Tiberius to Nero

doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521264303.006

5 - Tiberius to Nero

from PART I - NARRATIVE

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008

Edited by

Edward Champlin and

T. E. J. Wiedemann: Affiliation:
University of Bristol
Alan K. Bowman: Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Edward Champlin: Affiliation:
Princeton University, New Jersey
Andrew Lintott: Affiliation:
University of Oxford

Book contents

Get access

Summary

THE ACCESSION OF TIBERIUS AND THE NATURE OF POLITICS UNDER THE JULIO-CLAUDIANS

Political history explores the ways in which the men (and very occasionally women) who wielded power over others chose to exercise that power. In every system of government there are dozens, if not hundreds, of individuals who have to use their initiative about the exercise of power in particular circumstances, or about the best way to implement decisions taken by their superiors. But Rome under Augustus and his successors was a monarchy: every exercise of political power had ultimately to be answered for to the emperor. The emperor's authority could not publicly be challenged (anyone who successfully did so would become the new emperor). The political, history of the Principate is therefore primarily an account of the relationship between the reigning emperor and the other individuals and groups who played a role in public life. Although some of the political figures of the Julio-Claudian period were descended from families that had been powerful under the Republic, it does not follow that the ‘republican’ aristocracy still wielded independent power. Such men – like the ‘new men’ who were prepared to put their military or rhetorical skills at the service of the Caesars – had only as much power as the emperor allowed them, and only for as long as the emperor needed to make use of them. They had a place in public life only because, and insofar as, they had the princeps' favour; they were what in Latin would be called his amici, friends.

Keywords

Augustus Julio-Claudians Claudius Gaius Caligula politics Tiberius Nero

Information

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge Ancient History , pp. 198 - 255
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521264303.006 [Opens in a new window]
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Ameling, W. ‘Tyrannen und schwangere Frauen’, Hist. 35 (1986).Google Scholar

Baldwin, B. ‘Executions under Claudius’, Phoenix 18 (1964).Google Scholar

Balsdon, J. P. V. D. The Emperor Gaius. Oxford, 1934.

Barrett, A. A. ‘Chronological errors in Dio's account of the Claudian invasion’, Britannia 11 (1980).Google Scholar

Barrett, A. A. Caligula: the Corruption of Power. London, 1989.

Bauman, R. A. Impietas in Principem. Munich, 1974.

Braund, D. Rome and the Friendly King: the Character of Client Kingship. London–Canberra–New York, 1984.

Campbell, J. B. The Emperor and the Roman Army 31 b.c.–a.d. 235. Oxford, 1984.

Ceauşescu, P. ‘Caligula et le legs d'Auguste’, Hist. 22 (1973).Google Scholar

Chalon, G. L'é'dit de Tiberius Julius Alexander. Olten–Lausanne, 1964.

Chandler, D. C. ‘Quaestor Ostiensis’, Hist. 27 (1978).Google Scholar

Christ, K. ‘Tacitus und der Prinzipat’, Hist. 27 (1978).Google Scholar

Cizek, E. L'Epoque de Néron et ses controverses idéologiques. Leiden, 1972.

Cizek, E. ‘L'expérience néronienne’, Revue des études anciennes 84 (1982).Google Scholar

Ehrhardt, C. ‘Messalina and the succession to Claudius’, Antichthon 12 (1978).Google Scholar

Engelmann, H. and Knibbe, D. ‘Das Monumentum Ephesenum. Ein Vorbericht’, Epigraphica Anatolica 8 (1986).Google Scholar

Fishwick, D. ‘The annexation of Mauretania’, Hist. 20 (1971).Google Scholar

Gallotta, B. Germanico. Rome, 1988.

Garzetti, A. From Tiberius to the Antonines (English transl.). London, 1974.

González, J. ‘Tabula Siarensis, Fortunales Siarenses et Municipia Civium Romanorum’, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 55 (1984).Google Scholar

Goody, J. (ed.) Succession to High Office, Cambridge, 1966

Goodyear, F. R. D. The Annals of Tacitus 1 (Annals 1, 1–54). Cambridge, 1972; II (1, 55–11). Cambridge, 1981.

