Tiberius Claudius Nero (also translated into Chinese as Tiberius, Tiberius, Tiberius, Tiberius, 16 December 42 BC - 16 March 37 BC) was the second emperor of the Roman Empire, reigning from 14 to 37 AD.

Early life- childhood

Tiberius was born into the famous Claudius family that was handed down during the republican period. Tiberius' father, Claudius Nero, served as Caesar's treasurer in the late years of the republic. After Caesar's assassination in 44 BC, he ran around in chaos until after the formation of the last three-headed alliance, he joined the camp of Mark Antony, and the domestic situation was slightly stabilized. Later, at the request of Octavian, Viya remarried to Octavian. Tiberius's biological father, Claudius Nero, died shortly after divorcing Viya.

Tiberius spent his childhood in hardships and worries. Before the establishment of the latter three alliances, he often followed his parents to escape enemy pursuit in Sicily, Achaia and other places. After his mother Livia remarried 39 years ago, Tiberius and his brother Drusus adopted him as Octavian's sons.

Military and political events

After reaching adulthood, Tiberius began his public life under the care of Augustus. He served as the chief of the army, settled the question of the Armenian throne in the east, and demanded from the Parthians the flags that had been taken after the defeat of Krassus. He also fought and won wars with the Gallic and Germanic tribes in Gaul and Pannonia outside the mountains. In 9 and 7 BC, he received the honor of holding a small triumph in Rome.

In addition, he served as treasurer, justice, and consul, and in 6 BC he also received the privilege of a tribune for five years.

self-imposed exile

Tiberius was originally married to Vespania, and the couple had a strong relationship and had a son (the younger Drusus). In 12 BC, Agrippa, Augustus' friend and son-in-law, died. In order to secure the foundation of the royal heir, Augustus forced Tiberius to divorce Vespania and marry Octavian's daughter Yulia instead. Tiberius accepted this request bitterly and had a son with Yulia. But after the death of their son, Tiberius became disgusted with his wife and the relationship broke down.

As Augustus's three grandchildren grew up: Postus, Ruchius, and Gaius (they were the sons of Yulia and Agrippa), and Tiberius was the oldest of Augustus' heirs and the first to have achieved success. He did not want to be a problem with Augustus's inheritance on the one hand, and did not want to live with his wife on the other hand. So in 6 BC, he refused his mother's plea, Livia, on the pretext of personal health, and resolutely asked for retirement, and sailed resolutely to Rhode Island, where he lived as an ordinary citizen.

Later, Yulia was charged with adultery, and Augustus exercised his "father's right" to exile Yulia. His eldest grandson, Postomus, behaved ridiculously and dissolute, and was also banished by Augustus. Prior to this, another brother of Tiberius, Drusus, also passed away. Due to the emptiness of the royal family, Tiberius finally returned to Rome in 2 AD, but he still did not involve politics.

ascended the throne

A few years later, Augustus's only surviving grandchildren, Ruquius and Gaius, died, making Tiberius the only suitable adult heir to the throne. He adopted his nephew Germanicus as his stepson and resumed the country's political career.

Tiberius resumed the Battle of Germany. He reorganized his troops with strict discipline, restoring the atmosphere of the previous defeat of Varus in the Teutonic Forest. Tiberius crossed the Rhine and defeated the Brockelians. In 12 years he returned to Rome and held a triumphant ceremony.

When Augustus died on August 19, 14 A.D., Tiberius, by unanimous consent of the Senate, legally inherited all of Augustus - making Tiberius emperor of Rome.

Emperor Tiberius

The army mutiny when he ascended the throne

In 14 AD, Tiberius succeeded to the throne as emperor in Rome. But at this time, two military regions on the imperial border: the German Military Region (Rhine River Basin) and the Illikum Military Region (Danube River Basin), mutiny occurred. They took advantage of the situation at the time of Augustus's death to make demands for welfare; they demanded retirement, improved pay, reduced labor burden, and accused their superiors of bullying, which local officers and regiment commanders could not stop. Tiberius sent two envoys to deal with it.

Tiberius's son Drusus Jr. arrived at Illikum and was nearly killed by the excited soldiers. Later, taking advantage of the panic caused by a lunar eclipse, he joined forces with centurions in various camps to eliminate active and noisy soldiers and quickly quell the uproar. On the other hand, Tiberius sent his stepson Germanic Nikus to the Germanic Military Region to deal with the incident, but the Lower Germanic Army was unwilling to accept it, so Germanic Nikus led the Upper Germanic Army loyal to him to launch a sneak attack on the Lower Germanic camp and suppress the disobedient elements in the German Army.

Early days of power

In the early days of his administration, Tiberius strived for leniency. His attitude was modest and he refused titles such as "Father of the Nation" and "Commander in Chief"; he respected the Senate and followed the habit of the Republic of China by personally reporting national affairs to the Senate, regardless of whether it was big or small; he often went to the court to hear judgments in order to prevent judges from taking bribes and embezzling. He advocated freedom of speech, unless the words involved insults to Augustus, and he ignored anyone who offended himself or his family. He once stated his position to the Senate: "Senators, a head of state who has such extensive power through your support is a servant of all citizens."¡»

Tiberius's economic policy was largely conservative. After the previous government expanded spending, he limited state spending. He cut spending on entertainment and shows, limited consumption of luxury goods, and led by example to encourage frugality.

