pervert. Would it stretch the imagination to think the worst of an Emperor turning his back on the affairs of state that he maybe indulging in crude sexual acts and monstrous torture away from public gaze?

	So we are left with a conundrum. He started life as an able general, became a reluctant emperor who would rather let the affairs of state rest with the senate or some trusted lieutenant, He was not profligate in the way that Nero was and the economy hummed along pretty good. Yet by the end of his reign Romans rejoiced at his death and were clearly eager for a young good-looking [[Caligula]] to take over!		So we are left with a conundrum. He started life as an able general, became a reluctant emperor who would rather let the affairs of state rest with the senate or some trusted lieutenant, He was not profligate in the way that Nero was and the economy hummed along pretty good. He trusted Sejanus who either undertook his ruthless suppression orders from Tiberius or by himself. A miscalculation or just negligence. And its not just exaggerated accounts by Tacitus, at al that lead us to believe that he brought the accusation of Treason as a way of convicting then executing detractors by throwing them off cliff sides. Yet by the end of his reign Romans rejoiced at his death and were clearly eager for a young good-looking progress son of Germanicus[[Caligula]] to take over!
	<references/>		<references/>


	[[category:Ancient Rome]]		[[category:Ancient Rome]]

Paulreed: /* Tiberius - Fact or Fiction? */

2019-10-15T19:45:28Z

Tiberius - Fact or Fiction?

← Older revision		Revision as of 13:45, 15 October 2019
Line 161:		Line 161:
	==Tiberius - Fact or Fiction?==		==Tiberius - Fact or Fiction?==
	Tacitus, Suetonious and by extension Cassio Dio each have their reasons to criticize Tiberius for their own agenda as noted elsewhere. It plays to the 'rise and fall' anti-Caesar arc of their stories of a great general seduced quite literally in later years by wealth boredom and sex. A reluctant Emperor who by the time of Drusus's death was by [[author::roman::Pliny the Elder\|Pliny the Elder's]] account very morose. A once happily married man, ready to retire to Rhodes, who is railroaded by his mother to take on an overwhelming yet tedious task of running an empire rife with factions and in-house quarrelling and double-dealing.		Tacitus, Suetonious and by extension Cassio Dio each have their reasons to criticize Tiberius for their own agenda as noted elsewhere. It plays to the 'rise and fall' anti-Caesar arc of their stories of a great general seduced quite literally in later years by wealth boredom and sex. A reluctant Emperor who by the time of Drusus's death was by [[author::roman::Pliny the Elder\|Pliny the Elder's]] account very morose. A once happily married man, ready to retire to Rhodes, who is railroaded by his mother to take on an overwhelming yet tedious task of running an empire rife with factions and in-house quarrelling and double-dealing.

			If executions did take place then was that not just a sign of the times. Just enough gore to keep potential plotting and intrigue to a minimum. In contrast [[roman::author::Velleius Paterculus]] writes of Tiberius during his lifetime in glowing but also sycophantic terms so he is not reliable either

	It would be double-standards indeed to have erotic paintings removed, public kissing banned and other acts of public decency only to be a cruel and closet pervert. Would it stretch the imagination to think the worst of an Emperor turning his back on the affairs of state that he maybe indulging in crude sexual acts and monstrous torture away from public gaze?		It would be double-standards indeed to have erotic paintings removed, public kissing banned and other acts of public decency only to be a cruel and closet pervert. Would it stretch the imagination to think the worst of an Emperor turning his back on the affairs of state that he maybe indulging in crude sexual acts and monstrous torture away from public gaze?

