Tiberius in Roman Biography

Ti-be'ri-us, [Fr. Tibere, te'baiR' ; It. Tiberio, teba're- o,] or, more fully, Ti-be'rI-us Clau'dl-us Ne'ro, a celebrated emperor of Rome, born in 42 B.C. He was a son of Livia Drusilla, the wife of Augustus, by her first marriage, and belonged to the patrician peps Claudia, His father was T. Claudius Nero. At an early age he acquired a high reputation in military affairs, and served with distinction in Spain, Asia Minor, and Germany. His talents were respectable, if not superior. He was well versed in Greek and Latin literature. His first wife was Vipsania Agrippina, a daughter of Agrippa. About 12 B.C. he was compelled to divorce her, and to marry Julia, a daughter of the emperor Augustus. He passed seven years at Rhodes in retirement, and returned to Rome in 2 A.D. After the death of Caius Caesar, in 4 A.D., Augustus adopted Tiberius as his son and successor. He became emperor in the year 14, and at first used his power with moderation. He had a suspicious temper, and was a most artful dissembler. He chose for his favourite minister and adviser the infamous Sejanus, to whom he soon abandoned the direction of the government. Tiberius was suspected of being accessory to the death of Germanicus, (19 A.D.) His only son, Drusus, was poisoned by Sejanusin 23. In the year 26 he left Rome, to which he never returned, and retired to the island of Capri, (Capreae.) Avoiding publicity and neglecting affairs of state, he abandoned himself to debauchery. In 31 A.D. Sejamis was put to death by the order or permission of Tiberius, and Macro became the powerful favourite. Tiberius died in 37 A.D., without appointing his successor. It is stated that he was suffocated by Macro, by whose aid Caligula then became emperor. "The historian," says Macaulay, (referring to Tacitus,) " undertook to make us intimately acquainted with a man singularly dark and inscrutable,-with a man whose real disposition long remained swathed up in intricate folds of factitious virtues, and over whose actions the hypocrisy of his youth and the seclusion of his old age threw a singular mystery. . . . He was to exhibit the old sovereign of the world sinking into a dotage which, though it rendered his appetites eccentric and his temper savage, never impaired the powers of his stern and penetrating mind, conscious of failing strength, raging with capricious sensuality, yet to the last the keenest of observers, the most artful of dissemblers, and the most terrible of masters. The task was one of extreme difficulty. The execution is almost perfect." (Essay on " History.") See Suetonius, " Tiberius ;" Tacitus, " Annales ;" Sievers, "Tacitus und Tiberius," 1850: V. Duruy, " De Tiberio Imperatore," 1853 ; Merivai.e, " History of the Romans under the Empire ;" Hose, " De Tiberio Cajsare," 1661 ; "Nouvelle Biosraphie Generale."