Phillip Vaderwidnt
Emperor of the Roman Empire
A bust of the Emperor Tiberius
Reign	14 - 37
Predecessor	Augustus
Successor	Caligula
Wives	1) Vipsania Agrippina, 20 BC to 12 BC 2) Julia the Elder, 11 BC to 2 BC
Issue	By 1) Julius Caesar Drusus By 2) 1, died in infancy
Names Tiberius Caesar Augustus (born Tiberius Claudius Nero)
Dynasty	Julio-Claudian
Father	Tiberius Nero
Mother	Livia

Tiberius Caesar Augustus, born Tiberius Claudius Nero (November 16, 42 BC – March 16 AD 37), was the second Roman Emperor, from the death of Augustus in AD 14 until his own death in 37. Tiberius was by birth a Claudian, son of Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia Drusilla. His mother divorced his father and remarried to Augustus in 39 BC. Tiberius would later marry Augustus' daughter Julia the Elder (from an earlier marriage) and even later be adopted by Augustus and by this act he became a Julian. The subsequent emperors after Tiberius would continue this blended dynasty of both families for the next forty years; historians have named it the Julio-Claudian dynasty.

Tiberius Claudius Nero is recognized as one of Rome's greatest generals, whose campaigns in Pannonia, Illyricum, Rhaetia and Germania laid the foundations for the northern frontier. But he came to be remembered as a dark, reclusive, and sombre ruler (tristissimus hominum – ‘the gloomiest of men’, by one account), who never really desired to be Emperor. After the death of Tiberius’ son Drusus in 23, the quality of his rule declined, and ended in a Terror. In 26 Tiberius exiled himself from Rome and left administration largely in the hands of his unscrupulous Praetorian Prefects Lucius Aelius Sejanus and Quintus Naevius Macro. Caligula, Tiberius’ adopted grandson, succeeded the Emperor on his demise.

==Early

With Tiberius's departure, succession rested solely on Augustus's two young grandsons, Lucius and Gaius Caesar. The situation became more precarious in 2 AD with the death of Lucius; Augustus, with perhaps some prompting from Livia, allowed Tiberius to return to Rome as a private citizen and nothing more. In 3 AD, Gaius was killed in Armenia and, to paraphrase Tacitus, Augustus had no other choice but to turn to Tiberius.

The death of Gaius in 3 AD initiated a flurry of activity in the household of Augustus. Tiberius was adopted as full son and heir along with the young Postumus Agrippa, the third son of Julia the Elder and Marcus Agrippa. In turn, Tiberius was required to adopt his nephew, Germanicus, the son of his brother Drusus and his niece Antonia Minor. Along with his adoption, Tiberius received tribunician power as well as a share of Augustus's maius imperium, something that no one else had ever shared. In 13 AD, these powers were made equal, rather than second, to Augustus's own powers. Tiberius was thus for all intents and purposes a "co-princeps" with Augustus, and upon the latter's passing in 14 AD, could simply continue to rule without an interregnum or possible upheaval.

Sejanus had served the imperial family for almost twenty years when he became Praetorian Praefect in 15 AD. As Tiberius became more embittered with the position of Princeps, he began to depend more and more upon the limited secretariat left to him by Augustus, and specifically upon Sejanus and the Praetorians. In 17 or 18 AD, Tiberius had trimmed the ranks of the Praetorian guard responsible for the defense of the city, and had moved it from encampments outside of the city walls into the city itself, giving Sejanus access to somewhere between 6000 and 9000 troops. The death of Drusus elevated Sejanus, at least in Tiberius's eyes, who thereafter refers to him as "my partner". Tiberius had statues of Sejanus erected throughout the city, and Sejanus became more and more visible as Tiberius began to withdraw from Rome altogether. Finally, with Tiberius's withdrawal in 26 AD, Sejanus was left in charge of the entire state mechanism and the city of Rome.

Sejanus's position was not quite that of successor; he had requested marriage in 25 BC to Tiberius's niece, Livilla, though under pressure quickly withdrew the request. While Sejanus's Praetorians controlled the imperial post, and therefore the information that Tiberius received from Rome and the information Rome received from Tiberius, the presence of Livia seems to have checked his overt power for a time. Her death in 29 AD changed all that. Sejanus began a series of purge trials of Senators and wealthy equestrians in the city of Rome, removing those capable of opposing his power as well as extending the imperial (and his own) treasury. Germanicus's widow and son were arrested and executed in 30 AD.

