Cruelty Flashcards
What does Suetonius say about his grimness
“some aspects of his criminal obscenity are almost too vile to discuss, much less believe”
little boys
trained little boys to swim having him and nibble and lick between his legs
babies
Babies not yet weaned from their mothers breast suck at his groin instead
what had he become according to Suetonius
“Such a filthy old man he had become!”
his horrific rape story
while sacrificing he took an erotic fancy to the attendant carrying the incense casket, could hardly wait before the ceremony was over before raping him and his brother the pipe player.
When they protested at his crime he had their legs broken
women
- used to play nasty tricks on women
Summoned Mallonia to his bed, she showed such repugnance that he set informers on her tracks. During her trial he repeatedly shouted “are you sorry?” She committed suicide
positioning of cruelty
his sexual perversions cruelty to family uncaring to his sons cruelty to Agrippina Cruelty to her sons Cruelty to Senate section that this had been apparent in his boyhood and earlier on in his reign (now seems believable) people could be executed for all these reasons his lust for seeing people suffer soon he broke out in every sort of cruelty no day passed without an execution every crime became a capitol one 50-61
Senators
Tiberius had asked the senate to chose 20 of their most prominent members. Of these barely two or three survived. All the rest he killed, one way or another
He got angry that someone new things about his studies
At dinner he used to pose questions arising from his daily study.
A grammaticus had been finding out what books he was reading from the imperial servant, he came prepared with all the answers. Hearing of this Tinerius dismissed him from his company and later forced him to commit suicide.
his cruelty had been perceptible in his earlier behaviour
Signs of his dour and savage character could be distinguished even in boyhood. His rhetorician teacher “mud, kneeded with blood”
what set a precedent for far fetched accusations
a man was accused of decapitating an image of Augustus with a plan to substitute another head.
A conflict of evidence so Tiberius had the witnesses examined under torture. The offender sentenced to death
(set a precedent for far fetched accusations)
what could people be executed for
people could be executed for beating a slave
For changing their clothes in front of a statue of Augustus
For carrying a coin bearing Augustus’s image into a brothel
For criticising anything Augustus had ever said or done
A man was executed for letting an honour be voted him by his town council on the same day honours had once been voted Augustus.
why did he really reform public morals
Pretext of reforming public morals, reality to gratify his lust for seeing people suffer
satires
Many satires were written about the evils of the days, gloomy fears about the future.
Tiberius dismissed them as the work of bilious malcontents who were impatient with his reforms
(doesn’t listen to the people
When he had just arrived in Caprae
A few days after he came to Capreae a fisherman intruded on his solitude presenting him with an enormous fish. Tiberius was so terrified that he had managed to limb the cliff he ordered his guards to rub the fisherman’s face with it. Skinning it raw, he shouted that he was glad he didn’t bring the crab, which Tiberius had it sent for and used in the same way.
Other than the fisherman story, what other ridiculous things did he have people punished for
a praetorian guard once stole a peacock from his garden and was sentenced to death.
Tiberius litter was held up by a bramble, the centurion whose task it had been to choose the right path flogged till he nearly died.
his cruelty after the death of sejanus
Sejanus out of the way his savage rise increased. Sejanus had not, therefore, been inciting him to commit them, merely providing the opportunity.
Why did Tiberius kill Sejanus
- in Tiberius’ autobiography, he asserted Sejanus had been killed for persecuting Nero and Drusus
Nero died when Sejanus was already suspicious and Drusus when he had fallen from power.
What does Suetonius say about his barbarities
A detailed list of his barbarities would take a long time to compile so I will SKETCH out the chief categories
executions
no day (however holy) passed without an execution, even the beginning of the new year
accusations
Many men accused with their children, some by their children, their relatives forbidden to go into mourning
informers
An informers word was always believed
Informers and sometimes witnesses were voted special rewards
treatment of crimes
Every crime became a capitol one, even the utterance of a few careless words.
a poet and a historian
Poet who wrote a tragedy presenting Agamemnon in bad light and a historian who had called Brutus and Cassisus “the last of the Romans” —> bothe executed, their works destroyed though one had been publicly read before Augustus and accorded general praise.
if they tried to escape trial by death
Some accused to avoid the humiliation of a trial severed an artery. Tiberius’ men bandaged up their wounds and hurried them half dead to prison
Some drank poison in full we view of the senate
bodies of the executed
The bodies of all executed people were flung on the a Gemonian Stairs and dragged to the Tiber with hooks, as many as 20 a day, including women and children.
virgins
Tradition forbade the arrange ling of virgins, so little girls were first violated. (Suetonius probably generalising from the death of Sejanus’ young daughter in AD 31
his belief in the sentence of death
Upset to punish with life those who wished to die, considered death a comparatively light affliction.
A prisoner begged to die “no we are not yet friends again”
easily influenced
A man who attended the banquet recorded in his memoirs that a loud mouthed dwarf asked why Paconius was still alive after being charged with maiestas a few days later Tiberius asked the senate to make a quick decision about Paconius’ execution.
After he found out about Drusus’ death
Redoubled his cruelties
a witness of the Drusus trial
Mistook a man, arrived from his own friendly invitation, for a witness, out him to torture. Executed him to avoid publicising the scandal.
his torture methods
(embedded in the narrative)
“They still show the place where” he Used to watch his victims being thrown into the sea after long and exquisite tortures. Marines below sacked them till they were completely dead.
Trick the men into drinking huge draughts of wine and tying a cord tightly round their genitals, cutting into the flesh and prevented them from urinating.
His cruelties would have been more if
Thrasyllus convinced him that he still had many years of life in hand (so less people died)
