Tiberius

Tiberius (born November 16, 42 bce—died March 16, 37 ce, Capreae [Capri], near Naples) was the second Roman emperor (14–37 ce), the adopted son of Augustus, whose imperial institutions and imperial boundaries he sought to preserve. In his last years he became a tyrannical recluse, inflicting a reign of terror against the major personages of Rome.

Background and youth

Tiberius’s father, also named Tiberius Claudius Nero, a high priest and magistrate, was a former fleet captain for Julius Caesar. His mother, the beautiful Livia Drusilla, was her husband’s cousin and may have been only 13 years old when Tiberius was born. In the civil wars following the assassination of Julius Caesar, the elder Tiberius gave his allegiance to Mark Antony, Caesar’s protégé. When Augustus, Caesar’s grandnephew and heir, fell out with Antony and defeated him in the ensuing power struggle, the elder Tiberius and his family became fugitives. They fled first to Sicily and then to Greece, but by the time Tiberius was three years old an amnesty was granted and the family was able to return to Rome.

In 39 bce Augustus had the power, if not yet the title, of emperor. Attracted by the beauty of Livia, who was at that time pregnant with a second son, Augustus divorced his own wife, who was also pregnant, and, forcing the elder Tiberius to give up Livia, married her. The infant Tiberius remained with his father, and, when the younger brother, Drusus, was born a few months later, he was sent to join them. At the death of his father, Tiberius was nine years old, and, with Drusus, he went to live with Livia and the emperor. The two boys and the emperor’s daughter, Julia, between them in age, studied together, played together, and took part in the obligatory ceremonials of temple dedication and celebration of victories. They were joined by their cousin Marcellus, the son of Augustus’s sister, Octavia.

In the absence of a clear law designating Augustus’s successor as emperor, all three boys were trained accordingly. They were instructed in rhetoric, literature, diplomacy, and military skills, and soon they also began taking a ceremonial role in the affairs of state. As oldest, Tiberius was the first to do so. In the triumph following Augustus’s victory over Cleopatra and Antony at Actium, the 13-year-old Tiberius rode the right-hand horse of Augustus’s chariot in the procession. Though not a striking figure, he conducted himself well.

Serious by nature, he had become a shy youth, though he was sometimes called sullen. His great talent was application. With the best teachers in the empire at his disposal and, above all, as a participant in life at the palace, the centre of the civilized Western world, he learned rapidly. By age 14 Tiberius was used to dining with kings of the empire, to conducting religious services over the heads of powerful men five times his age, and even to seeing his own form in marble statues.

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Years in the shadow of Augustus

Tiberius was not handsome. As a teenager, he was tall and broad-shouldered, but his complexion was bad. His nose had a pronounced hook, but that was typically Roman. His manner was disconcerting. He had a slow, methodical way of speaking that seemed intended to conceal his meaning rather than make it plain. But he was diligent. He may not have known he would be emperor, but he cannot have doubted that he would be at least a general at a rather early age and thereafter a high official in the government of Rome. In 27 bce, when Tiberius was 15 years old, Augustus took him and Marcellus to Gaul to inspect outposts. They experienced no fighting, but they learned a great deal about how to rule the marches, keep fortifications intact, and keep garrisons alert. When they returned, Augustus gave Marcellus his daughter Julia as wife.

Then Tiberius himself married. Love matches were infrequent in imperial Rome, but Tiberius’s marriage to Vipsania Agrippina was one. She was the daughter of Marcus Agrippa, Augustus’s son-in-law and lieutenant. Besides his love for his wife—and for his brother, Drusus, now growing into manhood—he was occupied with important work. His first military command, at age 22, resulting in the recovery of standards of some Roman legions that had been lost decades before in Parthia, brought him great acclaim. As a reward, he asked for another active command and was given the assignment of pacifying the province of Pannonia on the Adriatic Sea. Tiberius not only conquered the enemy but so distinguished himself by his care for his men that he found himself popular and even loved. When he returned to Rome, he was awarded a triumph.

