Tiberius

For the city in Israel, see Tiberias.

Self Imposed Exile

Sejanus?s attacks against Agrippina and his proposal to marry Drusus's widow, Livilla, (who was also Tiberius' niece) suggest that he was attempting to follow the precedent of Agrippa, that is, an outsider who became the emperor's successor through a combination of overt loyalty, necessity, and a family alliance forged by marriage. Tiberius, perhaps sensitive to this ambition, rejected Sejanus's initial proposal to marry Livilla in 25 AD, but later put it about that he had withdrawn his objections so that, in 30 AD, Sejanus was betrothed to Livilla's daughter (Tiberius' granddaughter). The Prefect's family connection to the Imperial house was now imminent. In 31 AD Sejanus held the consulship with the emperor as his colleague, an honor Tiberius reserved only for heirs to the throne. Furthermore, when Sejanus surrendered the consulship early in the year, he was granted a share of the emperor's proconsular power. When he was summoned to a meeting of the Senate on 18 October in that year he probably expected to receive a share of the tribunician power; with that he would, after all, have become Tiberius's Agrippa. Instead, however, Tiberius' letter to the Senate completely unexpectedly requested the destruction of Sejanus and his faction. A bloody purge followed, in which Sejanus and his most prominent supporters were killed.

Related Topics:
Livilla - 25 AD - 30 AD - 31 AD - Consul - 18 October - Tribunician power

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Tiberius himself later claimed that he turned on Sejanus because he had been alerted to Sejanus's plot against Germanicus?s family. This explanation has been rejected by most ancient and modern authorities, since Sejanus's demise did nothing to end Tiberius' persecution of that family: Agrippina and her eldest son Nero were both exiled to tiny islands, her second son Drusus was still imprisoned in the Palatine's basement, and all three died violently within years of Sejanus?s fall. Tiberius is also said to have discovered Sejanus's part in his own son's death in 23 AD; the source of this information, however, is unclear. Possibly, in the highly charged atmosphere surrounding Sejanus's fall, the news acted as a catalyst, but its truth cannot be verified. Whatever the precise reasons, Sejanus's career and demise, and that of those around him, was an object lesson in the dangers of Imperial politics.

Related Topics:
Palatine - 23 AD

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