Tiberius Caesar Augustus (or Tiberius I), born Tiberius Claudius Nero on November 16, 42 BC. Tiberius was a Claudian by birth, the son of Tiberius Claudius Nero. His mother divorced his father in 39 BC. Subsequent emperors after Tiberius would continue to mix the dynasties of both families for the next forty years; historians called it the Julio-Claudian dynasty.
Tiberius was one of Rome's greatest generals, whose campaigns in Pannonia and Germany presented the opportunity to lay the foundations for the northern frontier. Pliny the Elder called him tristissimus hominum, "the darkest of men." After the death of Tiberius, Julius Caesar's son Drusus took over power in 23 AD, but his reign ended in terror.
Tiberius Caesar Augustus (lat. Tiberius Caesar Augustus; born Tiberius Claudius Nero, lat. Tiberius Claudius Nero, 42 BC - 37) - the second Roman emperor (from 14) from the Julio-Claudian dynasty. According to the Bible, it was during his reign that Jesus Christ was crucified (Luke 3:1).
Also great pontiff (from 15), multiple consul of the Roman Empire (13 and 7 BC, 18, 21 and 31), multiple tribune (annually from 6 BC to 37). except 1 BC - 3 AD).
Full title at time of death: Tiberius Caesar Divi Augusti filius Augustus, Pontifex Maximus, Tribuniciae potestatis XXXIIX, Imperator VIII, Consul V - Tiberius Caesar Augustus, son of the Divine Augustus, Pontifex Maximus, vested with the power of tribune of the people 38 times, emperor 8 times, consul 5 times.
Tiberius was the first child in the family of Nero the Elder, who belonged to a branch of the ancient patrician Claudian family, descending from the consul Tiberius Claudius Nero, son of Appius Claudius Caecus.
Mother - Livia Drusilla, daughter of Marcus Claudian, born Appius Claudius Pulchrus. Marcus Claudian also belonged to one of the branches of the Claudian family, but adopted after the loss of his parents by Marcus Livius Drusus, he formally began to belong to the plebeian class. Tiberius, therefore, belonged to a patrician family on his father's side, unlike the first emperor Octavian Augustus, who received patrician status through his adoption by Julius Caesar.
Tiberius's father supported the Republicans, fought against Octavian during the Philippian War, then supported Pompey, then Mark Antony. He took part in the Perusian War on the side of Lucius Antony and Fulvia. In 40 BC e. his family was forced to flee Rome, fearing proscriptions and persecution by Octavian, who had won the civil war. First, Nero the Elder and Livia rushed to Sicily, then they fled to Greece with little Tiberius in their arms, born in Rome on November 16, 42 BC. e.
In 39 BC e. Octavian declared an amnesty, and Tiberius's parents were able to return to Rome. That same year, Libya was presented to Octavian. Legend has it that Octavian fell in love with Livia at first sight. One way or another, he divorced his second wife Scribonia on the very day she gave birth to his daughter Julia the Elder. At the same time, Nero the Elder was forced to divorce Livia, who was six months pregnant.
January 14, 38 BC e. Libya had a son, Drusus, and 3 days later Octavian married Libya. Her first husband (Nero the Elder) was present at the wedding as the father of Livia's children and also as the bride's estranged father. There were rumors that Drusus, Tiberius' brother, was actually the child of Octavian and not Nero the Elder.
Thanks to his mother's second marriage, Tiberius became the stepson of the most powerful man in the Roman Empire.
The problem facing Tiberius in 14 was primarily whether the principate could even be continued in the form in which it existed under Augustus. On September 17, 14, the Senate proclaimed the so-called “Statute of the Empire,” in which Augustus bequeathed not to expand the existing borders of the state. However, Tiberius generally neglected the Statute in his policies. He sought to create a collective leadership, as was the case before 27 BC. e., but was unable to realize his intention due to the refusal of the senators to share responsibility with the princeps.
The equality of the ruler in words was contradicted in the practice of prosecution for lese majeste of this very ruler. Tiberius at first resolutely opposed punishment for such crimes - in the first five known cases of the years 14-20, he showed restraint. However, in 15, when asked directly by the praetor whether personal insult to the princeps should be punished as a state crime (the practice under Augustus), Tiberius supported the application of the law. However, in reality, Tiberius did not enforce the law and did not apply the harsh measures provided for by the law. By this, he stopped possible abuses of informers, on whose testimony Roman justice relied.
Tiberius's domestic policy continued the traditions of Augustus. During his reign, the state treasury increased and the administration of the provinces improved, but the main result was the strengthening of the emperor's power.
Tiberius left a double impression of himself in history. On the one hand (if we start from the description of his reign by Tacitus), Tiberius was a gloomy, unsociable person, and the time of his reign was vague and terrible. Therefore, it is not surprising that the plebs, having learned about the death of the emperor, shouted “Tiberius to the Tiber!” However, it should be borne in mind that in the ranks of the Roman nobility, to which Tacitus, who came from a wealthy equestrian family, belonged, the attitude towards Tiberius was very negative. And even Tacitus, during the period of his life before coming to power, described Tiberius as a very worthy and exemplary husband, an outstanding commander.
Other authors of that era describe the personality of Tiberius differently. Suetonius, in his Lives of the 12 Caesars, speaks beautifully about Tiberius before his proclamation as emperor and about his first years in power. And when describing the second half of his reign, he does not forget to mention his modesty and generosity.
The Jewish scholar and historian Philo evaluates the activities of Tiberius even more positively, who contrasts him with Caligula. He repeatedly emphasizes the deep intelligence and insight of Tiberius, and about his reign he writes that “for twenty-three years that he bore the burden of power over land and sea, he did not leave a single seed of war in either Hellenic or barbarian land, but peace and Until his death, he distributed the benefits accompanying him with an unfailing hand and a generous heart.”
In the “Roman History” of Velleius Paterculus, Tiberius receives all sorts of praise. However, laudatory speeches are also given there to Sejanus. It is quite difficult to rely on this source, since during the time of Tiberius Paterculus served as prefect of the cavalry in Pannonia, and then as a legate there. There is also an assumption that Paterculus was friendly with Sejanus, for which he paid in 31, when he was executed along with other participants in the conspiracy.
The Israeli city of Tiberias, founded at the beginning of our era, is named in honor of Tiberius. When writing this article, material from the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron (1890-1907) was used.
Iberius, stepson, belonged to the ancient patrician family of the Claudians. His father, Nero the Elder, was Gaius Caesar's quaestor during the Alexandrian War and, being in command of the fleet, contributed greatly to his victory. During the Perusian War, he fought on the side of Lucius Antonius and, after defeat, fled first to Pompey in Sicily, and then to Antony in Achaea. At the conclusion of the general peace, he returned to Rome and here, upon request, he gave up his wife, Livia Drusilla, who by this time had already given birth to a son, Tiberius, and was pregnant with her second child. Soon after this, Nero the Elder died.
Tiberius's infancy and childhood were difficult and turbulent, as he accompanied his parents everywhere in their flight. Many times at this time his life was on the verge of death. But when his mother became his wife, his situation changed dramatically. He began his military service in 26 BC. during the Cantabrian campaign, where he was a military tribune, and a civil tribune in 23 BC, when in the presence of Augustus in several trials he defended King Archelaus, the inhabitants of Thrall and the inhabitants of Thessaly and brought to trial Fannius Caepio, who with Varro Murena conspired against, and achieved his conviction for lese majeste. That same year he was elected quaestor.
In 20 BC. Tiberius led the campaign of the Roman troops to the east, returned the Armenian kingdom to Tigranes and in his camp, in front of the commander’s rostrum, placed a diadem on him. He received the praetorship in 16 BC. After her, for about a year he ruled Shaggy Gaul, troubled due to the discord of leaders and raids of barbarians, and in 15 BC. waged war in Illyria with the Vindeliki and Reti. Tiberius first became consul in 13 BC.
