Select Observations of Roman Emperors 2, Part 1 · Emperor 3
Choyce Observations OF TIBERIUS CAESAR.
LIVIA his Mother,Tiberius dictus à fluvio Tibere, quòd juxta Tiberim natus esset. whiles she went with child of him, among many and sundry experiments which she made, and signes that she observed (and all to know whether she should bring forth a man-child or no) took closely an Egge from under a Henne that was sitting, and kept it warm, sometime in her own, otherwhiles in her womans hands by turns one after another, so long untill there was hatched a Cock-chicken with a notable combe upon the head. And when he was but a very babe, Scribonius the Astrologer gave out, and warranted great matters of him, and namely, that he should one day reigne as Monarch, but yet without the Royall Ensignes, for as yet the Soveraigne power of the Caesars was unknown.
He was of Personage tall, corpulent, big set and strong, of stature above the ordinary, broad between the shoulders, and large breasted, fair of complexion, great goggle-eyed, whereby he saw so clearly as is incredible to report.Suetonius. He used both hands alike;*Nullius manus velad feriendum vel adimpellendum fortiores fuerunt, quum in …igitis nervos videretur habuisse non venas; nam & carra venientis digito sahitari repulisse dicitur, & fortissimos quosque uno digito sic afflixisse, ut quasi-ligni vel ferri obtusioris i…tu percu… dolerent. Multa d…rum digitorum allisione contrivit. Trebel. Pollio de trigin…a …y…annis in Mario. his joynts were so firm, that with his finger he was able to boar through a green and sound table, with a fillop also to break the head of a good big boy; his speech was exceeding slow, not without a certain wanton gesticulation and fumbling with his fingers.
He refused the Empire a long time, putting on a most impudent and shamelesse mind, and seeming to rebuke his friends encouraging him thereto, as those who knew not what a monstrous and untamed beast an Empire was.Tiberio suspensa sem…r, & ob… verba. Tacitus. He also held the Senate in suspence by ambiguous answers, and crafty delayes, when they besought him to take it upon him, yea and humbly debased themselves before his knees, insomuch as some of them could endure him no longer, and one among the rest in that tumult cryed out aloud, Let him either doe it at once, or else give over quite; and another openly to his face upbraided him in these words,Aut agat, aut desisiat. Eras. Apophtheg. Simile est Ciceren…s …iud de Epi…is 2. de fin. C… teri (inquit) existimantur dicere melius quam facere, hi mihi videntur facere melius quam dicere. Caeteri, quod pollicentur tardè praestant, tu quod praestas tardè polliceris. Whereas other men be slack in doing and performing that which they have promised, thou art slack in promising that which thou performest. In the end, as if he had been compelled, and complaining withall that there was imposed upon his shoulders a miserable and burdensome servitude, he took the Empire upon him.
The cause of this holding off and delay that he made, was the fear of imminent dangers on every side, in so much as he would often say,Dicitur in eos qui ejusmodi negotio involvuntur, quod neque relinquere sit integrum, neque tolerari possit. Eras. Adag. Eras. in Apoph. & alii. Lupum se auribus tenere, he held a Wolf by the ears.
Hee knowing excellently well how to conceal his own private passions, made himself be known to be an excellent Doctor in the cunning Art of discovering other mens thoughts, by which he may be said to set the roof over the Roman Monarchy. Advertisements from Parnassus by Bocalini. Century 2. Advertis. 33. See more there.
He was very patient when any bad rumours or slanderous Libels were cast out, either of himself or those about him, and was wont to say (how wisely I determine not) In civitate libera linguam mentemque liberas esse debere, That in a free State men ought to have both tongue and thought free.
He taxed the indiscretion of the Ilienses comforting him long after the death of his Son,Sueton. with this answer, That he also was very sorry for them, because they had lost that worthy Citizen Hector, Sueton.one dead many hundred years before.
He was mild and gracious at the first, and seemed to be enclined to the good of the Common-wealth: when the Presidents and Governours abroad gave him counsell to burthen the Provinces with heavie Tributes and Taxes;Et Alexand. Magnus solitus erat dicere, se odisse olitorem qui herbas radici…ùs convellete…. he wrote back unto them, Boni Pastoris est tondere pecus, non deglubere, That it was the part of a good shepheard to shear his sheep, and not to flea them.
He held it good policy not to change his Officers often, lest new ones succeeding should oppresse the people too much; whereas the old having meanes to enrich themselves, would not so fleece them in the latter end as at the beginning, making hast to do it, lest they were removed before they could feather their nests well. See Montagues Acts and Monum. of the Church. c. 5. p. 37.
