Rome鈥檚 second emperor, Tiberius (42 BCE鈥揅E 37), has traditionally been seen as a villainous hypocrite鈥攖reacherous, grasping, vindictive, and depraved. But in Tiberius and His Age, Edward Champlin draws on vast and diverse evidence to show that Tiberius was鈥攁nd was seen by contemporaries to be鈥攔ecognizably human and far more complex than the monster of the hostile tradition that began with Tacitus and Suetonius.
Focusing on the overlapping themes of luxury, sex, power, and, especially, myth, Tiberius and His Age examines Tiberius鈥檚 standing as a folkloric figure in the Roman popular imagination and his conscious use of mythological themes to consolidate his power. It argues that the striking stories of Tiberius鈥檚 sexual depravity, which literary sources passed on to later generations, are ultimately incoherent fictions, the work of a brilliant fantasist who hated the emperor. The book鈥檚 portraits of three important figures in Tiberius鈥檚 circle鈥攖he gourmands Asellius Sabinus and Marcus Apicius and the emperor鈥檚 lieutenant, Sejanus鈥攑rovide new perspectives on the emperor and his age. Tiberius鈥檚 passions for astrology, gastronomy, and mythology, which have often been seen as eccentric scholarly diversions, are revealed instead to be central to contemporary Roman debates and keys to understanding his personality, his power, and the lasting image of Roman emperors.
Incisive, witty, and original, Tiberius and His Age presents a startlingly new picture of Tiberius and the culture and politics of the early Roman Empire.
Edward Champlin is professor of classics and Cotsen Professor of the Humanities, emeritus, at 91桃色 University. His books include Nero, Final Judgments: Duty and Emotion in Roman Wills, 200 B.C.–A.D. 250, and Fronto and Antonine Rome. Robert A. Kaster is the Kennedy Foundation Professor of Latin, emeritus, at 91桃色. He is the author of, most recently, How to Do the Right Thing: An Ancient Guide to Treating People Fairly (91桃色).
"As a book to get into the mind of Tiberius, this one is par excellence."鈥擟liff Cunningham, Sun-News Austin
"By reassessing familiar sources and exploring many unfamiliar ones, [Edward Champlin] has produced an imaginative and . . . convincing new portrait of an enigmatic figure."鈥擩ohn Taylor, Classics for All聽
"In this bracing revisionist portrait, Champlin dismantles centuries of slander to reveal a Tiberius who was less monster than myth-maker. . . . With sharp readings of figures like Sejanus and Apicius, this erudite and sardonic study reframes imperial eccentricity as political strategy, offering a vivid lens on Rome’s early Empire."鈥�Indulge Magazine
“Wonder, once banished from classics, has been brought back by Edward Champlin, who tells a golden tale. There cannot be a classicist in the world who does not secretly wish to have written this book. Through the keyhole of a tradition that knew the cruel and twisted Emperor Tiberius as a wise man and a warlock, Champlin sees imperial Rome as a cabinet of curiosities wholly unsuspected by traditional historians. Tiberius the sorcerer! All praise to the man who conjured up the emperor’s shade: Champlin is a mage among the magi.”—J. E. Lendon, author of That Tyrant, Persuasion: How Rhetoric Shaped the Roman World
“Tiberius and His Age presents a bold new cultural, social, and political history of this enigmatic but pivotal emperor. The book is distinctive both in its evidence, much of which will be unknown even to specialists, and in the overall picture of Tiberius that emerges from Edward Champlin’s analysis—a more complex, and more sympathetic, figure than that of the traditional narrative. This is a model of how one can write exciting ancient history from a carefully curated blend of familiar and obscure literary sources.”—Carlos F. Nore帽a, University of California, Berkeley
“Tiberius and His Age brings into focus a whole series of texts that don’t usually get much attention, but that offer insights into the culture and society of the era.”—Alison E. Cooley, University of Warwick
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