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. 

War Games & The Politics Of Seating

[British Soldiers filling politically embarrassing gaps in Olympic Seating - London 2012]

See: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jul/29/olympics-empty-seats-locog-army

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Yet not every regime in history has wanted its soldiers to enjoy the games:

"For at an exhibition of games, when he [Augustus] had given orders that a common soldier who was sitting in the fourteen rows be put out by an attendant, the report was spread by his detractors that he had had the man killed later and tortured as well; whereupon he all but lost his life in a furious mob of soldiers, owing his escape to the sudden appearance of the missing man safe and sound."*

[Suetonius, Life of Augustus, 14]

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*In the settlement following the Civil Wars, the Emperor Augustus sought to re-establish and regulate the traditional and rigid hierarchy of state.  The first 14 rows of all theatres, amphitheatres and circuses were thus reserved under law for Senators and Knights only.  Of course, we might also speculate that the new ruler might seek to quash all bonds of clientship between the army and the wider social elite. Better empty spaces, than soldiers mixing or being given 'corporate entertainment' from Senators and Knights!  

Tiberius on Flattery

"He so loathed flattery that he would not allow any senator to approach his litter, either to pay his respects or on business, and when an ex-consul in apologising to him attempted to embrace his knees, he drew back in such haste that he fell over backward. In fact, if anyone in conversation or in a set speech spoke of him in too flattering terms, he did not hesitate to interrupt him, to take him to task, and to correct his language on the spot. Being once called "Lord," he warned the speaker not to address him again in an insulting fashion. When another spoke of his "sacred duties," and still another said that he appeared before the senate "by the emperor's authority," he forced them to change their language, substituting "advice" for "authority" and "laborious" for "sacred."

[Suetonius, Life of Tiberius, 27]

To Be An Emperor: Galba

[Galba:  one of the short-lived 'pretenders' of AD 69 that ultimately failed to succeed Nero]



"Rome is not like primitive countries with their kings. Here we have no ruling caste dominating a nation of slaves. You are called to be the leader of men who can tolerate neither total slavery nor total liberty."

[Tacitus, Histories, I.16]

The imperial usurper Galba's advice to his prospective heir, Piso - as put into words, by the cynical historian Tacitus.

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The sentiment reminds us that the position of a Roman Emperor was far from simple, or indeed, comfortable. Imperial stability required a powerful and largely autocratic ruler. And yet Roman sensibility, as moulded by many centuries of Republican and distinctly xenophobic prejudice, would not tolerate even the semblance of a tyrant. Or even worse, a derided foreign King!  

It was a bitterly ironic paradox; the lack of understanding of which proved the undoing of Caesar, Caligula and Nero.

"I am Caesar, and no King"

[Suetonius, Life of Julius Caesar, 79]

To little, too late, proved the unconvincing protestations of the great dictator ... and he paid for his mistake on the floor of the Senate House.

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Despite commanding (or at least seeming to command) the semblance of absolute power and spectacular wealth, the stability and security of an Emperor's rule, was always a complex and delicate affair. In the broadest of human terms, the Stoic wisdom of Seneca recognised that we should not automatically envy those in lofty positions. Not when we consider that:

"... what look like towering heights are indeed precipices.  ... there are many who are forced to cling to their pinnacle because they cannot descend without falling ... they are not so much elevated as impaled." 

[Seneca, Dialogues: On Tranquillity of Mind, 10 ]

To wear the Imperial purple was without doubt the most lofty of such pinnacles; and a descent from its heights, even for those few who it might be argued genuinely sought it, was riven with dangers that were all but insurmountable.

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For State, a relinquishment of imperial rule risked a return to the bitter murder and incessant civil war that had so blighted the last ages of the Republic. For the ruler who would so relinquish that power, the risk was total oblivion. As Octavian himself considered before the establishment of the very Principate:

"The question we are considering is not a matter of seizing hold of something, but of resolving not to lose it and thus expose [ourselves] to further danger. For you will not be forgiven if you thrust the control of affairs into the hands of the populace, or even if you entrust it to some other man. Remember that many have suffered at your hands, that virtually all of them will lay claim to sovereign power and that none of them will be willing to let you go unpunished for your actions or survive as a rival."     

