Tiberius
Mortal Roman emperor (42 BCE-37 CE); second emperor, reigned 14-37 CE. Born to Tiberius Claudius Nero of the gens Claudia and Livia Drusilla; raised in the imperial household after Livia's 39 BCE divorce-and-remarriage to Octavian. First marriage to Vipsania Agrippina was the canonical-historical happy-marriage of his life; in 12 BCE Augustus compelled him to divorce her to marry Iulia the Elder — the canonical-Suetonian wound he never forgave. Voluntary Rhodes-exile 6 BCE-2 CE. Adopted by Augustus on 26 June 4 CE into the gens Iulia by transitio ad plebem; thereafter legally Tiberius Iulius Caesar. Required by Augustus to first adopt Germanicus as condition of his own adoption — the canonical-Augustan succession-architecture. Acceded on Augustus's 14 CE death; the canonical-Tacitean recusatio imperii of Annales 1.5-15. From 26 CE retreated permanently to Villa Iovis on Capri; the Sejanus-ascendancy 26-31 CE destroyed the Germanicus-faction (Agrippina the Elder and her elder sons); Sejanus fell 18 October 31 CE through Tiberius's Senate-letter. Died 16 March 37 CE at Misenum; per Suetonius Tiberius 73 alternate-tradition, Caligula and Macro hastened his death by smothering. Not deified by the Senate — the canonical-historical first imperial-deification-refusal.
Children
Epithets
- Tiberius Caesar Augustus
- Pontifex Maximus
Relations
- sibling: Drusus the Elder
- social father: Augustus
- spouse: Iulia the Elder
- social father of: Germanicus
- spouse: Vipsania Agrippina
Sources
- Tacitus, Annales 1-6 (the canonical-Tacitean Tiberius-narrative)
- Suetonius, Tiberius (in De Vita Caesarum)
- Cassius Dio, Roman History books 57-58
- Velleius Paterculus 2.94-2.131 (contemporary, served under Tiberius in Germany)
- Philo of Alexandria, Legatio ad Gaium (refers to Tiberius's reign retrospectively)