			So we are left with a conundrum. He started life as an able general, became a reluctant emperor who would rather let the affairs of state rest with the senate or some trusted lieutenant, He was not profligate in the way that Nero was and the economy hummed along pretty good. Yet by the end of his reign Romans rejoiced at his death and were clearly eager for a young good-looking [[Caligula]] to take over!
	<references/>		<references/>


	[[category:Ancient Rome]]		[[category:Ancient Rome]]

Paulreed at 19:32, 15 October 2019

2019-10-15T19:32:35Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 13:32, 15 October 2019
Line 159:		Line 159:
	That same year Julia ended her days. For her profligacy she had formerly been confined by her father Augustus in the island of Pandateria, and then in the town of the Regini on the shores of the straits of Sicily. She had been the wife of Tiberius while Caius and Lucius Caesar were in their glory, and had disdained him as an unequal match. This was Tiberius's special reason for retiring to Rhodes. When he obtained the empire, he left her in banishment and disgrace, deprived of all hope after the murder of Postumus Agrippa, and let her perish by a lingering death of destitution, with the idea that an obscurity would hang over her end from the length of her exile. He had a like motive for cruel vengeance on Sempronius Gracchus, a man of noble family, of shrewd understanding, and a perverse eloquence, who had seduced this same Julia when she was the wife of Marcus Agrippa. And this was not the end of the intrigue. When she had been handed over to Tiberius, her persistent paramour inflamed her with disobedience and hatred towards her husband; and a letter which Julia wrote to her father, Augustus, inveighing against Tiberius, was supposed to be the composition of Gracchus. He was accordingly banished to Cercina, where he endured an exile of fourteen years. Then the soldiers who were sent to slay him, found him on a promontory, expecting no good. On their arrival, he begged a brief interval in which to give by letter his last instructions to his wife Alliaria, and then offered his neck to the executioners, dying with a courage not unworthy of the Sempronian name, which his degenerate life had dishonoured. Some have related that these soldiers were not sent from Rome, but by Lucius Asprenas, proconsul of Africa, on the authority of Tiberius, who had vainly hoped that the infamy of the murder might be shifted on Asprenas		That same year Julia ended her days. For her profligacy she had formerly been confined by her father Augustus in the island of Pandateria, and then in the town of the Regini on the shores of the straits of Sicily. She had been the wife of Tiberius while Caius and Lucius Caesar were in their glory, and had disdained him as an unequal match. This was Tiberius's special reason for retiring to Rhodes. When he obtained the empire, he left her in banishment and disgrace, deprived of all hope after the murder of Postumus Agrippa, and let her perish by a lingering death of destitution, with the idea that an obscurity would hang over her end from the length of her exile. He had a like motive for cruel vengeance on Sempronius Gracchus, a man of noble family, of shrewd understanding, and a perverse eloquence, who had seduced this same Julia when she was the wife of Marcus Agrippa. And this was not the end of the intrigue. When she had been handed over to Tiberius, her persistent paramour inflamed her with disobedience and hatred towards her husband; and a letter which Julia wrote to her father, Augustus, inveighing against Tiberius, was supposed to be the composition of Gracchus. He was accordingly banished to Cercina, where he endured an exile of fourteen years. Then the soldiers who were sent to slay him, found him on a promontory, expecting no good. On their arrival, he begged a brief interval in which to give by letter his last instructions to his wife Alliaria, and then offered his neck to the executioners, dying with a courage not unworthy of the Sempronian name, which his degenerate life had dishonoured. Some have related that these soldiers were not sent from Rome, but by Lucius Asprenas, proconsul of Africa, on the authority of Tiberius, who had vainly hoped that the infamy of the murder might be shifted on Asprenas

			==Tiberius - Fact or Fiction?==
			Tacitus, Suetonious and by extension Cassio Dio each have their reasons to criticize Tiberius for their own agenda as noted elsewhere. It plays to the 'rise and fall' anti-Caesar arc of their stories of a great general seduced quite literally in later years by wealth boredom and sex. A reluctant Emperor who by the time of Drusus's death was by [[author::roman::Pliny the Elder\|Pliny the Elder's]] account very morose. A once happily married man, ready to retire to Rhodes, who is railroaded by his mother to take on an overwhelming yet tedious task of running an empire rife with factions and in-house quarrelling and double-dealing.

			It would be double-standards indeed to have erotic paintings removed, public kissing banned and other acts of public decency only to be a cruel and closet pervert. Would it stretch the imagination to think the worst of an Emperor turning his back on the affairs of state that he maybe indulging in crude sexual acts and monstrous torture away from public gaze?
	<references/>		<references/>


	[[category:Ancient Rome]]		[[category:Ancient Rome]]