That by his own Example he might put forward the publick frugality,Et ut parsimoniam publicam exemplo quoque juvaret, solennibus ipse coeni… pridi…na saepe ac semesa opsoni… apposuit, dimidiatumque aprum, affirmans omnis eadem habe… quae totum. he himself at his solemn and festivall suppers, caused oftentimes to be served up to the Board viands dressed the day before, and those half eaten, saying, That the side of a wild Boar had in it the same of the whole.
One there was who called him Dominus, that is, Sir, but he gave him warning not to name him any more by way of contumely. Another chanced to say, His sacred business; and a third again, That he went into the Senate, Auctore se, that is, by his warrant or authority. He caused them both to change those words, and for auctore to say suasore, that is, By his advise and counsell; and in stead of sacred, to put in laborious and painfull.
Quotidiana oscula prohibuit edicto, item strenarum commercium. He forbad expresly by Edict the usuall and daily kisses commonly given and taken, likewise the entercourse of New-yeares gifts to and fro.
Suetonius writeth of him, that he did Iura omnibus ferè asylis adimere, Take away the priviledge of almost all their Sanctuaries, because he observed the licentious abuse of them.
At length he discovered those vices, which with much adoe for a long time he had cloaked and concealed.
He was very cruell,No…em continuumque bi…uum e…ulando potandoque consumpsit. covetous, and libidinous. He spent with Flaccus Pomponius and L. Piso, a whole night and two dayes ou… right in nothing else but eating and drinking;Sueton. giving the Province of Syria into the Government of the first,Suetonius. and conferring the Provostship of Rome on the other, professing even in all his Letters, that they were Jucundissimi, & omnium horarum Amici, his most pleasant Companions, and friends at all Assaies. Propter nimiam vini aviditatem, for his excessive love of wine and hot waters, or because he loved to drink wine hot, which is delicate,*Elegans Paranomasia. So some played upon the name of Epiphanes, and called him Epimanes, or madman. See Iunius on 8. Din. Others call the Duke of Lorrain the Duke des Larrons. Le Theatre du monde. l. 2. See after in Caligula and Titus. Pliny l 1…. of Naturall Hist. Nor the thrice gallant Knight. Athen…us memorat de Xenocrate, illum scilicet uno haustu s…rp…isse v…nt co…gium. Gassend. de vita Epicuri. lib. … ▪ c. 6. he was for Tiberius named Biberius, for Claudius, Caldius, for Nero, Mero.
One gives this reason of his drunkennesse, because his Nurse that gave him suck would drink exceedingly her self, and nourished him with sops soaked in wine.
A Lombard, for drinking in his presence three Gallons of wine at one dr…ught, and before he took his breath again, was dubbed Knight by him, and sirnamed Tricongius, The three-Gallon Knight.
He erected a new Office,Nero had an Officer about him (to wit Petronius) who was called Arbiter Neroni…ne libidinis, Tacit. Ann…l. l. 16. à voluptatibus, for the devising of new pleasures, wherein he placed Priscus a Gentleman of Rome, and one who had been Censor.
He advanced Sejanus to the highest place of Authority, not so much for any good will, as to be his instrument for the accomplishing his wicked purposes.
He put to death a Souldier one of his own Guard,Latinis abstracta pro concretis simpliciter posita intendunt id quod dicitur; plus enim quam vel sordidum designat, vel sanguineum, eximie nimirum …alem. Mentitur qui te vitiosum, Zoile, dixit. Non vitiosus homo es, Zoile, sed vitium. for stealing a Peacock out of a Garden.
Theodorus Gadareus his Master observing his bloody disposition, called him, Lutum sanguine maceratum, A lump of clay soaked in blood; these verses were cast out of him:
Fastidit vinum, quia jam suit iste cruorem;
…am bibit hunc avidè, quàm bibit antè merum.
He loat…eth wine, and now he aft…r blood doth thirst;
Drinkes this as greedily as wine he drank at first.
He thought simple death so light a punishment, that when he heard that Carnul…us one of the Prisoners had laid violent hands on himself,Heins. Exercit. Sac. he cryed out, Carnulius me evas…t, Sueton.Carnulius hath escaped my hands.
His saying was,Sueton. Oderint dum probent, Let them hate me so long as they suffer my proceedings to passe.
Nullus à poena hominum cessavit dies, ne religiosus quidem ac sacer.
There passed not a day over his head, no not so much as any festivall and Religious Holy day, without execution and punishment of some: many were accused and condemned, together with their Children and Wives. Straight commandment was given, that …he near kinsfolkes of such persons as were condemned to dye should not mourn and lament for them. No Informer and Promoter was discredited, but his Prefentment taken, and every crime and trespasse was accounted capitall.
