Select Observations of Roman Emperors, Life 3
Tyberius Caesar.
LIVIA his Mother, whiles she went with child of him,Tiberius dictus à fluvio Tibere, quod juxta Tiberim natus esset. among many and sundry experiments which she made, and signs that she observed (and all to know whether she should bring forth a man-child or no) took closely an Egg from under a Hen that was sitting,Suetonius. and kept it warm, sometime in her own, otherwhiles in her womans hands by turns one after another, so long until there was hatched a Cock-chicken with a notable comb 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 reign as Monarch, but yet without the Royal Ensigns, for as yet the Sovereign 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 brested, fair of complexion, great goggle-ey'd, whereby he saw so clearly as is incredible to report. He used both hands alike;Suetonius. *Nullius manus vel ad feriendum vel ad impellendum fortiores fuerunt, quum in digitis nervos videretur habuisse non venas; nam & carra venientia digito salutari repulisse dicitur, & fortissimos quosque uno digito sic afflixisse, ut quasi ligni vel ferri obtusioris ictu percussi dolerent. Multa duorum digitorum allisione contrivit. Trebel. Pollio. de triginta Tyrannis in Mario.his joints were so firm, that with his finger he was able to bore 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 wan on gesticulation and fumbling with his fingers.
He refused the Empire a long time, putting on a most impudent and shameless mind, and seeming to rebuke his friends encouraging him thereto, as those who knew not what a monstrous and untaimed beast an Empire was.Tiberio suspensa semper, & obscura verba. He also held the Senate in suspence by ambiguous answers, and crafty delaies, when they besought him to take it upon him,Tacitus. yea & humbly debased themselves before his knees, insomuch as some of them could endure him no longer, & one among the rest in that tumult cry'd out aloud, Let him either do it at once, or else give over quite; and another openly to his face upbraided him in these words, Caeteri, quod pollicentur tardè praestant, tu quod praestas tardè polliceris. Aut agat, aut desistat. Eras. Apophtheg. Simile est Ciceronis istud de Epicureis 2. de fin. Caeteri (inquit) existimantur dicere melius quàm facere, hi mihi videntur facere melius quàm dicere.Whereas other men be slack in doing & 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, insomuch as he would often say, Lupum se auribus tenere, Dicitur in eos qui ejusmodi negotio involvuntur, quod nequerelinquere sit integrum, neque tolerari possit Eras. Adag. Eras. in Apoph. & alii.he held a Wolf by the ears.
He knowing excellent well how to conceal his own private passions, made himself 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 deathSueton. of his Son, 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 Governors abroad gave him councel to burden the Provinces with heavy Tributes and Taxes;Et Alexand. Magnus solitus erat dicere, se odisse olitorem qui herbas radicitus convelleret. he wrote back unto them, Boni Pastoris est tondere pecus, non deglubere, That it was the part of a good shepherd 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 oppress the people too much; whereas the old having means 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.
Et ut parsimoniam publicam exemplo quoque juvaret solennibus ipse coenis pridiana saepe at semesa opsonia apposuit, dimidiatumque aprum, affirmans omnia eadem habere quae totum.That by his own Example he might put forward the publick frugality, he himself at his solemn and festival 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 advice and councel; and instead of sacred, to put in laborious and painful.
Quotidiana oscula prohibuit edicto, item strenarum commercium. He forbad expresly by Edict the usual and daily kisses commonly given and taken, likewise the entercourse of New-years 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 ado for a long time he had cloaked and concealed.
He was very cruel, covetous, and libidinous.Noctem continuumque biduum epulando potandoque consumpsit. He was wont to adorn his chambers with most lascivious pictures, ut ita aspectu deficientes libidines excitaret. vide Sueton.Sueton. in ejus vita. He spent with Flaccus Pomponius and L. Piso, a whole night and two daies outright in nothing else but eating and drinking; giving the Province of Syria into the Government of the first, and conferring the Provostship of Rome on the other; professing even in all his Letters, that they were Iucundissimi, & 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,Suetonius. 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 mad man. See Iunius on 8. Dan. Others call the Duke of Lorrain the Duke des Larrons.he was for Tiberius named Biberius, for Claudius, Caldius, for Nero, Mero.
*Le Theatre du monde. l. 2. See after in Caligula and Titus. Pliny l. 14. of Natural Hist. Not the thrice gallant Knight. Athenaeus memorat de Xenocrate, illum scilicet uno haustu sorpsisse vini congium. Gassend. de vita Epicuri. lib. 6. c. 6.One gives this reason of his drunkenness, 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 draught, and before he took his breath again, was dubbed Knight by him, and sirnamed Tricongius, The three gallon Knight.