Griffin, M. T. ‘The Lyons tablet and Tacitean hindsight’, Classical Quarterly 32 (1982).Google Scholar

Griffin, M. T. Nero: the End of a Dynasty. London, 1984.

Hennig, D. ‘Zur Ägyptenreise des Germanicus’, Chiron 2 (1972).Google Scholar

Hennig, D. L. Aelius Seianus (Vestigia 21). Munich, 1975.

Herbert-Brown, G., Ovid and the Fasti (Oxford, 1994), ch. 5.

Hind, J. G. F. ‘The middle years of Nero's reign’, Hist. 20 (1971).Google Scholar

Hoffman, M. ‘Ptolemaios von Mauretania’, Pauly, A. F. et al., Real-Encyclopädie der klassischen Alter tum swissenschaft. Stuttgart 1894– XXIII, 3 (1959).Google Scholar

Houston, G. W. ‘Tiberius on Capri’, Greece and Rome 32 (1985).Google Scholar

Jakobson, A. and Cotton, H. M. ‘Caligula's recusatio imperii’, Hist. 34 (1985).Google Scholar

Jameson, S. ‘Augustus and Agrippa Postumus’, Hist. 24 (1975).Google Scholar

Jones, B. W. The Emperor Titus. London, 1984.

Jung, H. ‘Die Thronerhebung des Claudius’, Chiron 2 (1972).Google Scholar

Koestermann, E. Cornelius Tacitus: Annalen. 4 vols. Heidelberg, 1963–8.

Koestermann, E. ‘Die Feldzüge des Germanicus, 14–16 n. Chr.’, Hist. 6 (1957).Google Scholar

Koestermann, E. ‘Die Mission des Germanicus im Orient’, Hist. 7 (1958).Google Scholar

Kokkinos, N. Antonia Augusta: Portrait of a Roman Lady. London, 1992.

Leach, E. W. ‘Seneca's Apocolocyntosis and De Clementia’, Arethusa 22 (1989).Google Scholar

Levick, B. M. ‘Mercy and moderation on the coinage of Tiberius’, in Levick, B. M. (ed.) The Ancient Historian and bis Materials. Farnborough, 1976.Google Scholar

Levick, B. M. ‘The beginning of Tiberius’ career’, Classical Quarterly 21 (1971).Google Scholar

Levick, B. M. ‘Imperial control of elections under the early principate’, Hist. 16 (1967).Google Scholar

Levick, B. M. ‘Antiquarian or revolutionary? Claudius Caesar's conception of his principate’, AJP 99 (1978).Google Scholar

Levick, B. M. ‘L. Verginius Rufus and the four emperors’, Rheinisches Museum für Philologie 128 (1985).Google Scholar

Levick, B. M. Claudius. London, 1990.

McAlindon, D. ‘Senatorial opposition to Claudius and Nero’, American Journal of Philology 77 (1956).Google Scholar

Mehl, H. Tacitus über Kaiser Claudius. Munich, 1974.

Meiggs, R. Roman Ostia. 2nd edn. Oxford, 1973.

Meise, E. Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der Julisch-Claudischen Dynastie. Munich, 1969.

Millar, F. The Emperor in the Roman World (31 b.c.–a.d. 337). London, 1977.

Momigliano, A. Claudius: the Emperor and his Achievement. Oxford, 1934; 2nd edn. Cambridge, 1961.

Murison, C. L. ‘Galba in Germany a.d. 43’, Hist. 34 (1985).Google Scholar

Murray, O. ‘The Quinquennium Neronis and the Stoics’, Hist. 14 (1965).Google Scholar

Oliver, J. H. ‘The descendants of Asinius Pollio’, American Journal of Philology 68 (1947).Google Scholar

Oost, S. J. ‘The career of M. Antonius Pallas’, American Journal of Philology 79 (1958).Google Scholar

Orth, W. Die Provinzialpolitik des Tiberius. Munich, 1970.

