Tiberius

Question 1

Tiberius

Answer 1

Emperor 14-37 AD
Son of Livia. not Augustus

Question 2

Accession

Answer 2

Tacitus- ‘grand sentiments of this kind seemed to be merely a front’ (wanted to seem legitimate, talk of republic etc)

Suetonius- ‘Did not hesitate to assume and enact’ (backed by Tacitus)

Accession hampered by mutiny in lower Germany:
Tacitus- ‘mutiny broke out’
Tacitus- ‘joy and anxiety’ (Germanicus won favour of soldiers in victory)

Question 3

Germanicus

Answer 3

Tacitus- ‘Appointed Germanicus …required Tiberius to adopt him’
-‘Source of Joy and anxiety to Tiberius … Germanicus had won the soldiers’ favour’

-Tiberius sent Piso to follow after Germanicus and undermine him
-Germanicus went to Egypt without permission
-fell Ill, believed Piso the cause

Question 4

Sejanus

Answer 4

Tacitus- ‘towering ambition’
-sent tiberius to nice place to die

Suetonius- ‘After the death of Sejanus, he was more cruel than ever’

Velleius- ‘held to high regard by the people’

Dio- ‘treated as if actually emperor’
-presented Tiberius as ‘one time monarch’
-Tiberius calls him ‘the sharer of my cares’

Swiftly executed in 31 AD- Tacitus

Question 5

Challenges to reign

Answer 5

Tacfarinas- Africa: 15-24 AD
Tacitus- tells of revolts/attacks on governors in Africa
-After quick campaign, didn’t kill him but
‘Tiberius … chose to treat it as it had ended’

Question 6

Treason Trials

Answer 6

Tacitus- describes around 80 treason trials through his narrative

Suetonius- agrees on his actions being ‘most savagely’ in nature

Seneca- so commonplace it became a ‘Common Madness’
-false allegation - ‘killed more innocent Romans than any civil wars’
(though this was most definitely an exaggeration)

Question 7

Religion and imperial cult

Answer 7

Sources show reluctance to accept honours etc

Caesar and Augustus already deified (shows some involvement)

Suetonius- ‘of many high offers presented…accepted a few of the more modest’

Gytheion inscription- doesn’t allow the Peloponnesians to worship him

Question 8

Relations with: PLEBS

Answer 8

They hated him

Tacitus- ‘the new men…introduced their household thrift’

Suetonius- ‘never did he erect any noble edifice’
-‘Only twice did he show public munifence’
-‘To the Tiber with Tiberius’

Velleius- ‘what public buildings did he erect in his name or the name of his family’

Question 9

Relations with: SENATE

Answer 9

Tacitus- ‘men primed for slavery’

-‘not did the senate care wether dishonour fall on extreme frontiers of the empire’

Also for all classes, particularly these 2, talk about MAJESTAS TRIALS

EQUESTRIANS
nothing specific but expected the same as other two