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Tiberius’s happy years were coming to an end, however. His beloved brother, Drusus, broke his leg in falling from a horse while campaigning in Germany. Tiberius was at Ticinum (Pavia)—on the Po River, south of what is now Milan—400 miles away. He rode day and night to be with his brother and arrived just in time to see Drusus die. Tiberius escorted the body back to Rome, walking in front of it on foot all the way. He also had to give up his wife, Vipsania, the other person he loved. Augustus’s daughter Julia had become a widow for the second time. Her first husband, Marcellus, had died, and the emperor had married her to Agrippa (who, as Vipsania’s father, was Tiberius’s father-in-law). When Agrippa died in 12 bce, Augustus wanted her suitably married at once and chose Tiberius as her third husband. Tiberius had no more choice than his father had had when Augustus decided to marry Livia. Tiberius was as obedient as his father. He divorced Vipsania and married Julia.

Tiberius’s new wife has come down in history with a reputation for licentiousness. It is not certain how much of the reputation she deserved. Roman historians often dealt in gossip, inventing scandal when there was none; but in Julia’s case they had good reason for their opinion. When Julia married Tiberius, he was 30. She was 27, twice a widow, the mother of five children (not all surviving). She was pretty and light-minded and liked the society of men. She did not get along with her mother-in-law (who was also her stepmother), Livia, and after the first few months she tired of Tiberius. It is certain that she committed adultery, and this presented Tiberius with an immense problem, not only personal but also political. A law of Augustus himself required a husband to denounce a wife who committed adultery. But Julia was the emperor’s beloved child, and, as Augustus knew nothing of her vices, to denounce her would be to wound him, and that was dangerous.

With no good course of action to follow, Tiberius asked for and received fighting commands away from Rome. When once in Rome between battles, he chanced to see Vipsania at the home of a friend. She had, at Augustus’s orders, been remarried to a senator. Tiberius was so overcome with sorrow that he followed her through the streets, weeping. Augustus heard of it and ordered Tiberius never to see her again. Although Augustus heaped honours on Tiberius, they did not compensate for Julia’s behaviour. In 6 bce Tiberius was granted the powers of a tribune and shortly thereafter went into a self-imposed exile on the island of Rhodes, leaving Julia in Rome.

Tiberius was now 36 years old and at the pinnacle of his power. He was capable of ruling an empire, conducting a great war, or governing a province of barbarians. In Rhodes he had nothing to do, and all of his ability and strength appear to have turned inward, into strange and unpleasant behaviour. Although the histories of Tiberius’s reign—written either by flatterers, like his old war comrade Velleius Paterculus, or by enemies—are not wholly trustworthy, there can be no question that a change took place in Tiberius at this time. What emerged was a man who seemed interested only in his own satisfactions and the increasingly perverse ways to find them. On Rhodes Tiberius became a recluse—unassuming and amiable at first, resentful and angry later on. Though Tiberius had left Rome of his own free will, daring the emperor’s wrath, he could not return without Augustus’s permission. Augustus withheld that permission for the better part of a decade.

Eventually, Livia secured proofs of Julia’s many adulteries and took them to Augustus, who was furious. Under his own law she should have been executed, but he did not have the heart for that; instead, he exiled her for life to the tiny island of Pandateria. But even then Tiberius was not recalled. There were three young men whom the emperor appeared to favour as heirs, all sons of Julia. One of them, Postumus, reportedly no more than a boor, fell into disfavour with Augustus and was sent into exile with his mother. The other two, Lucius and Gaius, were clearly candidates to succeed. But in 2 bce Lucius died in Massilia (Marseille), and the emperor relented. He called Tiberius back to Rome. By 4 ce Tiberius was in possession of all his honours again, and in that year Gaius was killed in a war in Lycia. Tiberius had become the second man in Rome. Augustus did not like him, but he adopted him as his son. He had no choice, and he was growing old. Tiberius was the least objectionable successor left.

Tiberius became proud and powerful. His statues had been torn down and defaced while he was in Rhodes. Now they were rebuilt. He was given command of an army to quell Arminius, who had destroyed three Roman legions at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 ce; he succeeded wholly. He was succeeding at everything now, and in 14 ce, on August 19, Augustus died. Tiberius, now supreme, played politics with the Senate and did not allow it to name him emperor for almost a month, but on September 17 he succeeded to the principate. He was 54 years old.