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. Two portraits of him remain, and both ring true. Velleius Paterculus writes during Sejanus’s lifetime. Tacitus writes some eighty years after his fall. Compare them.

We do not know which Sejanus was the truer. We know that the praise was written a year before his fall, and the dark portrait much later.

Sejanus does what anyone who wants to be indispensable would do. He gathers the Praetorian cohorts, hitherto scattered around the city, in one camp by the walls of Rome. Tacitus explains why: so that all would receive orders at once, so that the soldiers would gain confidence and the citizens fear. Then he addresses the soldiers by name and picks the centurions and tribunes himself. He hands out offices and provinces to senators.

Tiberius, usually secretive, is relaxed with him alone. Before the Senate and the people he calls him the partner of his labors and allows his statues to be set up in theaters, in forums and in the camps of the legions (Tacitus 4.2).

In the emperor’s family, however, there are people who cannot stand Sejanus. Loudest of all, the emperor’s son.

Drusus, Tiberius’s only son, knows no restraint. In a quarrel he raises a fist against Sejanus and strikes him in the face (Tacitus 4.3). He often repeats that an outsider is sharing power while the emperor’s son is still alive. Tacitus also recorded that Sejanus resolved to take revenge through Drusus’s wife, Livilla, Germanicus’s sister. He feigned great love, and she, according to Tacitus, let herself be seduced and drawn into plans of marriage and power.

In AD 23 Drusus dies. Officially of illness. Eight years later, after Sejanus’s fall, another version comes to light: that he was poisoned. Tacitus accepts it and writes that the poison was administered by the eunuch Lygdus (4.8). Its source is a letter from Apicata, Sejanus’s former wife, sent to the emperor just before her death (Dio 58.11), and then the testimony of servants wrung out by torture (Tacitus 4.11). Scholars regard this source as suspect and cannot verify the account (Fagan).

Tiberius goes to the Senate even during his son’s illness and between his death and the funeral. When the senators weep, he calms them with a speech. Then he asks them to take care of Germanicus’s sons. To the boys he says: Nero and Drusus, these senators are like fathers to you (Tacitus 4.8). Both will die as prisoners.

Sejanus sees that Drusus’s death has met with neither punishment nor the people’s grief. He resolves to destroy the children of Germanicus. Three boys cannot be poisoned all at once, writes Tacitus, because loyal guardians watch over them and Agrippina is beyond reproach (4.12). So he chooses another way. He turns old Livia, the emperor’s mother, against Agrippina and looks for accusers.

AD 25. Sejanus is at his peak, and Livilla reminds him of his promise of marriage. He writes to the emperor, since that is now the custom, though both are in Rome. He asks for Livilla’s hand. He demands no honors and assures the emperor that the glory of kinship with Caesar will be enough for him. What does Tiberius reply?

Sejanus realizes that this door is closed to him. He still has a back way in. Tacitus sums up his calculation: once the emperor settles far from Rome, Sejanus will control access to him, and the letters, carried mainly by soldiers, will pass through his hands. So he begins to praise the quiet away from the city and to deride the din of the capital (4.41).

Agrippina, meanwhile, is increasingly alone. When the emperor visits her during an illness, she asks him to give her a husband. She is still young, and there will be citizens who will not scorn the widow of Germanicus. Tiberius understands that it is a political request and leaves without an answer. No historian records this scene. Tacitus confesses that he found it in the memoirs of Agrippina the Younger, the mother of Nero.

Then Sejanus, through his messengers, warns Agrippina that poison is being prepared for her and that she should avoid her father-in-law’s table. She is no good at pretending, and at the banquet she touches nothing. Tiberius notices. To test her, he praises the fruit and offers her an apple with his own hand. Agrippina passes it to the servants. The emperor says nothing, only whispers to his mother that no one should be surprised if he is harsh toward someone who takes him for a poisoner (Tacitus 4.54; Suetonius also knows the apple scene).

AD 26. Tiberius leaves for Campania under the pretext of dedicating the temple of Jupiter at Capua and the temple of Augustus at Nola. In truth, writes Tacitus, he had resolved to live far from Rome. He will never see the city up close again.