It is reported, that in his time there was invented Glass of that temper, that it would abide the hammer, and be beaten in length or breadth like lead, and pliable to bend every way like paper; and that the Inventor hereof was put to death by him. See Peacham's Valley of varieties. c. 17.
He erected a new Office, à voluptatibus, Nero had an Officer about him (to wit Petronius) who was called Arbiter Neronianae libidinis, Tacit. Annal. l. 16▪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 Soldier 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 talem. Mentitur qui te vitiosum, Zoile, dixit. Non vitiosus homo es, Zoile, sed vitium. Heins. Exercit. Sac. for stealing a Peacock out of a Garden.
Theodorus Gadareus his Master observing his bloudy disposition, called him, Lutum sanguine maceratum, A lump of clay soaked in blood; these verses were cast out of him:
Fastidit vinum, quia jam sitit iste cruorem;
Tam bibit hunc avidè, quàm bibit antè merum.
He loatheth wine, and now he after blood doth thirst;
Drinks this as greedily as wine he drank at first.
He thought simple death so light a punishment, that when he heard that Carnulius one of the Prisoners had laid violent hands on himself, he cryed out,Sueton. Carnulius me evasit, Carnulius hath escaped my hands.Sueton.
His saying was, Oderint dum probent, Let them hate me so long as they suffer my proceedings to pass.
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 festival 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 the near kinsfolks of such persons as were condemned to die should not mourn and lament for them. No Informer and Promoter was discredited, but his Presentment taken, and every crime and trespass was accounted capital.
He said to one that requested death rather than long imprisonment, Nondum tecum redii in gratiam, Thou art not yet reconciled to me that I should shew thee such favour.Suetonius.
Because Virgins by a received custom were not to be strangled;Tacitus he caused the Hangman first to deflour a Virgin,Suetonius. and then to strangle her.
Boeclerus in his political dissertations, observes, that he had two instruments of his wickedness, by which he cloaked his vilest actions.
1. Sermonis artificium, his ambiguous speeches. 2. Inanis quidam color juris, as here in that example of the Virgins last mentioned.
Among other kind of torments 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 endure intollerable pain.
Foelicem 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 Lawrel about his neck, because that (as Pliny reporteth) is never blasted with Lightning.
He loved liberal Sciences most affectionately,Ingenio ad repentina longè ceriore. he would do things better of a sudden, extempore, than upon study and premeditation, Repentivis responsionibus, Aurel. Vict.aut consiliis melior, qvàm meditatis.He wrote a most eloquent complaint of the death of Iulius Caesar. Scribit Plutarchus in Apophthegmatis, Augustum dicere solitum, se Romani Imperii successorem eum esse relicturum, qui nunquam bis de eadem re consultasset; Tiberium significare volebat. Josephus lib. 18. of the Antiquity of the Jews. c. 8.
He was much addicted to Astrological predictions, 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.
His usual Companions were Magicians and Sooth-sayers. The principal of these was Thrasyllus; whom Tiberius intending on a time, to thrust down from a Cliff as they walked together, in that he had failed in a former prediction; & perceiving by his looks that he was troubled in mind, demanded the cause. Who replyed, that by his Art he foresaw some hardly to be avoided danger to be neer him: whereat Tiberius amazed, altered his purpose.
Tu quoque Galba degustabis imperium.He seeing Galba one day coming towards him, spake thus of him to certain of his familiars, Behold the man that shall be one day honoured with the Roman Empire.Tacit. l. 4. Annal.
He made a Law called Lex Papia, Lipsius in his Commentaries on the third book of Tacitus, Annal. treats largely of this Lex Papia.by which he forbad such men as were past sixty, or women past fifty to marry, as thinking them insufficient for generation; to which Lactantius seems to allude, thus jesting at the Heathen touching their great god Iupiter; How cometh it to pass that in your Poets, salacious Iupiter begets no more children? is he past sixty, and restrained by the Papian Law?
Certè Iuliam legem Papia fuisse auctam atque extensam satis constat. Sed quid sit adjectum, non ita constat Heraldi Commentarius. in Ap loget. Tertul.
Many of the Roman Caesars have been transported with self-admiration, they have shared the Months of the year among them;Vide Tacit. l. 16. Annal. c. 12. April must be Neroneus, May Claudius, Domitian will have October, November is for Tiberias, by the same token that when it was tendered to him, he askt the Senate wittily (as Xiphiline reports it) What they would do when they should have more than twelve Caesars?