[Cassius Dio, Roman Histories, LII.17]

Thus was it a somewhat reluctant Emperor [Tiberius] who had deftly perceived that to rule Rome was indeed like:

"... holding a wolf by the ears."

[Suetonius, Life of Tiberius, 25]

An Emperor was only safely in control, in so long as he held the power and guile not to release the unpredictable and savage animal that he so sought to dominate. Fail to dominate that savage animal and he was as good as dead. 

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To the casual observer a Roman Emperor seemed all powerful, but ever was his position actually vulnerable and fraught with threat.  To rule was inherently dangerous and yet to relinquish rule could be more dangerous still. What looked like towering heights, were indeed, precipices for some ....

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]

Augustus on Risk

"He [Augustus] was wont to say that:"

'a battle or a war ought never to be undertaken unless the hope of gain was greater than the fear of damage; for men who pursue small commodities with no small risk resemble those who fish with a golden hook, for the loss of which, if the line should break, no draught of fish whatsoever could make amends.'

 

[Suetonius, Augustus, 25]

Caesar on Friends

"His friends he treated at all times with so great courtesy and tender respect, that when Caius Oppius, who accompanied him in his journey through a wild forest, fell suddenly ill, he gave him the only place there was to shelter them at night, and lay upon the ground in the open air. Moreover, when he became sovereign lord of all, he advanced some of his faithful followers, though of humble origin, to the highest place of honour. And when he was reproached for this partiality, he professed openly, that if he had used the help of robbers, of cutters and pirates in maintaining his own dignity, he would not fail to requite them for their services."

[Suetonius, Caesar, 72]

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]

Augustus on Friends

"He did not easily or quickly form friendships with any person, but maintained them with great constancy; not only honouring the virtue and merits of his friends as they deserved, but bearing likewise with their faults and vices provided that they did not overpower the good in them."

[Suetonius, Augustus, 66]

The Emperor's New Clothes

Last month saw the dramatic launch of John Galliano's 2010 fashion collection in an abandoned swimming pool at Paris fashion week.*

One of the key themes of Galliano's new and dramatic collections was his highly stylised portrayal of the French Napoleonic period. Stunning interpretations of early Napoleonic chic, were characterised by finely tailed jackets, Bonapartine hats and sumptuous sashes. All sported by ghost-like, laurel wearing models; dramatically referencing the early image of the diminutive Emperor.

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The notorious Roman Emperor Caligula, also nurtured a distinctive flair for fashion.

On this point, Suetonius - that most wicked of imperial biographers - noted:

"His apparel not only did not conform to any national or civil fashion: it was not even peculiar to the male sex, or appropriate to mere mortals. He often went abroad clad in a short coat of stout cloth, richly embroidered in many colours, and studded with gems, in a tunic with long sleeves, and wearing bracelets. Sometimes he was seen all in silks and habited like a woman; at other times in the crepidae or buskins; sometimes in the sort of shoes worn by the light armed soldiers, or in the sock used by women and commonly with a golden beard fixed to his chin, holding in his hand a thunderbolt, a trident or a caduceus, marks of distinction belonging to the gods only. Sometime he even appeared in the costume of Venus. He constantly wore the triumphal ornaments, even before his expedition, and sometimes the breastplate of Alexander the Great, taken out of his coffin"

[Suetonius, Life of Caligula, 52]

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I think we can rest assured that no one would have laughed at Caligula's garb - at least not to his face.

*(Must suppress obvious quotes from the spoof movie, Zoolander)

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]

Caesar & Drinking

"That he was the most sparing drinker of wine, his very enemies did not even deny. Whereuopon rose the remark of Marcus Cato:"

'that Caesar was the only sober man amongst all those who had tried to overthrow the state'

[Suetonius, Julius Caesar, 53]

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]

Augustus and the Pax Romana

"He never made war upon any people without just and necessary cause; and so far was he from desire of enlarging the empire, or advancing his own military glory, that he compelled certain princes of the barbarians to take an oath in the Temple of Mars the Revenger, that they would faithfully continue in their allegiance and not violate the peace which they had implored"

[Suetonius, Augustus, 21]