Tiberius on Personal Criticism

['Taking the stoical view', under the foot of public opinion - Uffizi Museum, April 2017]

On Tiberius it was said: 

"... he was self-contained and patient in the face of abuse and slander, and of lampoons on himself and his family, often asserting that in a free country there should be free speech and free thought. When the senate on one occasion demanded that cognisance be taken of such offences and those guilty of them, he said: "We have not enough spare time to warrant involving ourselves in more affairs; if you open this loophole you will find no time for any other business; it will be an excuse for laying everybody's quarrels before you." A most unassuming remark of his in the senate is also a matter of record":

"If so-and-so criticises me I shall take care to render an account of my acts and words; if he persists, our enmity will be mutual."

[Suetonius, Life of Tiberius, 28]




N.B Its worth mentioning that not all agree on the emperor Tiberius's good nature.  In some reports, he is not anything like as unassuming and liberal as described here. Other references - especially later in his reign - point towards a darker and more brooding ego, more than capable of petty spite, revenge and malevolence. It's not at all like Suetonius to miss sticking the knife in, so we need to look at a evolving personality: egalitarian and carefree in his early reign - likely before the Sejanus coup - moving to spiteful, paranoid and mean in his later years. 

Image of An Emperor: Domitian

"He was tall in stature, his countenance modest, and inclined to rudeness, with large eyes, though his sight was dim. His presence was graceful and comely, especially in his youth, excepting only that his toes were bent slightly inward. In course of time, he became disfigured by baldness, corpulence and the slenderness of his legs which were reduced by a long illness."

[Suetonius, Domitian, 18]

Image of an Emperor: Vespasian

"He was of middle stature, well set, and with limbs compact and strongly made. His countenance was like that of a man in the act of straining himself. Whereupon, one of those witty fellows, upon the emperor's request that he make a jest respecting himself, retorted, 'That I will - when you have finished your business at the stool.' His health was excellent, though he did nothing more to preserve it than vigorously rub his neck and other parts of his body at regular times, in the tennis court attached to the baths, besides fasting one day in every month".

[Suetonius, Vespasian, 20]

Image of an Emperor: Nero

"In stature he was little under the average height. His body full of spots and freckles and foul skin besides. His hair was yellowish; his countenance fairly agreeable but not handsome; his eyes grey and dull, his neck thick, his belly prominent, his legs very slender, and his health excellent. For, intemperate as he was, and given to riotous living, he suffered, in the space of fourteen years, only three attacks of illness; and these so slight, that he neither forbore the use of wine, nor modified his usual diet. In his dress and grooming, he was so indifferent that he had his hair cut in rings, one above another; and when in Achaia, he let it grow long behind. He generally appeared in public in the loose and effeminate garment he wore at table, with a fine lawn handkerchief around his neck, and wearing neither a girdle or shoes."

[Suetonius, Nero, 51]

Image of an Emperor: Claudius

"He was most personable, with a graceful and majestic aspect whether he sat or stood, but especially when he lay in repose; for he was tall, but not thin. His countenance was lively, his grey hair becoming, and he had a round full neck. But his knees were feeble and failed him in walking, so that his gait was unsteady, both when he assumed state and when he was taking diversion. He was indecent and unseemly in his mirth, and especially so in his anger, under the influence of which he foamed at the mouth and discharged from his nostrils. He also stammered in his speech, and had a tremulous motion of the head at all times, but particularly when he engaged in any business, however trifling."

[Suetonius, Claudius, 29]

Image of an Emperor: Caligula

"He was very tall in stature, of a pale complexion, ill-shaped, with very slender neck and legs, sunken eyes and hollow temples, a broad and furrowed forehead, his hair thin, and the crown of his head bald. The other parts of his body were very hairy. On this account, it was reckoned a capital crime for any person to look down from above, as he was passing by, or so much as name a goat. His countenance, which was naturally stern and frightful, he purposely made more so, composing it in a mirror into the most horrible contortions".

[Suetonius, Caligula, 50]

Image of an Emperor: Tiberius

"In person he was heavy-set and powerful, of a stature above the average, broad in the shoulders and chest, and the rest of his body of congruent proportions. His left hand was stronger and more nimble than his right; and his joints were so strong, that he could bore a fresh, sound apple through with his finger ... His complexion was fair, and he wore his hair so long behind that it covered his neck; which was observed to be the fashion affected by his family. His face was ingenious and well-favoured, but was often covered in pimples. His eyes, which were large, had a marvelous faculty for seeing in the night time, and in the dark ... He walked with his neck held stiff and upright, and with a countenance somewhat severe. For the most part he was silent; when he spoke with those about him, it was very slowly, and usually accompanied with a slight gesticulation of the fingers. ... He enjoyed excellent health through his whole reign; though from the thirtieth year of his age, he preserved it by his own efforts, without any counsel from physicians."

[Suetonius, Tiberius, 68]

Image of An Emperor: Augustus

"In person he was well favoured and charming, and these qualities marked him at all stages of his life. Yet he was negligent in his dress, and so careless about the grooming of his hair, that he usually had it done in great haste, by several barbers at a time, such as might be available,it mattered not whom; and one clipped, while another shaved his beard, during which time he either read or wrote and attended not at all on ceremony. ... He also had very clear and shining eye, wherein (as he was willing to have men believe) there shone a kind of divine vigour; and he was much pleased when he looked steadfastly at people, if they dropped their lids, as if from the brightness of the sun. But in his old age he could not see very well from the left eye. His teeth were thin set, small and scaly, his hair somewhat curled, and of a light yellow colour. His eyebrows came together, his ears were small and his nose aquiline. His complexion was between brown and fair; and his stature was said to have been short ..."

[Suetonius, Augustus, 79]