He first married Agrippina, daughter of Marcus Agrippa. But although they lived in harmony and she had already given birth to his son Drusus and was pregnant for the second time, he was commanded in 11 BC. give her a divorce and immediately marry Julia, daughter of Augustus. For him it was an immeasurable mental torment; He had a deep heartfelt affection for Agrippina. Julia, with her disposition, was disgusting to him - he remembered that even with her first husband she was looking for intimacy with him, and they even talked about it everywhere. He yearned for Agrippina even after the divorce; and when he happened to meet her just once, he looked at her with such a look, long and full of tears, that measures were taken so that she would never come into his sight again. At first he lived in harmony with Julia and responded to her with love, but then he began to distance himself more and more from her; and after the death of his son, who was the key to their union, he even slept separately. This son was born in Aquileia and died while still an infant.
In 9 BC. Tiberius waged war in Pannonia and conquered the Brevkov and Dolmatians. For this campaign he was awarded an ovation. The following year he had to fight in Germany. They write that he captured 40,000 Germans, settled them in Gaul near the Rhine and entered Rome triumphantly. In 6 BC. he was given tribunician power for five years.
But amid these successes, in the prime of life and strength, he unexpectedly decided to retire and retire as far as possible. Perhaps he was pushed to this attitude towards his wife, whom he could neither blame nor reject, but could no longer tolerate; perhaps - the desire not to arouse hostility towards himself in Rome and to strengthen his influence by his removal. Neither the request of his mother, who begged him to stay, nor the complaint of his stepfather in the Senate that he was leaving him, did not shake him; Having met even more determined resistance, he refused food for four days.
Having finally obtained permission to leave, he immediately went to Ostia, leaving his wife and son in Rome, without saying a word to any of those accompanying him and kissing only a few goodbye. From Ostia he sailed along the coast of Campania. Here he lingered at the news of Augustus’s ill health; but since there were rumors that he was waiting to see if his wildest hopes would come true, he set out to sea almost in the middle of a storm and finally reached Rhodes. The beauty and healthy air of this island attracted him even when he dropped anchor here on his way from Armenia.
Here he began to live as a simple citizen, content with a modest house and a slightly more spacious villa. Without a lictor and without a messenger, he continually walked around the gymnasium and communicated with the local Greeks almost as an equal. He was a regular visitor to philosophical schools and readings.
In 2 BC. he learned that Julia, his wife, was convicted of debauchery and adultery, and that Augustus, on his behalf, gave her a divorce. He was glad to hear this news, but still considered it his duty, as much as he could, to intercede with his stepfather on behalf of his daughter in his repeated letters. The following year, Tiberius's term as tribune expired, and he thought about returning to Rome and visiting his relatives. However, in the name of Augustus it was announced to him that he should abandon all concern for those whom he had so willingly abandoned. Now he was already forced to stay in Rhodes against his will. Tiberius retired into the interior of the island, abandoned the usual exercises with a horse and weapons, abandoned his father’s clothes, put on a Greek cloak and sandals, and lived in this form for almost two years, every year more and more despised and hated.
Augustus allowed him to return only in 2 AD on the condition that he would not take any part in state affairs. Tiberius settled in the gardens of Maecenas, gave himself up to complete peace and was engaged only in private matters. But less than three years later, Gaius and Lucius, the grandchildren of Augustus, to whom he intended to transfer power, died. Then, in 4 AD, Augustus adopted Tiberius along with the brother of the deceased, Marcus Agrippa, but first Tiberius had to adopt his nephew Germanicus.
From then on, nothing was missed for the rise of Tiberius - especially after the excommunication and exile of Agrippa, when he obviously remained the only heir. Immediately after his adoption, he again received tribunician power for five years and was entrusted with the pacification of Germany. For three years Tiberius pacified the Cherusci and Chauci, strengthened the borders along the Elbe and fought against Marobod. In 6, news came of the fall of Illyria and the uprising in Pannonia and Dalmatia. This war was also entrusted to him, the most difficult of the external wars of the Romans after the Punic War. With fifteen legions and an equal number of auxiliary troops, Tiberius had to fight for three years under the greatest difficulties of all kinds and an extreme lack of food. He was recalled more than once, but he stubbornly continued the war, fearing that a strong and close enemy, having met a voluntary concession, would go on the attack. And for this perseverance he was generously rewarded: he subjugated and brought into submission the entire Illyricum, which stretches from Italy and Noricum to Thrace and Macedonia and from the Danube to the Adriatic Sea.
Circumstances gave even greater significance to this victory. Just around this time, Quintilius Varus with three legions died in Germany, and no one doubted that the victorious Germans would have united with the Pannonians if Illyricum had not been conquered before. Therefore, Tiberius was awarded a triumph and many other honors.
In 10, Tiberius again went to Germany. He knew that the reason for Var's defeat was the rashness and carelessness of the commander. Therefore, he showed extraordinary vigilance in preparing to cross the Rhine, and himself, standing at the crossing, checked each cart to see if there was anything in it beyond what was required and necessary. And beyond the Rhine he led such a life that he ate sitting on the bare grass and often slept without a tent. He maintained order in the army with the greatest severity, restoring the old methods of censure and punishment. With all this, he entered into battles often and willingly and in the end achieved success. Returning to Rome in 12, Tiberius celebrated his Pannonian triumph.
In 13, the consuls introduced a law so that Tiberius, together with Augustus, would govern the provinces and carry out a census. He performed the five-year sacrifice and went to Illyricum, but was immediately called back from the road to his dying father. He found August already exhausted, but still alive, and remained alone with him the whole day.
He kept the death of Augustus a secret until young Agrippa was killed. He was killed by a military tribune assigned to him to protect him, having received a written order to this effect. It is unknown whether this order was left by the dying Augustus or whether Livia dictated it on his behalf, with or without the knowledge of Tiberius. Tiberius himself, when the tribune reported to him that the order had been carried out, stated that he had not given such an order.
Although he, without hesitation, decided to immediately accept the supreme power and had already surrounded himself with armed guards, a guarantee and a sign of dominance, in words he renounced power for a long time, playing the most shameless comedy: he reproachfully told his pleading friends that they did not know what This monster - power, then with ambiguous answers and ostentatious indecisiveness kept the Senate in tense ignorance, approaching him with kneeling requests. Some even lost patience: someone, amid the general noise, exclaimed: “Let him rule or let him go!”; someone told him to his face that others were slow to do what they promised, and he was slow to promise what he was already doing. Finally, as if against his will, with bitter complaints about the painful slavery he imposed on himself, he assumed power. The reason for his hesitation was fear of the dangers that threatened him from all sides: two mutinies broke out among the troops at once, in Illyricum and Germany. Both armies made many extraordinary demands, and the German armies did not even want to recognize a ruler who had not been appointed by them, and with all their might they pushed Germanicus, who was in charge over them, to power, despite his decisive refusal. It was this danger that Tiberius feared most.
After the cessation of the riots, having finally gotten rid of fear, he initially behaved as an exemplary one. Of the many highest honors, he accepted only a few and modest ones. Even the name Augustus, which he received by inheritance, he used only in letters to kings and rulers. From then on, he received the consulate only three times. Servility was so disgusting to him that he did not allow any of the senators to approach his litter, either for greetings or on business. Even when he heard flattery in a conversation or in a lengthy speech, he immediately interrupted the speaker, scolded him and immediately corrected him. When someone addressed him as “Sovereign,” he immediately announced that they would not insult him like that again. But he endured disrespect, slander, and insulting poems about him patiently and steadfastly, proudly declaring that in a free state both thought and language should be free.
To the senators and officials he retained his former greatness and power. There was no matter, small or large, public or private, that he did not report to the Senate. And he always conducted other affairs in the usual manner through officials. The consuls were so respected that Tiberius himself invariably stood in front of them and always gave way.