He said to one that requested death rather than long imprisonment, Nondum tecum redii in gratiam, Suetonius.Thou art not yet reconciled to me that I should shew thee such favour.
Because Virgins by a received custome were not to be strangled;Tacitus. he caused the Hangman first to defloure a Virgin,Suetonius. and then to strangle her.
Among other kinds of torment he devised,Suetonius. that when men had drunk largely of strong wine, their privy parts should be fast bound with Lute-strings, that so for want of means to avoid their Urine, they might indure intollerable pain.
Faelicem Priamum vocabat, quod superstes omnium suorum extitisset. Suetonius.He called Priamus happy, in that he over-lived all his Sons and Daughters.
He feared Thunder exceedingly,See the like in Augustus his life. and when the air or weather was any thing troubled, he ever carried a Chaplet or wreath of Lawrell about his neck, because that (as Pliny reporteth) is never blasted with Lightning.
He loved liberall Sciences most affectionately,Ingenio ad repentina long… …riore. Aurel. Vict. he would do things better of a sudden, ex tempore, then upon study and premeditation, Repentinis responsionibus aut consiliis melior, quàm meditatis.
He was much addicted to Astrologicall predictions,Scribit Plutarchus in Apophtheg matis, Augustum dicere solitum, se Romani Imperii successorem eum esse relicturum, qui nunquam bis de eadem reconsultasset; Tiberium significare volebat. Josephus lib. 18. of the Antiquity of the Jews, c. 8. and such curious Arts, so that the greater part of those things which he executed in all his life time was ordered thereby; he gave the more credit to Divination, because in certain things he had found the conjectures correspondent to truth.
He seeing Galba one day coming towards him,Tu quoque Galba degustabis imperium. spake thus of him to certain of his familiars,Tacit. l. 4. Annal. Behold the man that shall be one day honoured with the Roman Empire.
He made a Law called Lex Papia, by which he forbad sucl. men as were past sixty, or women past fifty to marry, as thinking them i…sufficient for generation; to which Lactanti…s seemes to allude,Lib. 1. Divin. Instit. c. 16. thus jesting at the Heathen touching their great god Jupiter; How cometh it to passe, that in your Poets, salacious Jupiter begets no more children? is he past sixty, and restrained by the Papian Law?
Many of the Roman Caesars have been transported with self-admiration, they have shared the Months of the year among them; April must be Neroneus, Vide Tacit. l. 16. A…al. c. 12.May Claudius, Domitian will have October, November is for Tiberius, by the same token, that when it was tendered to him, he askt the Senatewittily (as Xiphiline reports it) What they would do when they should have more then twelve Caesars?
It is called the Sea of Tiberias, Iohn 6. …. from a City on the bank of it, of that name, built by Herod, in honour of Tiberius Caesar, as Josephus writeth in the 18. Book of his Jewish Antiquities.
Livie and Ovid dyed in the fourth year of Tiberius.Eusebius.
Pilate by Letters signified unto him the Miracles of our Saviour Christ, his Resurrection, and that he was supposed of many to be God. The Romans had a Law, forbidding any Emperour to consecrate or set up any god which was not first approved by the Senate; for Tiberius Caesar hearing of Christs fame, by vertue of that Law moved the Senate to promulgate and relate Christ among the number of their gods, who rejected him because he would be God alone, or because contrary to the Law of the Romans he was consecrated for God, before the Senate of Rome had so declared and approved him; whose folly Tertullian thus scoffeth;In Apologet. They refused to do it saith Eusebius, l. 2. Hist. Eccle. c. 2. that the wisedome and Divine power of God in the Doctrine of salvation might not need the allowance and commendation of men. Apud vos de humano arbitrio divinitas pensitatur, nisi homini Deus placuerit, non erit Deus, homo jam Deo propitius esse debet, That God should be God if man would let him.
Josephus a Jew, and an enemy to Christ, in his 8. Book of Antiquities, c. 4. speakes the same things of Christ that Matthew doth; that he was a most worthy man, if it be lawfull to call him a man (said he,) that he wrought many Miracles, and that he rose from the dead. Tacitus and Suetonins speak of his Miracles,Christus Tiberio impe…rante, per Procuratorem Pontium Pilatum supplicio affectus era…. Tacitus l. 15. Annal. c. 10. affirmes that he was Crucified under Pilate in the time of Tiberius, and that Tiberius would have put him in the number of his gods. Plutarch De interitu Orac. reports, that under the Reigne of Tiberius all the Oracles of the world ceased, of which the Poets bear witnesse,—cessant oracula Delphis. Iuv. Sat. 6.
