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LXI. Presently he broke out into every form of cruelty, for which he never lacked
occasion, venting it on the friends and even the acquaintances, first of his mother, then
of his grandsons and daughter-in-law, and finally of Sejanus. After the death of Sejanus
he was more cruel than ever, which showed that his favourite was not wont to egg him on,
but on the contrary gave him the opportunities which he himself desired. Yet in a brief
and sketchy autobiography which he composed he had the assurance to write that he had
punished Sejanus because he found him venting his hatred on the children of his son
Germanicus. Whereas in fact he had himself put one of them to death after he had begun to
suspect Sejanus and the other after the latter's downfall. It is a long story to run
through his acts of cruelty in detail; it will be enough to mention the forms which they
took, as samples of his barbarity. Not a day passed without an execution, not even those
that were sacred and holy; for he put some to death even on New Year's day. Many were
accused and condemned with their children and even by their children. The relatives of the
victims were forbidden to mourn for them. Special rewards were voted the accusers and
sometimes even the witnesses. The word of no informer was doubted. Every crime was treated
as capital, even the utterance of a few simple words. A poet was charged with having
slandered Agamemnon in a tragedy, and a writer of history of having called Brutus and
Cassius the last of the Romans. The writers were at once put to death and their works
destroyed, although they had been read with approval in public some years before in the
presence of Augustus himself. Some of those who were consigned to prison were denied not
only the consolation of reading, but even the privilege of conversing and talking
together. Of those who were cited to plead their causes some opened their veins at home,
feeling sure of being condemned and wishing to avoid annoyance and humiliation, while
others drank poison in full view of the Senate; yet the wounds of the former were bandaged
and they were hurried half-dead, but still quivering, to the prison. Every one of those
who were executed was thrown out upon the Stairs of Mourning and dragged to the Tiber with
hooks, as many as twenty being so treated in a single day, including women and children.
Since ancient usage made it impious to strangle maidens, young girls were first violated
by the executioner and then strangled. Those who wished to die were forced to live; for he
thought death so light a punishment that when he heard that one of the accused, Carnulus
by name, had anticipated his execution, he cried: "Carnulus has given me the
slip"; and when he was inspecting the prisons and a man begged for a speedy death, he
replied: "I have not yet become your friend." An ex-consul has recorded in his
Annals that once at a large dinner-party, at which the writer himself was present,
Tiberius was suddenly asked in a loud voice by one of the dwarfs that stood beside the
table among the jesters why Paconius, who was charged with treason, remained so long
alive; that the emperor at the time chided him for his saucy tongue, but a few days later
wrote to the Senate to decide as soon as possible about the execution of Paconius.
LXII. He increased his cruelty and carried it to greater lengths, exasperated by what
he learned about the death of his son Drusus. At first supposing that he had died of
disease, due to his bad habits, on finally learning that he had been poisoned by the
treachery of his wife Livilla and Sejanus, there was no one whom Tiberius spared from
torment and death. Indeed, he gave himself up so utterly for whole days to this
investigation and was so wrapped up in it, that when he was told of the arrival of a host
of his from Rhodes,whom he had invited to Rome in a friendly letter, he had him put to the
torture at once, supposing that someone had come whose testimony was important for the
case. On discovering his mistake, he even had the man put to death, to keep him from
giving publicity to the wrong done him. At Capreae they still point out the scene of his
executions, from which he used to order that those who had been condemned after long and
exquisite tortures be cast headlong into the sea before his eyes, while a band of marines
waited below for the bodies and broke their bones with boathooks and oars, to prevent any
breath of life from remaining in them. Among various forms of torture he had devised this
one: he would trick men into loading themselves with copious draughts of wine, and then on
a sudden tying up their private parts, would torment them at the same time by the torture
of the cords and of the stoppage of their water. And had not death prevented him, and
Thrasyllus, purposely it is said, induced him to put off some things through hope of a
longer life, it is believed that still more would have perished, and that he would not
even have spared the rest of his grandsons; for he had his suspicions of Gaius and
detested Tiberius as the fruit of adultery. And this is highly probable, for he used at
times to call Priam happy, because he had outlived all his kindred.
