Tiberius, between Myth and Reality

The author of an outstanding biography of Nero, Prof. Champlin proposed to follow it with one on Tiberius. Although he never completed the project, he did write several papers about that ill-reputed emperor. Nine of these are included in this volume, edited by his Princeton colleague Prof. Kaster.

The essays are grouped into three sections,

  I. “Representation and Self-Fashioning” – four papers on the man behind the received image.

 II. “Sex and the Sources” – two papers that take a look at the man’s reputed sexual perversions.

III. “In the Emperor’s Orbit” – brief biographies of three members of Tiberius’s inner circle, including the  notorious Seianus.

What we find is that Tiberius, while not a paragon of wisdom and virtue, was hardly the maniacal pervert depicted by Suetonius and some of the other ancient writers, as well as modern ones such as Robert Graves; after all, there was no hint of him being a sex fiend before he became Emperor, which the blue-nosed Augustus would certainly not have tolerated.

Revealing, insightful, and often quite witty, Tiberius and his Age will prove a good read for anyone interested in the early Roman Empire.

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Note: Tiberius and His Age is also available in e-editions.

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