What kind of person was tiberius

And throughout his life, he was fascinated by Greek art and culture, deeply immersed in philosophy and literature. Installation view of Statue of Tiberius, Roman, A. As the th anniversary of his accession to power approaches in , Tiberius is deserving of a fair hearing. Paul Getty Museum. Exhibitions aside, my main research interests lie with ancient Greek vase-painting and the history of restorations.

Comments on this post are now closed. Please e-mail web getty. Without any intention to challenge deeply rooted picture of evil tail of Julian Emperors, must say there are many portions of roman life in general, we should revisited, with no Christian morality points later and up to date joined with technological instrumentaria. Such efforts will be rewarded greatly — question of ancient slavery Roman or gladiatorial shows, for example. So the most evil Emperor in such light could not be all wrong — there are much more chances that our view of the Julio-Claudian Rome has so many more flaws.

Tiberius is my seventy-first great-grandfather according to the deep, gray-hair inducing genealogical research I have done. This great military man and later imperator was an intelligent, oftentimes reserved, individual that many historians have sadly come to dismiss or denigrate.

Tiberius was earlier in his reign not one to always preside over or interfere with senatorial matters or with cases-in-law as Augustus had done. Tiberius can be described as timid but he was mostly reluctant. He already had an illustrious military career in his own right on the front lines in many frontiers and had grown exhausted from it, understandably so.

During his time in office as imperator, when he learned how the Senate had functioned capriciously, he decided that it was necessary after all in personally overseeing that true republican values be embodied and exercised for the good of the realm.

The imperator observed that Senators had overwhelmingly abused jurisprudence regarding the manner in which Romans were being punished. One other way in further observing that he held and practiced republican principles and tenets faithfully is in his foreign policy. He believed it was unnecessary and too costly for the Roman realm to always go about conquering or obtaining new frontiers or provinces.

He also sexually assaulted aristocratic women, causing one woman, Mallonia, such trauma that she was driven to suicide. There is, undoubtedly, a kernel of truth; the weight of sources and their cohesion making complete fabrication extremely unlikely. But Tiberius was hated by the Roman elite—far more so than his predecessor Augustus had been. Suetonius is the source for the most deplorable information.

And despite the clear bias, the disturbing truth is that Suetonius probably captures much more of Tiberius Caesar than we would like to think. Forgot your password? Lost your password? Please enter your email address. You will receive mail with link to set new password. Call Now Whatsapp. You might also like. This exclusive tour covers the most iconic buildings of ancient and Christian Rome, including the Colosseum and the Catacombs that line the Old Appian Way.

Explore the ruins of Ostia Antica, the region's best preserved ancient city. For Suetonius, character, though it may be temporarily masked, is not subject to change or development. His drinking was legendary, his sex life exceeded the worst imaginings. Surrounded by sexually explicit art-works, Tiberius was addicted to every kind of perversion, with boys, girls — even tiny children.

The accusations relating to oral sex would have aroused particular loathing on the part of Roman readers. What did Tiberius really get up to? Stories of this kind were part of the common currency of Roman political discourse. Suetonius devotes similar space to the sexual transgressions of Caligula, Nero, and Domitian — such behaviour is to be expected of a tyrant.

She persuaded Augustus to adopt him, following the deaths of his two adult grandsons. She helped to ensure a rival candidate was eliminated. Indeed Suetonius reports stories that the main reason Tiberius left Rome for Capri was to get away from his mother.

From: H. Helmolt ed. Tiberius never seemed to enjoy being emperor. In 26 A. With Tiberius in semi-retirement on Capri, Sejanus was left in charge of Rome, and he began to abuse his power.

Tiberius was not a popular emperor. He was tightfisted, and in contrast to the extensive building projects of Augustus and Agrippa—many of which were constructed for the enjoyment of the populace of Rome—Tiberius built almost nothing, nor did he sponsor lavish public spectacles for the common people.

Even when obligatory entertainments were given, he refused to attend—an action the people expected of their emperors. In his relationships with the Senate and other aristocrats, Tiberius was suspicious and unfriendly. Thus, he was unpopular with both the lower and upper classes of Roman society. Although his policies did not earn him the favor of the people, the empire was nonetheless run fairly efficiently under his rule, and his miserliness had the positive result that by the time Tiberius died, the treasury had a surplus of several billion sesterces.

During the last years of his life, Tiberius stayed in seclusion on Capri. He had always been a superstitious man, and during this time he was particularly influenced by his personal astrologer, Thrasyllus. According to some sources, Tiberius also indulged in various sexual perversions.

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