In 31, Sejanus held the consulship with Tiberius in absentia, and began his play for power in earnest. Precisely what happened is difficult to determine, but Sejanus seems to have covertly attempted to court those families who were tied to the Julians, and attempted to ingratiate himself into the Julian family line with an eye towards placing himself, as an adopted Julian, in the position of Princeps, or as a possible regent. Livilla was later implicated in this plot, and was later revealed to have been Sejanus's lover for a number of years. The plot seems to have involved the two of them overthrowing Tiberius, with the support of the Julians, and either assuming the Principate themselves, or serving as regent to the young Tiberius Gemellus or possibly even Gaius Caligula. Those who stood in his way were tried for treason and swiftly dealt with.

However, what is clear from the record is that when Sejanus finally did fall, the purges that ensued under Tiberius were almost all aimed at supporters of the Julians. In 32 AD Sejanus was summoned to a meeting of the Senate, where a letter from Tiberius was read condemning Sejanus and ordering his immediate execution. Sejanus was tried, and he and several of his colleagues were executed within the week.

Rome then erupted into even more extensive trials. Whereas Tiberius had been hesitant to act at the outset of his reign, now, towards the end of his life, he seemed to do so without compunction. The Senatorial ranks were decimated. Hardest hit were those families with political ties to the Julians. Even the imperial magistracy was hit, as any and all who had associated with Sejanus or could in some way be tied to his schemes were summarily tried and executed, their properties seized by the state.

Meanwhile, with Tiberius in Capri, rumors abounded as to what exactly he was doing there. Suetonius records livid tales of sexual perversity and cruelty, of sado-masochism and pederasty, and most of all his paranoia. While perhaps sensationalized, the stories at least paint a picture of how Tiberius was perceived by the Roman people, and what his impact on the Principate was during his 23 years of rule.

It is difficult not to feel conflicted about Tiberius. Were he to have died prior to 23 AD, he might have been hailed as an exemplary ruler. Despite the characterization above, the fact is, Tiberius left the imperial treasury 20 times richer than when he inherited it. Rather than embark on disastrous campaigns of conquest, he chose to strengthen the existing empire by building additional bases, using diplomacy as well as military threats, and generally refraining from getting sucked into petty squabbles between competing frontier tyrants. The result was a stronger, more consolidated empire.

The Gospels record that during Tiberius' reign, Jesus of Nazareth preached and was executed under the authority of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea. In the Bible, Tiberius is mentioned by name only once, in Luke 3:1, stating that John the Baptist entered on his public ministry in the fifteenth year of his reign. Many references to Caesar (or the emperor in some other translations), without further specification, actually refer to Tiberius.

Similarly, the "Tribute Penny" referred to in Matthew 22:19 and Mark 12:15 is popularly thought to be a silver denarius coin of Tiberius.

The town Tiberias on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee was named in Tiberius's honour by Herod Antipas.

1. For the etymology of the name, see under List of Roman praenomina.

• Annals of Tacitus, Books I-VI, Latin text with English translation
• Suetonius' biography of Tiberius, Latin text with English translation
• Cassius Dio's Roman History: Books 57-58, English translation
• Velleius Paterculus, Latin text with English translation
• Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 18, especially ch.6
• Suetonius. The Lives of the twelve Caesars: Tiberius

• V.Ehrenberg & A.H.M.Jones, Documents Illustrating the Reigns of Augustus and Tiberius, 2nd ed. Oxford 1955
• New York Times, Capri Grotto Found, Skin-Diver Links Discovery to Emperor Tiberius, August 13, 1956, Page 21.
• Robin Seager, Tiberius, London (Eyre Methuen) 1972
• Ronald Syme, The Augustan Aristocracy, Oxford (Clarendon Press) 1986

• De Imperatoribus Romanis
• RomansOnline
• UNRV

• Tacitus and Tiberius
• Suetonius and the reign of Tiberius: a comparison with other sources
• Pictures of Tiberius' villa on Capri
• Gallery of the Ancient Art: Tiberius
• http://tiberius.su-163.ru Imperor Tiberius

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