LXIII. Many things go to show, not only how hated and execrable he was all this time,
but also that he lived a life of extreme fear and was even exposed to insult. He forbade
anyone to consult soothsayers secretly and without witnesses. Indeed, he even attempted to
do away with the oracles near the city, but forbore through terror at the divine power of
the Praenestine lots; for though he had them sealed up in a chest and brought to Rome, he
could not find them until the box was taken back to the temple. He had assigned provinces
to one or two ex-consuls, of whom he did not dare to lose sight, but he detained them at
Rome and finally appointed their successors several years later without their having left
the city. In the meantime they retained their titles, and he even continued to assign them
numerous commissions, to execute through their deputies and assistants.
LXIV. After the exile of his daughter-in-law and grandchildren he never moved them
anywhere except in fetters and in a tightly closed litter, while a guard of soldiers kept
any who met them on the road from looking at them or even from stopping as they went by.
LXV. When Sejanus was plotting revolution, although he saw the man's birthday publicly
celebrated and his golden statues honoured everywhere, yet it was with difficulty that he
at last overthrew him, rather by craft and deceit than by his imperial authority. First of
all, to remove him from his person under colour of showing him honour, he chose him as his
colleague in a fifth consulship [31 A.D.], which, with this very end in view, he assumed
after a long interval while absent from the city. Then beguiling him with hope of marriage
into the imperial family and of the tribunicial power, he accused him when he least
expected it in a shameful and pitiable speech, begging the senators among other things to
send one of the consuls to bring him, a lonely old man, into their presence under military
protection. Even then distrustful and fearful of an outbreak, he had given orders that his
grandson Drusus, whom he still kept imprisoned in Rome, should be set free, if occasion
demanded, and made commanderin-chief. He even got ships ready and thought of flight to
some of the legions, constantly watching from a high cliff for the signals which he had
ordered to be raised afar off as each step was taken, for fear the messengers should be
delayed. But even when the conspiracy of Sejanus was crushed, he was no whit more
confident or courageous, but for the next nine months he did not leave the villa which is
called Io's.
LXVI. His anxiety of mind became torture because of reproaches of all kinds from every
quarter, since every single one of those who were condemned to death heaped all kinds of
abuse upon him, either to his face or by billets placed in the orchestra. By these,
however, he was most diversely affected, now through a sense of shame desiring that they
all be concealed and kept secret, sometimes scorning them and producing them of his own
accord and giving them publicity. Why, he was even attacked by Artabanus, king of the
Parthians, who charged him in a letter with the murder of his kindred, with other bloody
deeds, and with shameless and dissolute living, counselling him to gratify the intense and
just hatred of the citizens as soon as possible by a voluntary death.
LXVII. At last in utter self-disgust he all but admitted the extremity of his
wretchedness in a letter [33 A.D.] beginning as follows: "If I know what to write to
you, Fathers of the Senate, or how to write it, or what to leave unwritten at present, may
all gods and goddesses visit me with more utter destruction than I feel that I am daily
suffering." Some think that through his knowledge of the future he foresaw this
situation, and knew long beforehand what detestation and ill-repute one day awaited him;
and that therefore when he became emperor, he positively refused the title of "Father
of his Country" and to allow the Senate to take oath to support his acts, for fear
that he might presently be found undeserving of such honours and thus be the more shamed.
In fact, this may be gathered from the speech which he made regarding these two matters;
for example, when he says; "I shall always be consistent and never change my ways so
long as I am in my senses; but for the sake of precedent the Senate should beware of
binding itself to support the acts of any man, since he might through some mischance
suffer a change." Again: "If you ever come to feel any doubt," he says,
"of my character or of my heartfelt devotion to you (and before that happens, I pray
that my last day may save me from this altered opinion of me), the title of "Father
of my Country" will give me no additional honour, but will be a reproach to you,
either for your hasty action in conferring the appellation upon me, or for your
inconsistency in changing your estimate of my character."