But gradually he made himself feel like a ruler. His natural sullenness and innate cruelty began to appear more and more often. At first he acted with an eye on the law and public opinion, but then, filled with contempt for people, he gave full power to his secret vices. In 15, the beginning of the so-called lèse-majesté trials began. This old law was hardly applied under Augustus. When Tiberius was asked whether to bring those guilty under this law to trial, he replied: “The laws must be executed,” and they began to be executed with extreme cruelty. Someone removed the head from the statue of Augustus to replace it with another; the case went to the Senate and, due to doubts that arose, was investigated under torture. Little by little it came to the point that it was considered a capital crime if someone beat a slave in front of the statue of Augustus or disguised himself, if he brought a coin or a ring with the image of Augustus into a latrine or into a brothel, if he spoke without praise about any of his words or in fact. Tiberius was no less harsh towards his loved ones. For both of his sons - both his native Drusus and his adopted Germanicus - he never experienced fatherly love. Germanicus inspired envy and fear in him, since he enjoyed the great love of the people. Therefore, he tried in every possible way to humiliate his most glorious deeds, declaring them useless, and condemned the most brilliant victories as detrimental to the state. In 19, Germanicus suddenly died in Syria, and it was even believed that Tiberius was the culprit of his death, having given a secret order to poison his son, which was carried out by the governor of Syria, Piso. Not satisfied with this, Tiberius later transferred his hatred to the entire family of Germanicus.
His own son Drusus was disgusted with his vices, as he lived frivolously and dissolutely. When he died in 23 (as it turned out later, poisoned by his own wife and her lover Sejanus, prefect of the Praetorians), this did not cause any grief in Tiberius: almost immediately after the funeral, he returned to business as usual, prohibiting prolonged mourning. The envoys from Illion brought him condolences a little later than the others, and he, as if the grief had already been forgotten, mockingly replied that he, in turn, sympathized with them: after all, they had lost their best fellow citizen, Hector.
In 26, Tiberius decided to settle away from Rome. It is reported that he was expelled from the capital by the love of power of his mother Livia, whom he did not want to recognize as his co-ruler and whose claims he could not get rid of, because the power itself went to him through her: it was reliably known that Augustus was thinking of transferring the principate to Germanicus, and only after many At the request of his wife, he gave in to her persuasion and adopted Tiberius. This is what Livia constantly reproached her son, demanding gratitude from him. From then on, Tiberius never returned to Rome.
At first he sought solitude in Campania, and in 27 he moved to Capri - the island attracted him primarily because he could land on it in only one small place, and on the other sides it was surrounded by the highest cliffs and the depths of the sea. True, the people, with persistent requests, immediately achieved his return, since a misfortune occurred in Fidenae: the amphitheater collapsed at the gladiatorial games, and more than twenty thousand people died. Tiberius moved to the mainland and allowed everyone to come to him. Having satisfied all the petitioners, he returned to the island and finally left all government affairs. He no longer replenished the decuria of horsemen, appointed neither prefects nor military tribunes, nor replaced governors in the provinces; Spain and Syria were left without consular legates for several years, Armenia was captured by the Parthians, Moesia by the Dacians and Sarmatians. Gaul was devastated by the Germans - but he did not pay attention to this, to great shame and no less damage to the state.
Tiberius had at his disposal twelve villas with palaces, each of which had its own name; and as much as he had previously been absorbed in concerns about the state, he now indulged in secret lust and base idleness. He created special bed rooms, nests of hidden debauchery. Girls and boys gathered in crowds from everywhere vying with each other copulated in front of him in groups of three, arousing his fading lust with this spectacle. He decorated the bedrooms located here and there with paintings and statues of the most obscene nature and laid out the books of Elephantis in them, so that everyone in his work would have the prescribed model at hand. Even in forests and groves, he set up Venus’s places everywhere, where in grottoes and between rocks young people of both sexes portrayed fauns and nymphs in front of everyone. He also had boys of a very tender age, whom he called his fish and with whom he played in bed. He was prone to lust of this kind both by nature and by old age. Therefore, he not only accepted the painting of Parrhasius, which depicted the copulation of Meleager and Atlas, which was refused to him in his will, but also placed it in his bedroom. They say that even during a sacrifice he was once so inflamed by the charm of a boy carrying a censer that he could not resist, and after the ceremony he almost immediately took him aside and corrupted him, and at the same time his brother, the flute player; but when after that they began to reproach each other with dishonor, he ordered their knees to be broken. He also mocked women, even the most noble ones.
The year 29 turned out to be fatal for many of Tiberius’s loved ones. First of all, Livia, his mother, with whom he had been quarreling for many years, died. Tiberius began to move away from her immediately after taking power, and openly broke up after she, in a fit of annoyance at his ingratitude, read out some ancient letters of Augustus, where he complained about the cruelty and stubbornness of Tiberius. He was immensely offended that these letters had been kept for so long and had been used so maliciously against him. In all three years from his departure until her death, he saw her only once. He did not visit her when she fell ill, and made her wait in vain when she died, so that her body was buried only many days later, already decomposing and rotting. He forbade her deification, declared her will invalid, and dealt with all his friends and relatives very quickly.
Following this, the time came for boundless and merciless autocracy. During Livia’s life, there was still some kind of refuge for the persecuted, since Tiberius had long been accustomed to showing obedience to his mother, and Sejanus, his evil genius and earpiece, did not dare to rise above the authority of his mother; now both of them rushed, as if freed from the bridle, and attacked the widow of Germanicus Agrippina and her son Nero. Tiberius never loved her, but involuntarily hid his feelings, since the people transferred to her and her children the love that they always had for Germanicus. Sejanus vigorously fanned this hostility. He sent imaginary well-wishers to her so that, under the guise of friendship, they would warn her that poison had been prepared for her and that she should avoid the dishes offered to her by her father-in-law. And so, when Agrippina had to recline at the table near the princeps, she was gloomy and silent and did not touch a single dish. Tiberius noticed this; by chance, or perhaps wanting to test her, he praised the fruits placed in front of him and handed them to his daughter-in-law with his own hands. This further strengthened Agrippina’s suspicions, and she, without tasting the fruits, handed them over to the slaves.
After this, Tiberius did not even invite her to the table, offended by the fact that he was accused of poisoning. For several years Agrippina lived in disgrace, abandoned by all her friends. Finally, having slandered her that she wanted to seek salvation either from the statue of Augustus or from the army, Tiberius exiled her to the island of Pandateria, and when she began to grumble, her eyes were beaten out. Agrippina decided to die of hunger, but they forcibly opened her mouth and put food in her. And even when she, stubbornly, died, Tiberius continued to viciously pursue her: from now on he ordered her very birthday to be considered unlucky. Agrippina's two sons, Nero and Drusus, were declared enemies of the fatherland and starved to death.
However, Sejanus was not able to reap the benefits of his treachery. In 31, already suspecting him of intrigues against himself, Tiberius, under the pretext of a consulate, removed Sejanus from Capri. Then Antonia, the widow of his brother Drusus, reported to Tiberius that Sejanus was preparing a conspiracy, intending to deprive him of power with the help of the Praetorians. Tiberius ordered the prefect to be captured and executed. During the investigation, many of Sejan's atrocities were revealed, including the fact that Drusus, the son of Tiberius, was poisoned on his orders. After this, Tiberius became especially fierce and showed his true colors. Not a day passed without an execution, be it a holiday or a sacred day. Children and their children's children were condemned along with many. Relatives of those executed were forbidden to mourn them. Any reward was awarded to the accusers, and often to the witnesses as well. No denunciation was denied credibility. Any crime was considered criminal, even a few innocent words. The corpses of those executed were thrown into the Tiber. An ancient custom forbade killing virgins with a noose - therefore, minor girls were molested by the executioner before execution. Many were tortured and executed on Capri, and then their corpses were thrown from a high cliff into the sea. Tiberius even came up with a new method of torture: people were given pure wine while they were drunk, and then their members were suddenly bandaged, and they suffered from the cutting bandage and retention of urine.
Shortly before his death, he went to Rome, but, seeing its walls from afar, he ordered to turn back without ever entering the city. He hurried back to Capri, but fell ill in Astura. Having recovered a little, he reached Misen and then fell ill completely. When those around decided that Tiberius’s breathing had stopped and began to congratulate Tiberius, the last surviving son of Germanicus and his heir, they suddenly reported that Tiberius had opened his eyes, his voice had returned and he was asking to bring him food. This news shocked everyone, but the praetorian prefect Macron, who had not lost his composure, ordered the old man to be strangled by throwing a heap of clothes over him. This was the end of Tiberius in the seventy-eighth year of his life.
