A Letter from Capri — Tiberius: Capri and Paranoia
AD 31. The consuls are Tiberius and Sejanus. The emperor has no intention of coming to Rome. He took the office after a long interval. Suetonius believes he wanted, under the guise of an honor, to get Sejanus away from his side. In his letters he calls him “my Sejanus” and the partner of his cares. The Senate and the people respond the only way they know. Bronze statues of the two stand side by side. The prefect’s birthday is celebrated publicly. Sacrifices are made to his images just as to the emperor’s images (Dio 58.2 and 58.4).
Dio writes that Sejanus looked like the emperor and Tiberius like the ruler of a small island. People crowd at his door, afraid not so much of not seeing him as of being the last to get in (58.5).
Tiberius begins a game. One day he writes that he is close to death, the next that he is well and will come at once. Now he praises Sejanus, now rebukes him. Now he raises up his friends, now sends them into disgrace. Sejanus does not know whether to fear or rejoice. Rome does not know whether to admire him or despise him (Dio 58.6).
Then the emperor appoints Gaius, the youngest son of Germanicus, a priest, and praises him. The people rejoice, because they love the memory of his father. Sejanus sees this and understands that the people are not on his side. Dio writes that he regretted not having started a revolt while he was consul (58.8).
Tiberius is afraid. Suetonius and Dio write that he had ships prepared so as to flee to the legions in case of an uprising, and watched from a high rock for the signals given to him. To Rome he sends a man he trusts: Macro, secretly appointed commander of the Guard.
You have only a pen and an island. Your opponent commands the Praetorians and has the Senate behind him. What do you do?
That same day the Senate, assembled in the temple of Concord, not far from the prison, sentences Sejanus to death. The sentence is carried out at once. The Romans, who that morning called him master, fall upon his statues as if punishing the man himself through them (Dio 58.11). His children die too. His former wife Apicata, when she saw what had happened to the children, wrote the emperor a letter about Drusus’s death and took her own life. This is the letter you already know about.
The senators pass decrees as if they had thrown off a tyranny. Mourning for the dead man is forbidden, a statue of Liberty will stand in the Forum, and the day of his death will be celebrated every year with games (Dio 58.12). They also forbid excessive honors for anyone and oaths in the name of anyone but the emperor. Immediately afterward, they begin to flatter Macro.
Tiberius was glad, writes Dio, but would not receive the delegation sent to congratulate him. He even sent away a consul who came at his summons (58.13). According to Suetonius, for nine months he did not leave the villa called Jupiter’s, that is, Villa Jovis.
Check whether you understand how Sejanus’s power grew and how it fell.
Sejanus is dead, but the fear outlives him. Fagan writes that the affair deeply depressed the emperor. Whom could he still trust?