Yeah, Tiberius is the guy who didn’t want to be emperor, fucked off to a remote island and let his BFF Sejanus run the empire for him (and fuck things up for centuries to come). Like, he was there. He was emperor, at some point. Nobody noticed, and there are countless other emperors who had a bigger (for better or for worse) impact on the principate. Christianity was born during his reign and he almost certainly didn’t even notice. But the empire was a bit more peaceful under him, and he didn’t squander the treasury like many other emperors, so he wasn’t the worse?
I can’t say he was a good emperor, because he really wasn’t. But I also can’t bring myself to hate him, and I do have some sympathy for how his life unfolded — mostly ignored by his father, eventually chosen for succession as a last resort after everyone else had already died, forced to terminate a happy marriage for political reasons, and lost every person dear to him, including his wife, his brother and his sons. He was, at some point, one of the most powerful and influential individuals of his lifetime, but he had no control over his own life.
I was surprised when you called Tiberius milquetoast. Then I realized I was thinking of Trajan.
Yeah, Tiberius is the guy who didn’t want to be emperor, fucked off to a remote island and let his BFF Sejanus run the empire for him (and fuck things up for centuries to come). Like, he was there. He was emperor, at some point. Nobody noticed, and there are countless other emperors who had a bigger (for better or for worse) impact on the principate. Christianity was born during his reign and he almost certainly didn’t even notice. But the empire was a bit more peaceful under him, and he didn’t squander the treasury like many other emperors, so he wasn’t the worse?
I can’t say he was a good emperor, because he really wasn’t. But I also can’t bring myself to hate him, and I do have some sympathy for how his life unfolded — mostly ignored by his father, eventually chosen for succession as a last resort after everyone else had already died, forced to terminate a happy marriage for political reasons, and lost every person dear to him, including his wife, his brother and his sons. He was, at some point, one of the most powerful and influential individuals of his lifetime, but he had no control over his own life.