Konstantin Ryzhov: “All the monarchs of the world: Greece. Rome. Byzantium"Tiberius I, Claudius Nero - Roman emperor from the Julius-Claudian family, who ruled in 14-37. Gen. November 16, 42 BC. + March 16, 37
Tiberius, stepson of Augustus, belonged to the ancient patrician family of the Claudians. His father was Gaius Caesar's quaestor during the Alexandrian War and, being in command of the fleet, contributed greatly to his victory. During the Perusian War, he fought on the side of Lucius Antonius and, after defeat, fled first to Pompey in Sicily, and then to Antony in Achaea. At the conclusion of the general peace, he returned to Rome and here, at the request of Augustus, he gave up his wife, Livia Drusilla, who by this time had already given birth to a son, Liberius, and was pregnant with her second child. Soon after this, Claudius died. Tiberius's infancy and childhood were difficult and turbulent, as he accompanied his parents everywhere in their flight. Many times at this time his life was on the verge of death. But when his mother became the wife of Augustus, his situation changed dramatically. He began his military service in 26 BC. during the Cantabrian campaign, where he was a military tribune, and a civil tribune in 23 BC, when in the presence of Augustus in several trials he defended King Archelaus, the inhabitants of Thrall and the inhabitants of Thessaly and brought to trial Fannius Caepio, who Varro Murena conspired against Augustus, and achieved his conviction for lese majeste. That same year he was elected quaestor.
In 20 BC. Tiberius led the campaign of Roman troops to the east, returned the Armenian kingdom to Tirana and in his camp, in front of the commander’s rostrum, placed a diadem on him. He received the praetorship in 16 BC. After her, for about a year he ruled Shaggy Gaul, troubled due to the discord of leaders and raids of barbarians, and in 15 BC. waged war in Illyria with the Vindeliki and Reti. Tiberius first became consul in 13 BC.
He first married Agrippina, daughter of Marcus Agrippa. But although they lived in harmony and she had already given birth to his son Drusus and was pregnant for the second time, he was told in II BC. give her a divorce and immediately marry Julia, daughter of Augustus. For him this was immeasurable mental torment: he had deep heartfelt affection for Agrippina. Julia, with her disposition, was disgusting to him - he remembered that even with her first husband she was looking for intimacy with him, and this was even talked about everywhere. He yearned for Agrippina even after the divorce; and when he happened to meet her just once, he looked at her with such a look, long and full of tears, that measures were taken so that she would never come into his sight again. At first he lived in harmony with Julia and responded to her with love, but then he began to distance himself more and more from her; and after the death of his son, who was the key to their union, he even slept separately. This son was born in Aquileia and died while still an infant.
In 9 BC. Tiberius waged war in Pannonia and conquered the Brevkov and Dolmatians. For this campaign he was awarded an ovation. The following year he had to fight in Germany. They write that he captured 40,000 Germans, settled them in Gaul near the Rhine and entered Rome triumphantly. In 6 BC. he was given tribunician power for five years.
But amid these successes, in the prime of life and strength, he unexpectedly decided to retire and retire as far as possible. Perhaps he was pushed to this attitude towards his wife, whom he could neither blame nor reject, but could no longer tolerate; perhaps the desire not to arouse hostility towards himself in Rome and to strengthen his influence by his removal. Neither the request of his mother, who begged him to stay, nor the complaint of his stepfather in the Senate that he was leaving him, did not shake him; Having met even more determined resistance, he refused food for four days.
Having finally obtained permission to leave, he immediately went to Ostia, leaving his wife and son in Rome, without saying a word to any of those accompanying him and kissing only a few goodbye. From Ostia he sailed along the coast of Campania. Here he lingered at the news of Augustus’s ill health; but since there were rumors that he was waiting to see if his wildest hopes would come true, he set out to sea almost in the middle of a storm and finally reached Rhodes. The beauty and healthy air of this island attracted him even when he dropped anchor here on his way from Armenia.
Here he began to live as a simple citizen, content with a modest house and a slightly more spacious villa. Without a lictor and without a messenger, he continually walked around the gymnasium and communicated with the local Greeks almost as an equal. He was a regular visitor to philosophical schools and readings.
In 2 BC. he learned that Julia, his wife, was convicted of debauchery and adultery, and that Augustus, on his behalf, gave her a divorce. He was glad to hear this news, but still considered it his duty, as much as he could, to intercede with his stepfather on behalf of his daughter in his repeated letters. The following year, Tiberius's term as tribune expired, and he thought about returning to Rome and visiting his relatives. However, in the name of Augustus it was announced to him that he should abandon all concern for those whom he had so willingly abandoned. Now he was already forced to stay in Rhodes against his will. Tiberius retired into the interior of the island, abandoned the usual exercises with a horse and weapons, abandoned his father’s clothes, put on a Greek cloak and sandals, and lived in this form for almost two years, every year more and more despised and hated.
Augustus allowed him to return only in 2 AD on the condition that he would not take any part in state affairs. Tiberius settled in the gardens of Maecenas, gave himself up to complete peace and was engaged only in private matters. But not even three years had passed since Gaius and Lucius, the grandchildren of Augustus, to whom he intended to transfer power, died. Then, in 4 AD, Augustus adopted Tiberius along with the brother of the deceased, Marcus Agrippa, but first Tiberius had to adopt his nephew Germanicus.
From then on, nothing was missed for the rise of Tiberius - especially after the excommunication and exile of Agrippa, when he obviously remained the only heir. Immediately after his adoption, he again received tribunician power for five years and was entrusted with the pacification of Germany. For three years Tiberius pacified the Cherusci and Chauci, strengthened the borders along the Elbe and fought against Marobod. In 6, news came of the fall of Illyria and the uprising in Pannonia and Dalmatia. This war was also entrusted to him, the most difficult of the external wars of the Romans after the Punic War. With fifteen legions and an equal number of auxiliary troops, Tiberius had to fight for three years under the greatest difficulties of all kinds and an extreme lack of food. He was recalled more than once, but he stubbornly continued the war, fearing that a strong and close enemy, having met a voluntary concession, would go on the attack. And for this perseverance he was generously rewarded: he subjugated and brought into submission the entire Illyricum, which stretches from Italy and Noricum to Thrace and Macedonia and from the Danube to the Adriatic Sea.
Circumstances gave even greater significance to this victory. Just around this time, Quintilius Varus died in Germany with three legions, and no one doubted that the victorious Germans would have united with the Pannonians if Illyricum had not been conquered before. Therefore, Tiberius was awarded a triumph and many other honors.
In 10, Tiberius again went to Germany. He knew that the reason for Var's defeat was the rashness and carelessness of the commander. Therefore, he showed extraordinary vigilance in preparing to cross the Rhine, and himself, standing at the crossing, checked each cart to see if there was anything in it beyond what was required and necessary. And beyond the Rhine he led such a life that he ate sitting on the bare grass and often slept without a tent. He maintained order in the army with the greatest severity, restoring the old methods of censure and punishment. With all this, he entered into battles often and willingly and in the end achieved success. Returning to Rome in 12, Tiberius celebrated his Pannonian triumph.
In 13, the consuls introduced a law so that Tiberius, together with Augustus, would govern the provinces and carry out a census. He performed the five-year sacrifice and went to Illyricum, but was immediately called back from the road to his dying father. He found August already exhausted, but still alive, and remained alone with him the whole day. ***
He kept the death of Augustus a secret until young Agrippa was killed. He was killed by a military tribune assigned to him to protect him, having received a written order to this effect. It is unknown whether this order was left by the dying Augustus or whether Livia dictated it on his behalf, with or without the knowledge of Tiberius. Tiberius himself, when the tribune reported to him that the order had been carried out, stated that he had not given such an order.
Although he, without hesitation, decided to immediately accept the supreme power and had already surrounded himself with armed guards, a guarantee and a sign of dominance, in words he renounced power for a long time, playing the most shameless comedy: he reproachfully told his pleading friends that they did not know what This monster - power, then with ambiguous answers and ostentatious indecision kept the Senate in tense ignorance, which approached him with kneeling requests. Some even lost patience: someone, amid the general noise, exclaimed: “Let him rule or let him go!”; someone told him to his face that others were slow to do what they promised, and he was slow to promise what he was already doing. Finally, as if against his will, with bitter complaints about the painful slavery he imposed on himself, he assumed power.