LXVIII. He was large and strong of frame, and of a stature above the average; broad of
shoulders and chest; well proportioned and symmetrical from head to foot. His left hand
was the more nimble and stronger, and its joints were so powerful that he could bore
through a fresh, sound apple with his finger, and break the head of a boy, or even a young
man, with a fillip. He was of fair complexion and wore his hair rather long at the back,
so much so as even to cover the nape of his neck; which was apparently a family trait. His
face was handsome, but would break out on a sudden with many pimples. His eyes were
unusually large and, strange to say, had the power of seeing even at night and in the
dark, but only for a short time when first opened after sleep; presently they grew
dim-sighted again. He strode along with his neck stiff and bent forward, usually with a
stern countenance and for the most part in silence, never or very rarely conversing with
his companions, and then speaking with great deliberation and with a kind of supple
movement of his fingers. All of these mannerisms of his, which were disagreeable and signs
of arrogance, were remarked by Augustus, who often tried to excuse them to the Senate and
people by declaring that they were natural failings, and not intentional. He enjoyed
excellent health, which was all but perfect during nearly the whole of his reign, although
from the thirtieth year of his age he took care of it according to his own ideas, without
the aid or advice of physicians.
LXIX. Although somewhat neglectful of the gods and of religious matters, being addicted
to astrology and firmly convinced that everything was in the hands of fate; he was
nevertheless immoderately afraid of thunder. Whenever the sky was lowering, he always wore
a laurel wreath, because it is said that that kind of leaf is not blasted by lighting.
LXX. He was greatly devoted to liberal studies in both languages. In his Latin oratory
he followed Messala Corvinus, to whom he had given attention in his youth, when Messala
was an old man. But he so obscured his style by excessive mannerisms and pedantry, that he
was thought to speak much better offhand than in a prepared address. He also composed a
lyric poem, entitled "A Lament for the Death of Lucius Caesar," and made Greek
verses in imitation of Euphorion, Rhianus, and Parthenius, poets of whom he was very fond,
placing their busts in the public libraries among those of the eminent writers of old; and
on that account many learned men vied with one another in issuing commentaries on their
works and dedicating them to the emperor. Yet his special aim was a knowledge of
mythology, which he carried to a silly and laughable extreme; for he used to test even the
grammarians, a class of men in whom, as I have said, he was especially interested, by
questions something like this: "Who was Hecuba's mother?" "What was the
name of Achilles among the maidens?" "What were the Sirens in the habit of
singing?" Moreover, on the first day that he entered the Senate after the death of
Augustus, to satisfy at once the demands of filial piety and of religion, he offered
sacrifice after the example of Minos with incense and wine, but without a fluteplayer, as
Minos had done in ancient times on the death of his son.
LXXI. Though he spoke Greek readily and fluently, yet he would not use it on all
occasions, and especially eschewed it in the Senate; so much so that before using the word
"monopolium," he begged pardon for the necessity of employing a foreign term. On
another occasion, when a soldier was asked in Greek to give testimony, he forbade him to
answer except in Latin.
LXXII. Twice only during the whole period of his retirement did he try to return to
Rome, once sailing in a trireme as far as the gardens near the artificial lake, after
first posting a guard along the banks of the Tiber to keep off those who came out to meet
him; and again coming up the Appian Way as far as the seventh milestone. But he returned
after merely having a distant view of the city walls, without approaching them; the first
time for some unknown reason, the second through alarm at a portent. He had among his pets
a serpent, and when he was going to feed it from his own hand, as his custom was, and
discovered that it had been devoured by ants, he was warned to beware of the power of the
multitude. So he went back in haste to Campania, fell ill at Astura, but recovering
somewhat kept on to Circeii. To avoid giving any suspicion of his weak condition, he not
only attended the games of the soldiers, but even threw down darts from his high seat at a
boar which was let into the arena. Immediately he was taken with a pain in the side, and
then being exposed to a draught when he was overheated, his illness increased. For all
that, he kept up for some time, although he continued his journey as far as Misenum and
made no change in his usual habits, not even giving up his banquets and other pleasures,
partly from lack of self-denial and partly to conceal his condition. Indeed, when the
physician Charicles had taken his hand to kiss it as he left the dining-room, since he was
going away on leave of absence, Tiberius, thinking that he was trying to feel his pulse,
urged him to remain and take his place again, and prolonged the dinner to a late hour.
