Tiberius the Politician (Roman Imperial Biographies)

302 Pages·2005·1.59 MB·English

by  Barbara Levick

TIBERIUS THE POLITICIAN
Tiberius has always been one of the most enigmatic of the Roman emperors. At
the same time, his career is uniquely important for the understanding of the
Empire’s development on the foundations laid by Augustus.
Barbara Levick offers a comprehensive and engaging portrait of the life and
times of Tiberius, including an exploration of his ancestry and his education, an
analysis of his provincial and foreign policy and an examination of his notorious
final years and his posthumous reputation.
This new edition of Tiberius the Politician contains a new preface and a
supplementary bibliography.
Barbara Levick was until recently a Fellow and Tutor in Literae Humaniores
at St Hilda’s College, Oxford. She is the author of Claudius (1990) and
Vespasian (1999).
Also available from Routledge
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Augustus Pat Southern
Theodosius The Empire at Bay Stephen Williams and Gerard Friell
Domitian Tragic Tyrant Pat Southern
Trajan Optimus Princeps Julian Bennett
Agrippina Sex, Power and Politics in the Early Empire Anthony A.Barrett
Caligula The Corruption of Power Anthony A.Barrett
Claudius Barbara Levick
Nero The End of a Dynasty Miriam T.Griffin
Carausius and Allectus The British Usurpers P.J.Casey
Marcus Aurelius Anthony R.Birley
Boudica The Roman Conquest of Britain Graham Webster
TIBERIUS THE POLITICIAN
BARBARA LEVICK
London and New York
First published 1976 by Thames and Hudson Ltd
Reprinted 1986 by Croom Helm Ltd
Revised edition published 1999
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of
thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
© 1976 Barbara Levick
Preface and supplementary bibliography © 1999 Barbara Levick
The right of Barbara Levick to be identified as the Author of this
Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book has been requested
ISBN 0-203-16513-6 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-25952-1 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-21753-9 (Print Edition)
To the Memory of my Father and Mother
CONTENTS
PREFACE viii
PREFACE TO THE 1999 EDITION x
I ANCESTRY AND EDUCATION 1
II FIRST YEARS IN POLITICS: TIBERIUS IN THE SERVICE OF 8
THE PRINCEPS
III EMINENCE AND ECLIPSE 18
IV REHABILITATION: THE FINAL STRUGGLE FOR THE 31
SUCCESSION
V THE ‘ACCESSION’ OF TIBERIUS 48
VI THE POLICY OF THE PRINCEPS 60
VII POLICY IN PRACTICE: THE SENATE AND ITS MEMBERS 69
VIII EQUITES AND PLEBS 89
IX PROVINCIAL AND FOREIGN POLICY 97
X THE DYNASTIC CATASTROPHE 1 16
XI TIBERIUS AND THE LAW: THE DEVELOPMENT OF 1 42
MAIESTAS
XII LAST YEARS AND POSTHUMOUS REPUTATION 1 60
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 1 81
NOTES 1 84
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 2 46
MAPS:
1 ITALY IN THE TIME OF TIBERIUS 2 52
2 THE EASTERN ROMAN EMPIRE 2 53
vii
3 THE WESTERN ROMAN EMPIRE 2 57
STEMMATA:
A THE CONNEXIONS OF TIBERIUS 2 58
B THE FAMILY OF AUGUSTUS 2 59
C THE DESCENDANTS OF SCRIBONIA 2 60
D STEMMA OF SEJANUS (CONJECTURAL) 2 61
INDEX 2 62
PREFACE
To my friends and colleagues, some of whom have lived with Tiberius for five
years, I owe great debts. Those that are specific can be acknowledged in the
notes; others are more general: patience in listening to what I had to say;
generosity in lending me books; active help in improving preliminary or final
drafts. Each person to whom I owe a debt of this kind will know what he has
done, and how grateful I am; here I can only give a list of names: Miss P.R.Ellis,
Mr and Mrs S.Gordon, Mr A.S.Hall, Mrs A.Howarth, Miss D.C.Innes, Miss D.
Nash, Mr J.Nicols, Miss E.M.Smith, Professor J.M.C.Toynbee, Mr M.Vickers, Dr
K.V.Wilkes, Mr and Mrs H.Wolfram.
I am conscious of working from a sketch of Tiberius that was drawn for me by
Mr C.E.Stevens when I was an undergraduate and which has been in my mind
since, although it has been a good deal altered in the course of time. Another
powerful influence on this book, as it must be on any study of Roman politics
written since 1939, has been Sir Ronald Syme’s The Roman Revolution. I make
no attempt to reconcile the differences between Stevens’s outlook and that of
Syme; they represent a genuine conflict between two factors in Tiberius’
political life which he had to resolve.
When Stanley Baldwin said that what took him into politics was ‘the ideal of
service’, he was claiming a motive that a Roman audience would not have found
plausible. Roman politicians sought power, position, and prestige. Each man
worked ultimately for himself, and it is not surprising that the structure of Roman
politics remains a matter of dispute. The ‘parties’ that were discerned in the
nineteenth century dissolved under scrutiny and less formal associations, based
on family groupings, were marked out in their place. The concept of the ‘family
faction’ has not escaped criticism, on the grounds that the structure it imposes is
still too rigid: political alliances at Rome, far from lasting a generation or more,
were ad hoc affairs surviving no more than a single election campaign. Telling in
detail, these criticisms do not destroy the whole prosopographical method. The
ties posited are natural and durable ones, and they can be seen enduring.
Yet self- and even family interest are not all. What of the Roman constitution,
its customs and legal principles, the res publica, mos, and ius ever present in the
mouth of Cicero and in the pages of historians and moralists? Was there no
ix
respect for these in the scramble for the top? In the first century BC that issue
became the dominating one in Roman politics: was the Republic to survive in the
form which it had assumed in the Hannibalic War, government in the hands of the
senatorial oligarchy that Sulla restored to power in 81; or was one man, by
mobilizing counter-forces, the people and the army, to take control? Cato,
Brutus, and Cicero all fought for the old constitution and died for it.
Another thread that tied Republic to Principate was the form of the
constitution. Every politician still had to discover how to operate the machinery
of Republican politics, making his way through patronage and friendship,
forming groups of his own to reach high office and maintain his eminence. And
the more eminent he became the more acutely would press on him the dual
problem: the senator’s place under the Principate, the Princeps’ place in res
publica.
These are the themes that I have examined in this book. For the skill and
patient care of my publishers at all stages of its preparation I should like to
express my warmest thanks.
B.M.L.
March 1976