The reason for his hesitation was fear of the dangers that threatened him from all sides: two mutinies broke out among the troops at once, in Illyricum and Germany. Both armies made many extraordinary demands, and the German armies did not even want to recognize a ruler who had not been appointed by them, and with all their might they pushed Germanicus, who was in charge over them, to power, despite his decisive refusal. It was this danger that Tiberius feared most.
After the cessation of the riots, having finally gotten rid of fear, he initially behaved as an exemplary one. Of the many highest honors, he accepted only a few and modest ones. Even the name Augustus, which he received by inheritance, he used only in letters to kings and rulers. From then on, he received the consulate only three times. Servility was so disgusting to him that he did not allow any of the senators to approach his litter, either for greetings or on business. Even when he heard flattery in a conversation or in a lengthy speech, he immediately interrupted the speaker, scolded him and immediately corrected him. When someone addressed him as “Sovereign,” he immediately announced that they would not insult him like that again. But he endured disrespect, slander, and insulting poems about him patiently and steadfastly, proudly declaring that in a free state both thought and language should be free.
To the senators and officials he retained his former greatness and power. There was no matter, small or large, public or private, that he did not report to the Senate. And he always conducted other affairs in the usual manner through officials. The consuls were so respected that Tiberius himself invariably stood in front of them and always gave way.
But gradually he made himself feel like a ruler. His natural sullenness and innate cruelty began to appear more and more often. At first he acted with an eye on the law and public opinion, but then, filled with contempt for people, he gave full power to his secret vices. In 15, the beginning of the so-called lèse-majesté trials began. This old law was hardly applied under Augustus. When Tiberius was asked whether to bring those guilty under this law to trial, he replied: “The laws must be executed,” and they began to be executed with extreme cruelty. Someone removed the head from the statue of Augustus to replace it with another; the case went to the Senate and, due to doubts that arose, was investigated under torture. Little by little it came to the point that it was considered a capital crime if someone beat a slave in front of the statue of Augustus or disguised himself, if he brought a coin or a ring with the image of Augustus into a latrine or into a brothel, if he spoke without praise about any of his words or in fact. Tiberius was no less harsh towards his loved ones. For both of his sons - both his native Drusus and his adopted Germanicus - he never experienced fatherly love. Germanicus inspired envy and fear in him, since he enjoyed the great love of the people. Therefore, he tried in every possible way to humiliate his most glorious deeds, declaring them useless, and condemned the most brilliant victories as detrimental to the state. In 19, Germanicus suddenly died in Syria, and it was even believed that Tiberius was the culprit of his death, having given a secret order to poison his son, which was carried out by the governor of Syria, Piso. Not satisfied with this, Tiberius later transferred his hatred to the entire family of Germanicus.
His own son Drusus was disgusted with his vices, as he lived frivolously and dissolutely. When he died in 23 (as it turned out later, poisoned by his own wife and her lover Sejanus, prefect of the Praetorians), this did not cause any grief in Tiberius: almost immediately after the funeral, he returned to business as usual, prohibiting prolonged mourning. The envoys from Illion brought him condolences a little later than the others, and he, as if the grief had already been forgotten, mockingly replied that he, in his turn, sympathized with them: after all, they had lost their best fellow citizen Hector (Suetonius: “Tiberius”; 4, 6, 7-22, 24-28, 30-31, 38, 52,58). ***
In 26, Tiberius decided to settle away from Rome. It is reported that he was expelled from the capital by the love of power of his mother Livia, whom he did not want to recognize as his co-ruler and whose claims he could not get rid of, because the power itself went to him through her: it was reliably known that Augustus was thinking of transferring the principate to Germanicus, and only after many At the request of his wife, he gave in to her persuasion and adopted Tiberius. This is what Livia constantly reproached her son, demanding gratitude from him (Tacitus: “Annals”; 4; 57). From then on, Tiberius never returned to Rome.
At first he sought solitude in Campania, and in 27 he moved to Capri - the island attracted him primarily because he could land on it in only one small place, and on the other sides it was surrounded by the highest cliffs and the depths of the sea. True, the people, with persistent requests, immediately achieved his return, since a misfortune occurred in Fidenae: the amphitheater collapsed at the gladiatorial games, and more than twenty thousand people died. Tiberius moved to the mainland and allowed everyone to come to him. Having satisfied all the petitioners, he returned to the island and finally left all government affairs. He no longer replenished the decuria of horsemen, appointed neither prefects nor military tribunes, nor replaced governors in the provinces; Spain and Syria were left without consular legates for several years, Armenia was captured by the Parthians, Moesia by the Dacians and Sarmatians. Gaul was devastated by the Germans - but he did not pay attention to this, to great shame and no less damage to the state (Suetonius: “Tiberius”; 39-41). Tiberius had at his disposal twelve villas with palaces, each of which had its own name; and as much as he had previously been absorbed in concerns about the state, he now indulged in secret lust and base idleness (Tacitus: “Annals”; 4; 67). He created special bed rooms, nests of hidden debauchery. Girls and boys gathered in crowds from everywhere vying with each other copulated in front of him in groups of three, arousing his fading lust with this spectacle. He decorated the bedrooms located here and there with paintings and statues of the most obscene nature and laid out the books of Elephantis in them, so that everyone in his work would have the prescribed model at hand. Even in forests and groves, he set up Venus’s places everywhere, where in grottoes and between rocks young people of both sexes portrayed fauns and nymphs in front of everyone. He also had boys of a very tender age, whom he called his fish and with whom he played in bed. He was prone to lust of this kind both by nature and by old age. Therefore, he not only accepted the painting of Parrhasius, which depicted the copulation of Meleager and Atlas, which was refused to him in his will, but also placed it in his bedroom. They say that even during a sacrifice he was once so inflamed by the charm of a boy carrying a censer that he could not resist, and after the ceremony he almost immediately took him aside and corrupted him, and at the same time his brother, the flutist; but when after that they began to reproach each other with dishonor, he ordered their knees to be broken. He also mocked women, even the most noble ones.
The year 29 turned out to be fatal for many of Tiberius’s loved ones. First of all, Livia, his mother, with whom he had been quarreling for many years, died. Tiberius began to move away from her immediately after taking power, and openly broke up after she, in a fit of annoyance at his ingratitude, read out some ancient letters of Augustus, where he complained about the cruelty and stubbornness of Tiberius. He was immensely offended that these letters had been kept for so long and had been used so maliciously against him. In all three years from his departure until her death, he saw her only once. He did not visit her when she fell ill, and made her wait in vain when she died, so that her body was buried only many days later, already decomposing and rotting. He forbade her deification, and declared the will invalid, but dealt with all his friends and relatives very quickly (Suetonius: “Tiberius”; 43-45, 51).
Following this, the time came for boundless and merciless autocracy. During Livia’s life, there was still some kind of refuge for the persecuted, since Tiberius had long been accustomed to showing obedience to his mother, and Sejanus, his evil genius and earpiece, did not dare to rise above the authority of his mother; now both of them rushed, as if freed from the bridle, and attacked the widow of Germanicus Agrippina and her son Nero (Tacitus: “Annals”; 5; 3). Tiberius never loved her, but involuntarily hid his feelings, since the people transferred to her and her children the love that they always had for Germanicus. Sejanus vigorously fanned this hostility. He sent imaginary well-wishers to her so that, under the guise of friendship, they would warn her that poison had been prepared for her and that she should avoid the dishes offered to her by her father-in-law. And so, when Agrippina had to recline at the table near the princeps, she was gloomy and silent and did not touch a single dish. Tiberius noticed this; by chance, or perhaps wanting to test her, he praised the fruits placed in front of him and handed them to his daughter-in-law with his own hands. This further strengthened Agrippina’s suspicions, and she, without tasting the fruits, handed them over to the slaves (Tacitus: “Annals”; 4; 54). After this, Tiberius did not even invite her to the table, offended by the fact that he was accused of poisoning. For several years Agrippina lived in disgrace, abandoned by all her friends. Finally, having slandered her that she wanted to seek salvation either from the statue of Augustus or from the army, Tiberius exiled her to the island of Pandateria, and when she began to grumble, her eyes were beaten out. Agrippina decided to die of hunger, but they forcibly opened her mouth and put food in her. And even when she, stubbornly, died, Tiberius continued to viciously pursue her: from now on he ordered her very birthday to be considered unlucky. Agrippina's two sons, Nero and Drusus, were declared enemies of the fatherland and starved to death.
