What was tiberius famous for

However, Tiberius lacked Augustus' natural rapport with the Senate and he became increasingly unpopular. This contrasted strongly with the popularity of the charismatic Germanicus, his expected successor.

When Germanicus died in 19 AD, it was widely believed that Tiberius had poisoned him in order that his own son, Drusus, should succeed.

But in 23 AD, Drusus died, throwing open the question of the succession. Tiberius's reliance upon the ambitious and brutal Sejanus, the head of the Praetorian guard the imperial bodyguards , resulted in allegations of tyranny.

Cause of death is disputed, may have died of natural causes or been assassinated on the orders of Caligula his heir or Macro his praetorian prefect. Portrait of Tiberius, Copenhagen Glyptotek, September 18th Tiberius was a skilled general. In 6 BCE, under Augustus, he added large swaths of territory to the empire and helped protect its Rhine and Danube frontiers.

In AD 14, two thousand years ago this summer, the emperor Augustus, having dominated Rome for over forty years, finally breathed his last. The new emperor was his step-son Tiberius. He loved literature, philosophy, and art. He was just the kind of man who had dominated the senior echelons of the senate under the republic — a very traditional kind of Roman leader, it might seem. But among ancient commentators only Velleius Paterculus, who wrote during his reign, has much good to say.

Suetonius, in his biography, and Tacitus, in his Annals , offer a litany of damning criticisms. Tiberius, himself a great respecter of tradition, a stickler for proper procedure, seems to have found his position — as not quite fully acknowledged autocrat, expected to exercise personal dominance through what purported to be the old republican framework — deeply uncomfortable.

Unlike Augustus, he had no desire whatsoever to develop a warm relationship with the common people of Rome. Suetonius makes clear his total lack of interest in the games — a telling indicator. No money was spent on public works. He veered between insisting the Senate behave independently and dropping cryptic hints as to how he wanted it to vote. Yet his chief crime, in the eyes of some ancient critics, was deserting Rome. He entered the military service, performing ably and well, until suddenly, in 6 B.

It was at this time that he was named tribune, a high administrative post which he held for 10 years. At the death of Augustus in 14, Tiberius assumed control of the government, and his election as emperor was formally confirmed by the Roman Senate, although at this time no scheme of hereditary succession had been established.

As a contemporary historian, Tacitus, states, "Tiberius would inaugurate everything with the consuls, as though the ancient constitution remained, and he hesitated about being emperor. When he came to the throne, Tiberius was already a middle-aged man. His first marriage had been dissolved by order of Augustus, and he had been forced by the Emperor to marry Augustus's daughter, Julia, in 12 B. During his period of retirement in Rhodes, Tiberius had spent a great deal of time studying philosophy and literature, and according to Suetonius, one of his biographers, "he was greatly devoted to liberal studies in both languages, Greek and Latin.