Tiberius

Robin Seager traces the life of Tiberius from his birth in Rome in 42 bc during the death throes of the Republic, through his military career and reign as Emperor, to his death in ad 37. Tiberius’ complex character is the key to understanding his reign. Challenging the common ancient view of Tiberius as a consummate hypocrite, Seager portrays him instead as a man whose virtues and beliefs were corrupted by power, who lost his grasp of reality as his fears of conspiracy and assassination spiralled out of control, and who finally resorted to ruling by terror. The second edition of this highly readable biography contains a substantial afterword, reconsidering various questions and discussing important new evidence that has come to light since the book was first published.

Illustrations. Preface to the Second Edition. Preface to the First Edition. Chronological Table. Abbreviations. Stemma. Maps. 1 Tiberius′ Childhood: The Political Background. The End of the Republic. Tiberius’ Birth and Infancy: The Triumvirate. The Augustan Principate. 2 Tiberius and Augustus. Tiberius’ First Steps in Public Life. The Succession: Marcellus and the Sons of Agrippa. The Northern Frontier: Rhaetia and Vindelicia. The Succession: Tiberius’ Marriage to Julia. The Northern Frontier: Illyricum and Germany. Tiberius’ Retirement to Rhodes. Tiberius’ Adoption. The Northern Frontier: Germany and Pannonia. Tiberius the Successor of Augustus. 3 The Accession of Tiberius. The Death of Augustus and the Removal of Agrippa Posthumus. The Interim and the Meeting of the Senate on 17 September. 4 Germanicus and Drusus. The Mutinies on the Danube and the Rhine. The German Campaigns of 15. The German Campaigns of 16. The Trial of Libo and the Rising Clemens. Drusus in Illyricum. Germanicus in the East. The Trial of Piso. The Succession: Drusus and the Sons of Germanicus. 5 Tiberius as Princeps, ad 14–26. Senate and Magistrates. The Equestrian Order and the People. Honours and Titles. Religion. The Law of Maiestas. The Provinces. Tiberius and the Precepts of Augustus. 6 Seianus. The Rise of Seianus. Seianus’ Ambitions. Seianus and the Death of Drusus. From Drusus to Tiberius’ Withdrawal to Capreae. The Supremacy of Seianus. The Fall of Seianus. 7 The Last Years. Tiberius and Rome after Seianus’ Fall. The Eastern Frontier. The Succession: Gaius and Tiberius Gemellus. Tiberius’ Death. Conclusion. Afterword. Stemma. The Sources. Tactitus. Suetonius. Dio. Velleius Paterculus. Notes. Bibliography. Additional Bibliography. Index

Robin Seager is Reader in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Liverpool. He is the author of Pompey: A Political Biography (1979), Ammianus Marcellinus: Seven Studies in his Language and Thought (1986) and Pompey the Great (Blackwell, 2002).

"This second edition is a welcome revision of the excellent Tiberius ... The book has much to commend it ... Undergraduates will find it an excellent resource, and one not beyond sixth–form students." Journal of Classics Teaching