However, Sejanus was not able to reap the benefits of his treachery. In 31, already suspecting him of intrigues against himself, Tiberius, under the pretext of a consulate, removed Sejanus from Capri (Suetonius: “Tiberius”; 53-54, 65). Then Antonia, the widow of his brother Drusus, reported to Tiberius that Sejanus was preparing a conspiracy, intending to deprive him of power with the help of the Praetorians (Flavius: “Jewish Antiquities”; 18; 6; 6). Tiberius ordered the prefect to be captured and executed. During the investigation, many of Sejan's atrocities were revealed, including the fact that Drusus, the son of Tiberius, was poisoned on his orders. After this, Tiberius became especially fierce and showed his true colors. Not a day passed without an execution, be it a holiday or a sacred day. Children and their children's children were condemned along with many. Relatives of those executed were forbidden to mourn them. Any reward was awarded to the accusers, and often to the witnesses as well. No denunciation was denied credibility. Any crime was considered criminal, even a few innocent words. The corpses of those executed were thrown into the Tiber. An ancient custom forbade killing virgins with a noose, so minor girls were molested by the executioner before execution. Many were tortured and executed on Capri, and then their corpses were thrown from a high cliff into the sea. Tiberius even came up with a new method of torture: people were given pure wine while they were drunk, and then their members were suddenly bandaged, and they suffered from the cutting bandage and retention of urine.
Shortly before his death, he went to Rome, but, seeing its walls from afar, he ordered to turn back without ever entering the city. He hurried back to Capri, but fell ill in Astura. Having recovered a little, he reached Misenum and then fell ill completely (Suetonius: “Tiberius”; 61-62, 72-73). When those around decided that Tiberius’s breathing had stopped and began to congratulate Gaius Caesar, the last surviving son of Germanicus and his heir, they suddenly reported that Tiberius had opened his eyes, his voice had returned and he asked to bring him food. This news shocked everyone, but the Praetorian prefect Macron, who had not lost his composure, ordered the old man to be strangled by throwing a heap of clothes over him. This was the end of Tiberius in the seventy-eighth Year of his life (Tacitus: “Annals”; 50).
“In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was in charge of Judea, Herod was tetrarch in Galilee, Philip his brother was tetrarch in Ituraea and the Trachonite region, and Lysanias was tetrarch in Abilene, under the high priests Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God was to John, son of Zechariah, in the wilderness. And he went through all the surrounding country of Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Luke 3:1-3).
TIBERIUS I, Claudius Nero (November 16, 42 BC - March 16, 37) - Roman emperor from the Julio-Claudian family, who ruled in 14–37. With perseverance and dedication, he achieved military successes in Armenia, Galia, Pannonia, Illyria, Germany, and returned to Rome in triumph several times. But having become emperor, he became indifferent to the interests of the empire. He completely abandoned government affairs. He grew in cruelty and unbridled character. Torture, executions, violence, sadism. At the seventy-eighth year of his life he was strangled.
Tiberius' father, Nero the Elder, belonged to a branch of the ancient patrician Claudian family. Fought against Octavian during the Philippian War. In 40 BC. Tiberius's family was forced to flee from persecution by Emperor Octavian Augustus, but after an amnesty they returned to Rome. In 39 BC. Tiberius's mother, Livia, was introduced to Octavian, who fell in love with her, divorced her on the very day his daughter Julia the Elder was born, and forced Nero the Elder to divorce Livia while she was expecting a child. In 38 BC. Livia had a son, Drusus, and 3 days later Octavian married her. When Nero the Elder died, the brothers Tiberius and Drusus moved to their mother, to the house of their stepfather, Emperor Octavian Augustus.
In 20 BC. Tiberius married Vipsania Agrippina, daughter of the prominent Roman military leader Marcus Agrippa. In 12 BC. The husband of Julia the Elder, Octavian's son-in-law, Agrippa, whom Octavian Augustus considered as his heir, died. Octavian chose Tiberius as his successor, forced him to divorce his beloved wife Vipsania and marry his daughter Julia the Elder. It is possible that due to poor relations with his second wife, Tiberius went into voluntary exile to Greek Rhodes, where he lived as a simple citizen and attended philosophical schools. In 2 A.D. Octavian Augustus condemned his daughter for debauchery and, on behalf of Tiberius, gave her a divorce. In 4, the emperor declared Tiberius his successor. In 14, Emperor Octavian Augustus died, and his will indicated his only heir, Tiberius.
He lived the first 12 years of his reign in Rome. At first he acted with an eye on the law and public opinion, but then, filled with contempt for people, he gave full power to his secret vices. As much as he had previously been absorbed in concerns about the state, he now indulged in secret lust and base idleness (Tacitus: “Annals”; 4; 67). In 27 he moved to the island. Capri, where he indulged in debauchery, and during the last 10 years of his reign he never appeared in Rome. He no longer replenished the decuria of horsemen, appointed neither prefects nor military tribunes, nor replaced governors in the provinces; Spain and Syria were left without consular legates for several years, Armenia was captured by the Parthians, Moesia by the Dacians and Sarmatians. Gaul was devastated by the Germans - but he did not pay attention to this, to great shame and no less damage to the state (Suetonius. “Tiberius”. 39–41).
He became especially angry in the last 6 years of his old age. He killed his relatives with hatred. He invented torture. Not a day passed without an execution, be it a holiday or a sacred day. Children and their children's children were condemned along with many. Relatives of those executed were forbidden to mourn them. Any reward was awarded to the accusers, and often to the witnesses as well. No denunciation was denied credibility. Any crime was considered criminal, even a few innocent words. The corpses of those executed were thrown into the Tiber. Many were tortured and executed on Capri, and then their corpses were thrown from a high cliff into the sea.
Shortly before his death, Tiberius went to Rome. On the way he became ill and took to his bed. But those close to him did not wait for his death and strangled the old man.
Even before becoming emperor, Tiberius was friendly with Herod Antipas, who was raised and studied in Rome with his brother Aristobulus. Friendly relations continued when Herod Antipas became tetrarch 1 and Tiberius became emperor. In 17 A.D. Herod Antipas built a city on the southwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee, named after Tiberius - Tiberias, or Tiberias, which is why the lake acquired another name - Tiberias. Tiberius removed the high priest Annas and installed Caiaphas as the high priest Joseph. During the reign of Tiberius, Pontius Pilate was appointed prefect of Judea (from 26 to 37 AD), under whom Jesus Christ was crucified. 
"Tiberius and Agrippina". Peter Paul Rubens, 1614
1. In dr. Greece: ruler of four regions or one-fourth of a region (tetrarchy).
Only for a short time; but grief over the vices and misfortunes of his own family tormented him incessantly. Augustus was married three times, but had only one daughter, Julia, from his second wife Scribonia. Julia, who from her earliest youth indulged in terrible debauchery and over the years more and more threw away all shame, morality and decency, was married for the first time to Marcus Marcellus, son of the noble Octavia, from her first marriage to Gaius Marcellus. Octavian's son-in-law and nephew Augustus seemed to be of the same character as his mother, and everyone around him loved the young man just as much as she did. Augustus appointed him as his successor, but Marcellus (23 BC) died a premature death, leaving no heirs. Then Augustus married for the third time, to a power-hungry Libya , widow of Tiberius Claudius Nero. Libya used all sorts of machinations to place her sons from her first marriage, Tiberius and Druze. A skilled intriguer, she understood well how to manage her husband without appearing to interfere in government affairs. Livia not only resignedly endured her husband’s frequent infidelities, but sometimes, in order to better take advantage of his weaknesses, she even helped him with her influence on women. She soon achieved her goal: we have already seen what high places her sons occupied in the army; in every military enterprise, in every significant state matter, Drusus and Tiberius enjoyed preference over everyone.