Plutarch also in the same book reports, that in the later yeares of the reigne of Tiberius, a strange voice and exceeding horrible clamours, with hideous cries, screetches and howlings were heard by many in the Grecian Sea, complaining that the great god Pau was now departed. And this was brought before the Emperour, who marvelled greatly thereat, and could not by all his Diviners and Soothsayers whom he called to that consultation, be able to gather out any reasonable meaning of this wonderfull accident: but Christians may perswade themselves, that by the death of their great god Pan (which signifies all) was imported the utter overthrow of all wicked spirits. John 12. 31.
Our Lord was Crucified in the 15. year of his reigne, say*Lib. adversus Iudaeos. Tertullian and*Lib. 4. de vera sapientia c. 10. Vide Vossium de tempore Dominicae passionis. Sect. 3. Lactantius.
But Luke the Evangelist, 3. c. 1. v. maketh his Baptisme to fall in the 15. year of Tiberius his reigne. So then his Passion must be in the 18. or 19. for three yeares he preached salvation. Jerome and Eusebius.
The fear of losing his Office under Tiberius Caesar, (whose Deputy he was over the Province of Judaea,) made Pilate condemn Christ, John 19. 12. 13. but not long after, he lost his Deputy-ship and Caesars favour, and fled to Vienna, where living in banishment he killed himself; Euseb. Hist. l. 2. c. 7.
Matth. 22. 21. Our Saviour saith, Romani Caesares imaginem suam imprimebant monetae tam …ureae quam argenteae. Drusius.Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars.
The money declared the subjection of their Nation; as if he should have said, If you think it absurd to pay Tribute, be not subject to the Roman Empire; but the money declareth that Caesar reigneth over you, and your own secret allowance declareth that the liberty which you pretend, is lost and taken away. Ierome on the place doth well observe, that the name of Caesar is not proper, but Appellative, because from the first Emperour Iulius Caesar all the rest were so called. Yet saith Gerhard in his Harmony, Christ properly understands Tiberius who then ruled, whose Image the money did bear; to that wicked Emperour Tribute was due; so that charge 1 Tim. 2. 2. was given by Paul, even then when Caesar was a persecutor of the Christian Religion.
Austin tells us, He that gave Soveraignty to Augustus, gave it also to Nero; he that gave it to the Vespatians Father and Son, sweetest Emperours, gave it also to Domitian that bloody monster, De civit. Dei. l. 5. c. 21.
Tiberius approved of the Christians Opinions, and threatned Death to them which accused them: This came to passe (saith *l. 2. Eccles. Hist. c. 2. He withheld a Legacy from the people of Rome, which his predecessor Augustus had lately given; and perceiving a fellow round a dead Corse in the ear, he would needs know wherefore he did so, the fellow replyed, that hee wished the departed soul to signifie to Augustus, the Commons of Rome were yet unpaid: for this bitter jest the Emperour caused him forthwith to be slain, and carry the news himself.Eusebius) by Divine providence, that the Doctrine of the Gospel having no rubbe at the first, might run over the whole world.
Dion writes, that …a Phoenix was seen before the last year of Tiberius, which bird is an Embleme of the Resurrection, and signifieth that at that time Christ rose from the dead, and that the Gospel was then spread abroad, which affirmeth that the Dead shall rise again. Charion. Chron.
He dyed in the 78. year of his age, say Suetonius, Tacitus, and Aurel. Vict. 83. saith Eutropius. It was thought he was poysoned.
He raigned 23. yeares say Eutropius, Suetonius, Orosius. 24. saith Aurel. Vict. 22. yeares, 7. moneths, and 20. dayes, Tertull. 22. yeares, Clem. Alexand. 22. yeares, 7. moneths, and so many dayes, saith Dion, 22. yeares and six moneths, Iose…hus.
He raigned 22. yeares and 7. moneths;Doctor Willet on the Rom. 22. yeares, 11. months, 14. dayes, saith Euseb. as Doctor but the reason of the different computation, why some give unto him but 22. years, some 24. some but 23. is, because some count onelyonly the full yeares, some the moneths of his first and last year for whole yeares,Willet sheweth in his Hexapla on Dan. where the account differs from this certain months, because he followeth Euseb. computation there. some put the odde moneths together, and make one year of them.
He raigned after our Saviours Passion 4. years, 11. moneths, and 18. dayes.
The people joyed so much at his death, that running up and down at the first tidings thereof, some cryed out in this note, Tiberium in Tiberim, Let Tiberius be cast into Tiber; some offered sacrifices when they heard of it, and one meeting with his Master in some publick place, told him in the Hebrew Tongue, The Lion was dead.