Tiberius Caesar Augustus

Tiberius Caesar Augustus is remembered as the gloomiest of emperors, but everything I’ve learned about him seems to point at his being the most conniving and conspiratorial of emperors. It starts with his adoptive father, Octavian Caesar Augustus, the first Roman Emperor. When Octavian fell ill in 23 B.C. there came up the problem of succession, since there was no precedent for how it would work, his being the first emperor. He decided to have his friend Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, a military general, be the next emperor. Because of this he had his adoptive son Tiberius marry Marcus’ daughter Vipsania Agrippina, which Tiberius was happy to do. Marcus then when to Pannonia (a land northeast of Italy) to conquer it and improve himself in the public eye, when he died swiftly and surprisingly of illness. This is extremely coincidental, though it does not immediately implicate Tiberius. After Marcus’ death the next candidate for Emperor was in fact the sons of Marcus, who Octavian had helped raise, Gaius and Lucius Caesar. Which one would have eventually been emperor is unknown, because shortly after their fathers death they went on a diplomatic mission to Gaul and, surprise surprise, both fall ill, dying only two years apart. With this happening Octavian decided to have Tiberius more solidly integrated into his family, so he had Tiberius divorce Vipsania and marry Julia Caesar Filia, Octavian’s biological daughter, Tiberius’ adoptive sister. Neither one was very happy with this arrangement and this began Tiberius’ slide into depression. The reason why Octavian wanted Tiberius firmly in his family was in fact Tiberius’ son, Drusus Julius Caesar, who was charismatic and ideal for the throne. Not only that, but he was best friends with Germanicus Julius Caesar, an extremely popular war hero, which would be ideal for Drusus keeping the army under control. Unfortunately for the good of the empire, Drusus had a falling out with his fathers top man, Sejanus, and it is widely believed that Sejanus poisoned Drusus to death. While there was a concern for a political position that could’ve started this animosity, I believe it is more likely that Tiberius had his best friend kill his (Tiberius’) own son so that he could inherit the crown. After all this time Octavian is seriously close to dying, so he accepts Tiberius as his heir on one condition: Tiberius accept Germanicus as his heir. Tiberius promises to do this and Octavian dies peacefully. As emperor Tiberius immediately banishes his wife Julia out of the empire on the grounds that she had slept with another man. Later on Germanicus dies of poisoning, and officially Tiberius is infuriated and sentences the poisoner, a governor, to death. However, I think that Tiberius hired the man to poison Germanicus and then stabbed him (the governor) in the back and had him killed so that no one would know what he had done. After this he raised Germanicus’ son as his own, later installing him as emperor Caligula. For more on him I have another blog post about his life. Overall though Tiberius didn’t do much during the greater part of his reign, only the beginning and end as I have stated here. Though none of this conspiracy from Tiberius is official I believe that the coincidences line up too well. That’s why I think Tiberius is the most conniving and disgusting Roman Emperor.