Emperor Tiberius. Bust
But in general, no matter how great the influence of Livia on Augustus, the emperor must have known well the character of his stepsons and only in extremity decided to appoint them as his heirs. After the death of Marcellus, he preferred his friend Agrippa to them, to whom he owed the victory, and whom he had previously showered with all kinds of favors. Having married him to the widow of Marcellus, he looked at him as his future successor. But Agrippa, who had from. Julia had three sons and two daughters, died (in 12 BC), and then Tiberius, the beloved son of Livia, began to appear wherever circumstances required the presence of the emperor's plenipotentiary representative. Finally, Julia was given in marriage to him; Livia's hope of seeing him as heir to the throne was thus close to being realized, but was again dashed when Agrippa's eldest sons, Gaius and Lucius Caesar, reached an age that allowed them to take part in public affairs. Unfortunately, both young men did not have any military talents, and besides, spoiled early by the bad upbringing of their depraved mother and court flattery, they did not show the slightest ability for public affairs. Despite this, their death was a misfortune for the whole world, because Octavian Augustus was then forced to transfer his imperial rule to the most terrible person in his family, Tiberius. A sad chronicle of that time claims that Libya got rid of her grandchildren by poison. Be that as it may, Tiberius was adopted by Augustus and declared heir to the imperial throne, with the obligation, in turn, to adopt and accept as co-ruler his nephew, the son of Drusus. But Augustus soon had to remove the only surviving natural grandson, the son of Agrippa and Julia, Agrippa Posthumus, born after the death of his father. Although this young man was adopted by Augustus, he soon showed such wild and animal inclinations and indulged in such unbridled debauchery that his grandfather had to exile him to one deserted island of the Mediterranean Sea. Soon after, the emperor was forced to remove his mother from Rome. For her highly depraved lifestyle, she was exiled to a small island off the Campanian coast. Augustus never saw Julia again, who died in poverty, shortly after her third husband’s accession to the throne.
Beginning of the reign of Tiberius
In 14 AD, seventy-year-old Augustus died, leaving his stepson Tiberius an empire composed of the most heterogeneous parts. Unfortunately, he did not make a healthy political body out of it, directing it to the legal path by issuing a constitution. The very reign of Augustus was closer to a real despotism, seeking the favor of low flatterers and the mob and relying on the army, than to a true monarchy, the strength of which lies in the people themselves. Everything was based on the personality of the sovereign, and this main character trait of the new form of government was revealed with all its shortcomings and horrors when, after the death of Augustus, power passed into the hands of the Emperor Tiberius - a man whose predominant qualities were envy, timidity, sensuality and cruelty. Roman wits said that Augustus deliberately chose this man as his heir so that the meekness of his own rule would stand out even more clearly in comparison with the cruel tyranny of Tiberius. Only misanthropes can believe something like this without evidence, and in general, asserting anything without positive grounds is a sign of a perverse and diseased mind. In the appointment of Tiberius, we are more likely to see the cause of Libya. By forcing his successor to adopt Germanicus, Augustus, at least for a short time after his death, protected the world from the terrible consequences of the tyrant’s rabid character.
Roman aureus. On the right is Tiberius, on the left is his mother, Livia
Emperor Tiberius, who reigned from 14 to 37 AD, was a man of gloomy character, prone to cruelty and despotism. In addition, in his relationship with Augustus, from early youth he was accustomed to such pretense, which very few sovereigns possessed. He never let anyone notice what he wanted, and his words and gestures rather said the exact opposite of what was nested in his soul. Tiberius always acted kindly to those he hated, and was harsh and cold to those he liked. He persecuted and hated those who guessed it, and many during his reign were executed only because they understood and solved it. And Tiberius’s first government act was cunning and pretense. Immediately after the death of Augustus, he called the imperial guard to himself, gave orders to the troops as emperor, ordered the death of Agrippa Postumus, as a dangerous rival, and despite the fact that before the meeting of the Senate he showed that he did not want to take power, and convened the senators only in order to to read to them the will of Augustus and consult with them about the honors that should be given to the deceased. When Augustus, by the verdict of the Senate, was recognized as a god and buried with all possible splendor, Tiberius stood on ceremony for some time, saying that he did not consider himself capable of taking on the onerous responsibility of a ruler, and only after formal requests from the Senate did he accept the rank of emperor.
Tiberius and Germanicus
The first eight years of the reign of Emperor Tiberius were generally quite gentle and fair, because fear of Germanicus kept his hatred of people within certain limits. He had to be wary of his nephew - especially since he stood at the head of the eight legions entrusted to him by Augustus to conquer Germany, and the army loved their brave leader so much that immediately upon news of the death of Augustus they asked him to accept the rank of emperor. Although Germanicus rejected this proposal, Tiberius had to be all the more careful not to give cause for displeasure because Germanicus had brilliant success in Germany, and the respect of the people and soldiers for him grew more and more. Therefore, in the first years of his reign, Tiberius fulfilled all the duties of a wise ruler. He eased taxes and rejected the proposal made to him to introduce new taxes, saying that “a good shepherd should shear his sheep, and not flay them.” Tiberius removed from the Senate the pitiful flatterers, of whom there were many; prohibited welcoming speeches with the title of sovereign, unusual in Rome, and sometimes patiently endured the murmurs of some senators, declaring publicly that in a free Senate there should be free speech. He accepted invitations from Roman nobles, paid them visits, and in general in all his actions did not appear to be not only a despot, but even an emperor.
But in fact, all the efforts of Tiberius from the very beginning were aimed at removing Germanicus from his German legions under a plausible pretext. Tiberius considered this possible in 17 AD, when the German war, which had already cost a lot of people and money, did not bring the slightest benefit other than glory. He recalled his nephew to Rome, gave him a brilliant triumph, and then sent him to the East as commander-in-chief. Germanicus waged a glorious war there with the border peoples for two years, but was insulted several times by the Roman governor of Syria, and finally poisoned by him (in 19 A.D.). An investigation was launched into his killer, but the accused, seeing that Tiberius wanted to hand him over, took his own life, or perhaps was killed on the secret orders of the emperor himself.
Tiberius and the temporary worker Sejanus
From this time on, the real character of Emperor Tiberius began to emerge more and more clearly; the vileness of the people crowding around him makes him more and more courageous in carrying out his planned crimes, until in 23 AD he becomes his favorite Sejan , which finally turns him into a complete tyrant. Sejanus, the son of Seus Strabo, who commanded the guard under Augustus, belonged to the class of horsemen. By pacifying the extremely dangerous uprising of the Pannonian legions, he came into favor with Tiberius and, after the death of his father, became prefect praetorians or the chief of the guard. His first order upon assuming a new position was to change the permanent apartment of the praetorians, which had very important consequences. Under Augustus, the guards in Rome were maintained only by three cohorts of Praetorians and a small detachment of Germans and Spaniards, and most of the guards were stationed throughout Italy. At the suggestion of Sejanus, Tiberius gathered the entire guard in Rome and, together with the detachments already in the capital, stationed them in fortified camp at the gates of Rome. He used the pretext that otherwise it would be difficult to gather soldiers even in case of emergency, and that relations with the city residents would spoil them. This measure had a decisive influence on the fate of the entire state, because, having changed the relationship of the praetorians and their superiors to the sovereign and to the citizens, it made the emperor dependent on his guard and made its commander the second person in the state.
From then on, Tiberius's reign became completely despotic and military. He no longer hid from anyone, and the temporary worker Sejanus was an obedient and capable instrument of all his plans. Brutal persecution and bloody executions were carried out daily; anyone who aroused suspicion was expelled or condemned to execution. Remorse and melancholy haunted the tyrant Tiberius among his activities, which constituted his entertainment; he suspected everyone: his family, the best writers of his time, and everything noble and good. Sejan masterfully supported this secret fear of his sovereign and did not allow him to deviate from the path he had once chosen. But neither Sejanus nor Tiberius were the real inventors of this terrible government system, which was then introduced for the first time and which was then imitated by all the cruel emperors. It was rather a natural consequence of the moral state of the generation of which Tiberius and Sejanus were representatives. Debauchery, luxury and idleness became the only goal of life for the majority of the Romans: all the best aspirations, all the highest motives were sacrificed to it. From the very beginning, the senators, with their base flattery, showed the emperor that they were ready to tolerate all kinds of despotism, and showered him with such great honors that he himself once remarked to them with mockery that it would be better if they waited until the end of his reign before deciding to give him such extraordinary honors! Thus, then, as always, the abomination and insignificance of the governed caused and made possible this terrible tyranny of the ruler. Emperor Tiberius and his temporary worker could not have abused their power so terribly if they had not been dealing with a weakened, immoral, cowardly and cowardly generation.