Tiberius paid attention to social security, exterminating bandits and suppressing illegal riots in various places. The greatest influence on future generations was that he established a "Guards Infantry Brigade" of 6,000 people and stationed them in Rome, which became another foundation for the consolidation of imperial power.

Tiberius's foreign policy was mainly defensive. Following Augustus 'principle of no longer expanding, he withdrew the German army to the left bank of the Rhine. Except for the mutiny in Mauritania, Tiberius did not engage in any other war.

Death of Germanicus

Germanicus was the nephew of Tiberius. He married Agrippina the Great, the granddaughter of Augustus, and had nine children. After putting down the mutiny of the German military district, Germanicus led his troops across the Rhine in the winter of that year, and attacked the unprepared Germanic tribes. After that, Tiberius called Germanicus home with the goal of not expanding the war. However, the Roman army encountered a storm during the process of returning home. A considerable number of troops were damaged.

After Tiberius returned to Germanicus, he held a triumphant ceremony in his honor. In 18, Germanicus was sent to the East to handle Parthian foreign affairs. However, the provincial governor of Syria, Puzo, restricted Germanic Nikus in many ways, making the relationship between the two sides very tense. In 19 years, Germanicus died of illness. Before his death, he believed that he had been poisoned by peso and asked his family to avenge him. Later, Pusuo Fengguo committed suicide for some reason.

In the works of the classical writer Tacitus, people of the time suspected that Pizo was instigated by Tiberius to eliminate the succession of Germanic Nicus and his children to the throne so that his biological son Drusus could succeed smoothly.

Agrippina's Exile

The widow of Germanicus, Agrippina the Great, who considered herself to be of pure Augustus blood, looked down on the adopted Tiberius and suspected that her husband's death was related to Tiberius. Agrippina the Great once refused the apple that Tiberius had given him at the family dinner, expressing her disgust and fear of being poisoned; Tiberius also said to the daughter-in-law discontentedly, "Dear child, are you persecuted because you are not queen?" After Livia's death, the two sides gradually became incompatible without a mediator for reconciliation. Agrippina became an important figure in the anti-Tiberius faction.

Under the operation of Sejanus, the commander of the Guards, Tiberius launched an attack on Agrippina's group in 30 AD on the grounds of conspiracy. Agrippina and her daughter Agrippina the younger were exiled. Agrippina the older died on hunger strike. Her eldest son Nero was also exiled to death. Her second son Drusus was imprisoned in the palace and died of hunger. Her third son, Caligula, was summoned to the island of Cabri for close surveillance. Those who support and sympathize with Agripina's faction have been implicated.

Retired Cabri

Because Tiberius lost his son in 23 years and had poor relations with his relatives, he had the idea of leaving Rome. In 26 AD, Tiberius finally decided to leave and went to the outer island of Campania, the island of Cabri. He maintained the operation of the country's major politics in this very peculiar way by sending letters back and forth to the Senate and appointing Sejanus, the commander of the Guards, as his agent in Rome. From this time until his death, Tiberius never returned to the capital.

Relationship with Christianity

In Tacitus's "History", it is mentioned that Jesus Christ was sentenced to be crucified by the local governor Pontius Pilate during the reign of Tiberius.

The Fall of Sijanus and the Succession to the Throne

Seyanus led the struggle against Agripina. Thanks to the emperor's authorization, he reached the peak of his power in 31 years and planned to marry Rivera (widow of Drusus Jr. and daughter-in-law of Tiberius) to qualify as heir to the throne. In 32, Tiberyussa replaced Sejanus as commander of the Guards and appointed Markro as the new commander. During a Senate meeting, Tiberius publicly read a letter accusing Sejanus of conspiracy to seize power. Markro arrested Sejanus on the spot, and Sejanus and his daughter were killed.

In 37 AD, Tiberius died of illness on the island of Cabri at the age of 79. His will stated that Caligula and his minor grandson Tiberius the younger would inherit his inheritance.

evaluation

Tiberius' harsh personality and lack of intimacy, coupled with his abandonment of the capital to the outer islands in the later stages of his rule, and the choice of the brutal Sejanus as his agent. Therefore, the evaluation of Tiberius by Roman high-ranking people is very poor. Tacitus explains all of Tiberius's policies, whether good or bad, with various bad motives in the book; and Suetonius gathers all kinds of unverified small talk and paints his life on Capri as obscene. The influence of this influence made Tiberius criticized by posterity for more than a thousand years.

The nineteenth-century scholar Theodor Monson publicly reversed the case of Tiberius in his book "The History of Rome." He studied the inscriptions and laws of the time to re-create his image of "good governance"; and the later imperial talents from the later period of Claudius to the reign of Nero were also promoted by Tiberius. Contemporary Roman history research proves that Tiberius' notoriety was not so much due to his bad governance, but more to the prejudice of the historian Tacitus.