Tiberius: Capri and Paranoia

Tiberius: Capri and Paranoia (An emperor who said he did not want power. He flees to an island and rules by letters, while in Rome the man he trusts grows ever stronger. One letter from Capri changes everything.) — lesson 6 of the course: 6 parts, about 26 min of reading.

Tiberius did not want power, or at least so he said. He accepted it after theatrical hesitation and ruled cautiously as long as Germanicus, the favorite of the legions, and the emperor’s own son, Drusus, were alive. Then he trusted Sejanus, left for Capri and ruled by letters. One of them, in AD 31, brought Sejanus down and began the years of fear. The episode ends with the death of the emperor and the announcement of his successor.

Films

• Capri: the emperor who never returns — AD 26: Tiberius leaves Rome for Campania, settles on Capri and from there rules the state by letters.
• Germanicus: from the Rhine to Antioch — From the mutiny of the legions on the Rhine in AD 14 to his death in Antioch in AD 19 and the return of his ashes to Rome.
• The house of the Caesars after AD 23 — AD 23: Drusus, Tiberius’s son, dies, and in the emperor’s family the house of Germanicus rises, along with a man who wants to enter it.
• October 18: the letter from Capri — October 18, AD 31: the Senate listens to Tiberius’s letter from Capri, and Sejanus, the second man in the state, does not know what awaits him.

Articles

• Wolf by the Ears — Tiberius: Capri and Paranoia — To rule the greatest state in the world and not want to look at it? That is exactly what Tiberius does.
• Give Us Back Germanicus — Tiberius: Capri and Paranoia — For three years, from AD 14 to 16, Germanicus wages war in Germania. His soldiers recover the eagles of the legions that perished with Varus.
• My Sejanus — Tiberius: Capri and Paranoia — Lucius Aelius Sejanus comes from Volsinii, from an equestrian family. He commands the Praetorians, that is, the emperor’s Guard.
• The Island — Tiberius: Capri and Paranoia — Tiberius travels with a small retinue: one senator, the jurist Cocceius Nerva, one equestrian, Curtius Atticus, Sejanus and a few Greek scholars for conversation. The astrologers, writes Tacitus, said that the arrangement of the stars forbade him to return.
• A Letter from Capri — Tiberius: Capri and Paranoia — AD 31. The consuls are Tiberius and Sejanus.
• Tiberius to the Tiber — Tiberius: Capri and Paranoia — Rome thinks things will be better now. It thinks so until it learns that Tiberius does not intend to call off the hunt.