Tiberius, a Roman emperor from 14 A.D. to 37 A.D., was successor to Augustus and second emperor of Rome. His reign is seen as a period of growth and consolidation of the power of the Julio-Claudian family.
Background
Tiberius, originally Tiberius Claudius Nero, was born on November 16, 42 B.C. in Rome, both his parents being members of noted Roman patrician families. His father was Tiberius Claudius Nero; his mother was Livia, who later divorced Claudius to marry Octavian. Tiberius was, therefore, the stepson of the future emperor and later became both his adopted son and heir, as well as his son-in-law. Tiberius was first introduced into public life at the age of 9, when he delivered a eulogy at his father's funeral.
Education
Tiberius was instructed in rhetoric, literature, diplomacy, and military skills, and soon he also began taking a ceremonial role in the affairs of state. Later in life he also spent a great deal of time studying philosophy, and according to Suetonius, one of his biographers, "he was greatly devoted to liberal studies in both languages, Greek and Latin."
Career
Tiberius's 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. He performed ably and well, until suddenly, in 6 B.C., he retired to Rhodes, supposedly incensed because Augustus had chosen one of his grandsons as heir, passing over Tiberius. In A.D. 2, Tiberius returned to Rome but without the approval of Augustus.
By A.D. 4, however, all of the Emperor's choices for the throne had died and, reluctantly, Augustus designated Tiberius as his successor. It was at this time that he was named tribune, a high administrative post which he held for 10 years.
In A.D. 13 his term as tribune was extended, and he was granted imperial power by the Senate as well. At the death of Augustus in 14, Tiberius assumed control of the government, and his election as emperor was formally confirmed by the Roman Senate, although at this time no scheme of hereditary succession had been established. When he came to the throne, Tiberius was already a middle-aged man. Although the opening years of Tiberius’s reign seem almost a model of wise and temperate rule, they were not without displays of force and violence, of a kind calculated to secure his power.
The latter years of his rule were marred by conspiracies, frequent trials for sedition (maiestas) in the Senate, and dangerous accusations from all sides. Tiberius became increasingly fearful for his safety. He was encouraged by his advisers to retire from public view. He went to Capri in A.D. 23, never again to return to Rome. In 37 he died, contemporary sources say, completely insane.
Achievements
Tiberius was a skillful administrator, conservative in matters of finance, whose reign marks the beginning of the Pax Romana, a period of 200 years of relative peace and stability. He did not attempt great new conquests. He did not move armies about or change governors of provinces without reason. He stopped the waste of the imperial treasury, so that when he died he left behind 20 times the wealth he had inherited, and the power of Rome was never more secure. He strengthened the Roman navy. He abandoned the practice of providing gladiatorial games. He forbade some of the more outlandish forms of respect to his office, such as naming a month of the calendar after him, as had been done for Julius Caesar and Augustus.
Politics
Tiberius’s laws and policies were both patient and far-seeing. One of his first official acts was the proclamation of the divinity of Augustus and the establishment of worship of the emperor-god. In the governing of the provinces, he followed the policies which had been established by Augustus. His military policy was to strengthen and fortify the defenses of the empire and to use diplomacy rather than force.
Personality
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.
Tiberius, never handsome, later in life had become repulsively ugly. First his skin broke out in blotches, and then his complexion became covered with pus-filled eruptions, exuding a bad smell and causing a good deal of pain.
He built himself a dozen villas ringing Capri, with prisons, underground dungeons, torture chambers, and places of execution. He filled his villas with treasure and art objects of every kind and with the enormous retinue appropriate to a Caesar: servants, guards, entertainers, philosophers, astrologers, musicians, and seekers after favour. If the near-contemporary historians are to be believed, his favourite entertainments were cruel and obscene. Even under the most favourable interpretation, he killed ferociously and almost at random. It is probable that by then his mind was disordered.
Quotes from others about the person
As Tacitus vividly describes: "Executions were now a stimulus to his fury, and he ordered the death of all who were lying in prison under accusation of complicity with Sejanus. There lay, singly or in heaps, the unnumbered dead, of every age and sex, the illustrious with the obscure. Kinsfolk and friends were not allowed to be near them, to weep over them, or even to gaze on them too long. Spies were set round them, who noted the sorrow of each mourner and followed the rotting corpses, till they were dragged to the Tiber, where, floating or driven on the bank, no one dared to burn or to touch them."
As a contemporary historian, Tacitus, states, "Tiberius would inaugurate everything with the consuls, as though the ancient constitution remained, and he hesitated about being emperor."
Connections
Tiberius was married two times. His first wife was Vipsania Agrippina, daughter of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa.
His first marriage was dissolved by order of Augustus, and he was forced by the Emperor to marry Augustus's daughter, Julia, in 12 B.C. Only his first union produced a child, Drusus Julius Caesar, who would survive to adulthood.
Father:
Tiberius Claudius Nero
Tiberius Claudius Nero (85–33 B.C.) was a politician who lived in the last century of the Roman Republic.
Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus (38 B.C. - 9 B.C.), born Decimus Claudius Drusus, also called Drusus Claudius Nero, Drusus, Drusus I, Nero Drusus, or Drusus the Elder was a Roman politician and military commander.
1st wife:
Vipsania Agrippina
Vipsania Agrippina (36 B.C. – 20 A.D.) was the first wife (19–11 B.C.) of the Emperor Tiberius. She was the daughter of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Pomponia Caecilia Attica.
2nd wife:
Julia the Elder
Julia the Elder (30 October 39 B.C. – A.D. 14) was the daughter and only biological child of Augustus, the first emperor of the Roman Empire. She was also a stepsister and second wife (11–2 B.C.) of the Emperor Tiberius.
Son:
Drusus Julius Caesar
Drusus Julius Caesar (14 B.C. – 14 September A.D. 23), was the son of Emperor Tiberius, and heir to the Roman Empire following the death of his adoptive brother Germanicus in A.D. 19.