Pippidi, D. M. Autour de Tibère. Rome, 1965.

Price, S. R. F. Rituals and Power: the Roman Imperial Cult in Asia Minor. Cambridge, 1984.

Rickman, G. The Corn Supply of Ancient Rome. Oxford, 1980.

Ritter, H. W. ‘Cluvius Rufus bei Josephus?’, Rheinisches Museum für Philologie 115 (1972).Google Scholar

Rodewald, C. Money in the Age of Tiberius. Manchester, 1976.

Rogers, R. S. Studies in the Reign of Tiberius. Baltimore, 1943.

Roper, T. K. ‘Nero, Seneca and Tigellinus’, Hist. 28 (1979).Google Scholar

Rudich, V., Political Dissidence under Nero (London, 1993).

Schmitt, H. H. ‘DerPannonische Aufstand d.J. 14n. Chr.’, Hist. 7 (1958).Google Scholar

Scullard, H.H., From tie Gracchi to Nero (London, 1st edn. 1959

Seager, R. Tiberius. London, 1972.

Shotter, D. C. A. ‘Julians, Claudians, and the accession of Tiberius’, Latomus 30 (1971).Google Scholar

Stewart, A. F. ‘To entertain an emperor: Sperlonga, Laokoon and Tiberius at the dinner-table’, Journal of Roman Studies 67 (1977).Google Scholar

Sullivan, J. P. Literature and Politics in the Age of Nero. Ithaca, NY, 1985.

Sutherland, C. H. V. Roman History and Coinage 44 b.c.–a.d. 69. Oxford, 1987.

Swan, M. ‘Josephus, A. J. XIX 251–252: Opposition to Caius and Claudius’, American Journal of Philology 91 (1970).Google Scholar

Syme, R. The Augustan Aristocracy. Oxford, 1986.

Syme, R. Tacitus. Oxford, 1958.

Syme, R. Ten Studies in Tacitus. Oxford, 1970.

Syme, R. ‘Sejanus on the Aventine’, Hermes 84 (1956) (= A).Google Scholar

Syme, R. ‘The crisis of 2 b.c.’, Sitzungsberichte der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, philos.-hist. Klasse 7 (1974) (= A 94, 111).Google Scholar

Syme, R. ‘Partisans of Galba’, Hist. 31 (1982) (= A 94, IV).Google Scholar

Thornton, M. K. (ed.) Julio-Claudian Building Programs: A Quantitative Study in Political Management. Wauconda, 1989.

Timpe, D. ‘Die Bedeutung der Schlacht von Carrhae’, Museum Helveticum 19 (1962).Google Scholar

Wallace-Hadrill, A., ed. Patronage in Ancient Society. London, 1989.

Wankenne, J. ‘Encore et toujours Néron’, L'Antiquité classique 53 (1984).Google Scholar

Warmington, B. H. Nero: Reality and Legend. London, 1969.

Weinrib, E. J. ‘The family connections of M. Livius Drusus Libo’, Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 72 (1967).Google Scholar

Wickert, L. ‘Neue Forschungen zum römischen Prinzipat’, Temporini, H., Haase, W. (eds.), Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt. Geschichte und Kultur Roms im Spiegel der neueren Forschung. Berlin and New York, 1972– II, I (1974) (with bibliography).Google Scholar

Wiseman, T. P. Roman Studies Literary and Historical. Liverpool, 1987.

Wiseman, T. P. ‘Calpurnius Siculus and the Claudian civil war’, Journal of Roman Studies 72 (1982) (= A).Google Scholar

Woodman, A. J. Velleius Paterculus: the Tiherian Narrative. Cambridge, 1977.

Zecchini, G. ‘La Tabula Siarensis e la “Dissimulatio” di Tiberio’, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 66 (1986).Google Scholar

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Why this information is here

This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.

Accessibility Information

Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this chapter is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.