Only the complete corruption, insignificance and baseness of the Romans were the reason that during the reign of Tiberius people made a real craft out of espionage, slander and denunciations, and that this sad occupation developed more and more under subsequent governments, poisoning with itself all the vital juices of the state. In fact, as soon as in the second year of the reign of Tiberius, Roman Gispon, a poor man from the lower stratum of the mob, managed to acquire wealth and influence through false slander and, by his example, showed countless other informers the way to wealth and nobility, when slander and false denunciations began to be made more and more often and more frequently, and every honored or high-ranking man was more and more exposed to danger as the moral corruption of Roman society increased. Thus, it was not tyrants like Sejanus, who with the light hand of Tiberius began to dominate the empire, who corrupted the morals and morals of the Roman world, but rather they themselves became so under his influence. Of course, here, as in everything, there was interaction, and such a hypocritical ruler, incapable of anything good, as Tiberius, must have acted extremely destructively on a generation that sacrificed to the most despicable self-love all the noblest aspirations of the heart and the great memories of the past and not only endured all baseness, but voluntarily volunteered for it.
With the cessation of public life, debauchery began to make rapid progress, and the introduction of military despotism, the persecution of the best and the reign of gloomy violence plunged the Roman world more and more into sensual pleasures and debauchery, which reached their highest degree in the era of emperors. In general, by the example of his own debauchery, Emperor Tiberius had an extremely harmful influence on morals. In the first best years of his reign, he still tried to curb the passion for pleasure that possessed him. But with the appearance of the temporary worker Sejan on the scene, he himself, from day to day, more and more indulged in sensual pleasures, although he was already at that age when a person usually tries to tame his passions. Tiberius's own nature, on which everything beautiful, good and noble had absolutely no influence, and the interest of those who either wanted to fake him out of self-interest and thirst for pleasure, or, like Sejanus, to control him through his own passions, attracted the emperor to his shameful depravity.
Masterfully taking advantage of the emperor's weaknesses, Sejanus gained such power over the secretive and distrustful Tiberius that the historian Tacitus explains this as a miracle, attributing it not so much to the skill of this weasel as to the anger of the gods against Rome. The clever chief of the guard tried with all his might to consolidate the power he had seized and for this purpose, by means of poison, he got rid of the son of Tiberius, aroused in the soul of the tyrant distrust of the members of his own family and persuaded him to expel some relatives. In 29, Sejanus even managed to persuade Tiberius to leave Rome; Thus, full scope was opened for his influence. According to other news, Emperor Tiberius left the capital voluntarily, wanting to hide his shameful way of life from the crowd, or ashamed to show the people his person, exhausted by voluptuousness: in his old age he became stooped and thin, and completely lost his hair, his face was riddled with wrinkles and very everything was often covered with bandages. But this news does not quite agree with what other historians say about Tiberius’ appearance. Leaving Rome, the emperor traveled for some time around Campania, and then retired to the islet of Capri, which promised him many pleasures with its warm winters and cool summers, and in addition, with its inaccessible shores, protected him from all attacks. Here he indulged in the most shameful and unnatural amusements, while Sejanus, as the governor of the Emperor Tiberius, took care of the execution of his brutal orders and committed the same cruelties to strengthen his own power. Sejanus persecuted throughout Italy all persons who belonged to the imperial family or who in any way tried to incite the people against him or against the tyrant; the insignificant Senate was only an obedient instrument of his plans. Having surrounded every somewhat respected person with spies, Sejanus constantly maintained the distrust and fear of the emperor; the same one, whom he held as if in captivity, gave him all kinds of honors, so that finally, in the words of one ancient historian, it seemed that the temporary Sejanus was the emperor, and Tiberius the ruler of one island of Capri.
Remains of Tiberius's villa in Capri
Sejanus already felt so strong that he began to think about how to become emperor himself. Already in temples, squares and in many private houses one could see his statues next to the images of the reigning family, when suddenly Tiberius lost interest in him. The emperor, who in the last years of his life was almost always drunk, once either himself, in a moment of sobriety, saw where he had gone, or was frightened by Sejanus’ request to marry the imperial princess to him, who revealed to him the real intentions of the temporary worker, or was finally warned by his brother’s widow Druse, who gave him a note. Be that as it may, Emperor Tiberius immediately decided to kill his confidant and plenipotentiary minister. To do this, he used all the tricks of his pretense. Either he treated Sejanus in a friendly manner, giving him hope of agreeing to the marriage he desired, and thus restrained the man who had become strong and loved by the soldiers from taking any decisive step; then he wrote to him that he was dying, and certainly wanted to return to Rome; he either patronized Sejan's creatures, or rejected his proposals and showed signs of disfavor towards him.
Finally, ordering one of his confidants, Macron, whom he had already predicted in advance to take the place of prefect of the guard, to arrest Sejanus, he acted so carefully that not a single eastern despot, ordering the execution of his vizier, could have acted more cunningly than Tiberius. Since the tribunate, by transferring the supreme power of the people to the person of the emperor, acquired much greater importance than before, Sejanus was lured into the Senate with false news that the senators, by order of Tiberius, should transfer to him the dignity of tribune. At the same time, Macron, having shown the praetorians standing guard at the Senate building, the order of Tiberius appointing him, Macron, prefect of the guard, ordered the soldiers to remove all night guards, and presented each praetorian, on behalf of the emperor, with an amount equivalent to 228 Russian pre-revolutionary rubles . Tiberius’ letter to the Senate first spoke about extraneous things, then followed several light reproaches to Sejanus, then something else again, and finally, at the very end, an order to arrest Sejanus. At the slightest movement in favor of Sejanus, Macron had to miss the end, and could give the letter a completely different look. But the matter had a good outcome; Immediately after reading the letter, Sejanus was arrested, and not a single voice was raised in his favor. Although the emperor’s letter did not say a word about his execution, for fear of a riot by the guards, the senators, who understood the will of Tiberius very well, despite his silence, immediately ordered Sejanus to be executed (31 AD). Then, by order of Tiberius, the innocent children of Sejanus, all his other relatives and even just acquaintances were executed. At first, these cruelties were clothed in the legal form of a trial, but it seemed to the emperor that this was too long, and he organized a general massacre, ordering, without any trial, all the arrested friends of Sejanus to be executed at once.
With the fall of Sejanus, cruelties followed one after another. Mistrust, greed and deep hatred of people took possession of the emperor’s soul, and his rule began to be more and more based on brutal violence alone, that is, military power, horror and fear. Tiberius was already more than seventy years old, and he still drank and had fun like the most dissolute youth. Finally, in the 78th year of his life, the emperor fell ill, and seeing the proximity of death, he carefully tried to hide his situation. He pretended to be cheerful and healthy, started hunting, and drove around Campania and the seashore, as if he was going to return to Rome. One day, during these walks, he fell very seriously ill: he fainted, which everyone took for death. Macron and everyone around Tiberius immediately swore allegiance Gaius Caesar Caligula, the son of Germanicus, who was the inseparable companion of his grandfather, the companion of his orgies and the performer of all his whims. He was adopted by Tiberius, and declared heir to the throne.
Death of Tiberius. Artist J.-P. Laurent, 1864
The court had barely had time to congratulate Caligula as emperor when news suddenly arrived that Tiberius was still alive and demanded dinner. This news spread general confusion. Caligula would have died if he had not taken some quick and decisive measure; so he immediately followed the advice of the chief of the guard, Macro, who was in the same danger, and allowed him to strangle old Tiberius with pillows (in March 37 AD).