It is called the Sea of Tiberius, Iohn 6.1. from a City on the bank of it, of that name, built by Herod, in honour of Tiberius Caesar, as Iosephus 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,The word Christians was first known to the world in his reign as Tertullian witnesseth in his Apology Tiberius ergo, cujus tempore nomen Christianum in seculum introjvit. his Resurrection, and that he was supposed of many to bee God. The Romans had a Law, forbidding any Emperor 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. Eccles. 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, Deus non erit, homo jam Deo propitius esse debedit. God should be God if man would let him.
Iosephus a Jew, and an enemy to Christ, in his 8. Book of Antiquities, c. 4. speaks the same things of Christ that Matthew doth; that he was a most worthy man, if it be lawful to call him a man (said he,) that he wrought many Miracles, & that he rose from the dead. Tacitus and Suetonius speak of his Miracles, Tacitus l. 15. Annal. c. 10. affirms that he was crucified under Pilate in the time of Tiberius, Christus Tiberio imperante, per Procuratorem Pontium Pilatum supplicio affectus eras.& that Teberius would have put him in the number of his gods. Plutar. De interitu Orac. reports, that under the Reign of Tiberius all the Oracles of the world ceased, of which the Poets bear witness, — cessant oracula Delphis. Iuv. Sat. 6.
Plutarch also in the same book reports, that in the later years of the reign 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 Pan was now departed. And this was brought before the Emperor, who marvelled greatly thereat, and could not by all his Diviners and Southsayers whom he called to that consultation, be able to gather out any reasonable meaning of this wonderful 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. Iohn 12.13.
Our Lord was crucified in the 15. year of his reign, say *Lib. adversus Iudaeos.Tertullian and *Lib. 4. de vera sapientia c. 10.Lactantius.
But Luke the Evangelist, 3. c. 1. v. maketh his Baptism to fall in the 15. year of Tiberius his reign. So then his Passion must be in the 18. or 19. for three years he preached salvation.Vide Vossium de tempore. Dominicae passionis. Sect. 3. Ierome and Eusebius.
The fear of losing his Office under Tiberius Caesar, (whose Deputy he was over the Province of Iudaea,) made Pilate condemn Christ, Iohn 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.
Iohn Baptist also suffered in his time.
Matth. 22.21. Our Saviour saith, Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars.Romani Caesares imaginem suam imprimebant monetae tam aureae quam argenteae
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,Drusius. & 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 Emperor 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 Emperor 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 Augustius, gave it also to Nero; he that gave it to the Vespatians Father and Son, sweetest Emperors, 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 pass (saith *l. 2. Eccles. Hist. c. 2. He with-held a Legacy from the people of Rome, which his predecessor Augustus had lately given; and perceiving a fellow round a dead Corpse in the ear, we would needs know wherefore he did so, the fellow replyed, that he wished the departed soul to signifie to Augustus, the Commons of Rome were yet unpaid: for this bitter jest the Emperor caused him forthwith to be slain, & carry the news himself.Eusebius) by Divine providence, that the Doctrine of the Gospel having no rub at the first, might run over the whole world.
He made Capreae by his cruelty and lusts, but infamous and unhappy: Who withdrawing thither from the affairs of the Common wealth, because the Island was unaccessible on all sides, by reason of the upright Clifts, except only at one place, no man being suffered to land, but upon especial admittance, hence sent his mandates of death. In the mean-time making it a very stew of incredible beastliness. Insomuch that Capreae was stiled the Island of secret lusts, and he Capreneus, Sandys Travels. l. 4. p. 197. Capraeis marcescens Romae aderat ferro, si non consilio. Emanuelis Thesauri Caesares.
Dion writes, that a Phoenix was seen before the last year of Tiberius, which bird is an Emblem 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. Carion. 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 years, say Eutropius, Suetonius, Orosius. 24 saith Aurel. Vict. 22 years, 7 months, and 20 dayes, Tertull. 22 years, Clem. Alexand. 22 years, 7 months, and so many dayes, saith Dion, 22 years and six months, Iosephus.
He raigned 22 years and 7 moneths;Doctor Willet on the Rom. 22. years, 11 months, 14 days, saith Euseb. as Doctor Willet sheweth in his Hexapla on Dan. where the account differs from this certain months, because he followeth Euseb. computation there. but the reason of the different computation, why some give unto him but 22 years, some 24, some but 23 is, because some count only the full years, some the moneths of his first and last year for whole years, some put the odde months together, and make one year of them.
He raigned after our Saviours Passion 4 years, 11 months, 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.