Even then he did not give up his custom of standing in the middle of the dining-room with
a lictor by his side and addressing all the guests by name as they said farewell.
LXXIII. Meanwhile, having read in the proceedings of the Senate that some of those
under accusation, about whom he had written briefly, merely stating that they had been
named by an informer, had been discharged without a hearing, he cried out in anger that he
was held in contempt, and resolved to return to Capreae at any cost, since he would not
risk any step except from his place of refuge. Detained, however, by bad weather and the
increasing violence of his illness, he died a little later in the villa of Lucullus, in
the seventy-eighth year of his age and the twenty-third of his reign, on the seventeenth
day before the Kalends of April, in the consulship of Gnaeus Acerronius Proculus and Gaius
Pontius Nigrinus [March 16, 37 A.D.]. Some think that Gaius gave him a slow and wasting
poison; others that during convalescence from an attack of fever food was refused him when
he asked for it. Some say that a pillow was thrown upon his face, when he came to and
asked for a ring which had been taken from him during a fainting fit. Seneca writes that
conscious of his approaching end, he took off the ring, as if to give it to someone, but
held fast to it for a time; then he put it back on his finger, and clenching his left
hand, lay for a long time motionless; suddenly he called for his attendants, and on
receiving no response, got up; but his strength failed him and he fell dead near the
couch.
LXXIV. On his last birthday he dreamt that the Apollo of Temenos, a statue of
remarkable size and beauty, which he had brought from Syracuse to be set up in the library
of the new temple, appeared to him in a dream, declaring that it could not be dedicated by
Tiberius. A few days before his death the lighthouse at Capreae was wrecked by an
earthquake. At Misenum the ashes from the glowing coals and embers wllich had been brought
in to warm his dining-room, after they had died out and been for a long time cold,
suddenly blazed up in the early evening and glowed without cessation until late at night.
LXXV. The people were so glad of his death, that at the first news of it some ran about
shouting, "Tiberius to the Tiber," while others prayed to Mother Earth and the
Manes to allow the dead man no abode except among the damned. Still others threatened his
body with the hook and the Stairs of Mourning, especially embittered by a recent outrage,
added to the memory of his former cruelty. It had been provided by decree of the Senate
that the execution of the condemned should in all cases be put off for ten days, and it
chanced that the punishment of some fell due on the day when the news came about Tiberius.
The poor wretches begged the public for protection; but since in the continued absence of
Gaius there was no one who could be approached and appealed to, the jailers, fearing to
act contrary to the law, strangled them and cast out their bodies on the Stairs of
Mourning. Therefore hatred of the tyrant waxed greater, since his cruelty endured even
after his death. When the funeral procession left Misenum, many cried out that the body
ought rather to be carried to Atella, and half-burned in the amphitheatre; but it was
taken to Rome by the soldiers and reduced to ashes with public ceremonies.
LXXVI. Two years before his death he had made two copies of a will, one in his own hand
and the other in that of a freedman, but of the same content, and had caused them to be
signed and sealed by persons of the very lowest condition. In this will he named his
grandsons, Gaius, son of Germanicus, and Tiberius, son of Drusus, heirs to equal shares of
his estate, each to be sole heir in case of the other's death. Besides, he gave legacies
to several, including the Vestal virgins, as well as to each and every man of the soldiers
and the commons of Rome, with separate ones to the masters of the city wards.
Source:
The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, C. Tranquillus Suetonius
From: Suetonius, 2 vols., trans. J. C. Rolfe, (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, and London: William Henemann, 1920), Vol. I, pp. 3-119
Scanned by: J. S. Arkenberg, Dept. of History, Cal. State Fullerton. Prof. Arkenberg
has modernized the text.
This text a mirror copy from the Internet Ancient History
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© Paul Halsall, March 1999
halsall@murray.fordham.edu
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