The Julio-Claudian Dynasty

hmm The Man known to history as Caesar Augustus was born on the 23rd of September 63 BC on the Palatine Hill in the city of Rome the capital of the then Roman Republic in Roman times individuals often had many different names some being constructs to acknowledge great Deeds or the manner in which they wanted to depict themselves consequently Caesar Augustus is a constructed name which he later came to be known by The Man Who Would One Day become the first emperor of Rome was actually born as Gaius Octavius or Gaius Octavian and is typically referred to in his Youth and early adult years as Octavian his father also Gaius Octavius was a member of the Octavia Roman Clan from the equestrian class the Octavia were not part of the senatorial aristocracy but had risen to a position of considerable significance in Rome by the 1st Century BC as a result of several generations of the family providing military and political service to The Republic as a result Gaius was considered a Novus homo or a new man this was a term which was applied to many individuals who had risen to positions of wealth and Authority in Rome but who came from socially inferior Clans as a way of differentiating them from the Patrician classes of the senatorial families who could trace their lineage back several centuries octavian's mother was Atia balba a daughter of Marcus atias balbus a Roman politician who served as a Prater of Rome one of the Republic's senior magistrates the year after Octavian was born and his wife Julia Miner the sister of Julius Caesar thus Octavian was born into a notable Roman political family on both his mothers and his father's sides octavian's very first years were turbulent the city of Rome had increased dramatically in population and size during the late 2nd Century BC and early first century BC as it became increasingly overcrowded many richer families of Roman citizens elected to spend more time outside the city at their Villas and Estates around Italy octavian's family were no different and he was quickly sent to the family ancestral lands at valetri approximately 40 kilometers south of Rome however the more significant development in his early years was the death of his father in 59 BC when Octavian was still shy of his fourth birthday his mother quickly remarried to Lucius Marius philippus a member of a senior Roman aristocratic family but this was not an ideal marriage for young Octavian as Marius took little interest in his new stepson as a result Octavian was largely placed in the care of his grandmother Julia in the 50s BC whose brother Gaius Julius Caesar would play a major role in octavian's younger years as well as his Ascent to become emperor of Rome Octavian was evidently very close to his grandmother and when she died in 51 BC he gave the funeral oration despite being only 12 years old it is not possible to understand octavian's subsequent life without examining the politics of Rome in the first half of the first century BC Octavian was born into a volatile period in the history of the Roman Republic on the one hand Rome had never been more powerful beginning in the 3rd Century BC the Republic had begun expanding from its small base in central Italy first coming to dominate The Western Mediterranean after two major Wars against its rival the city-state of carvage in what is now Tunisia Rome emerged Victorious from what were known as the Punic Wars and by the early 2nd Century BC was in control of all of Italy and much of Spain further rapid conquests occurred in the century that followed effectively bringing Southern Gore Carthage itself and Greece under the rule of Rome these conquests would continue unabated in the decades leading up to octavian's birth but there was a contradiction at the heart of Rome's expansion while its military power increased the Republic itself was in Mortal danger as the generals of the Roman Legions became ever more powerful and in 83 BC a civil war had even broken out between the two foremost Roman generals of the age Gaius Marius and Lucius Cornelius sulla sulla emerged Victorious from this in 81 BC and became dictator of Rome and while he did resign that position in 79 BC and restore the Republic a year before his own death many wondered how long it would be before another General emerged to seize power on a more permanent basis the answer to that particular question many at Rome imagined would lie amongst the three individuals who had formed a loose political Alliance in 60 BC just three years after Octavian was born the most famous of the three at the time was pompeus Magnus he had risen as a supporter of sullah in the 80s BC but he had carved out his own path between 79 BC and the mid-60s BC by Leading Roman armies to several great victories in the Eastern Mediterranean bringing regions like Syria under Roman rule and earning the name Pompey the great in the process like Pompey Marcus lycinius Crassus had been a follower of Solace before writing to prominence himself by becoming the richest man in the Republic and crushing the rebellion led by the Gladiator Spartacus in southern Italy in the late 70s BC the third member of what became known as the first triumvirate was the only one who had been on the side of Marius in the earlier Civil War despite this Gaius Julius Caesar had managed to return to prominence in Rome in the 70s and 60s BC after he obtained several senior political offices and then conquered parts of hispania on the Iberian Peninsula in the late 60s BC as noted Caesar was the brother of octavian's Grandmother Julia and in the 50s BC as Octavian was growing up these three men would Vite to become the dominant figure in the Roman Republic as Octavian entered his teenage years the political situation was taking another major turn during the 50s BC the three triumvirs had experienced varying fortunes Crassus LED an Army against the parthian empire in what is now Iraq in the mid-50s BC and in 53 BC he was killed at the Battle of karei in what was one of the worst defeats ever experienced by Roman forces conversely Caesar had undertaken in the early 50s BC to conquer Gaul the region approximating with modern-day France and which was then inhabited by a great number of Celtic tribes he was enormously successful in this Enterprise effectively extending the northern borders of the Roman Republic from the Alps All the Way North to the English Channel and the North Sea in the space of a few years in the 50s BC meanwhile as Caesar star was in the ascendant in Gaul Pompey flounded in Rome unable to acquire a military command which would raise his status us back to what it had been in years gone by but he still had strong support from the Roman senate which viewed Caesar and his Growing Power as a potential mortal threat to the Republic thus a new Civil War was brewing one between Caesar backed by much of the Roman army and Pompey backed by the Senate Octavian would soon grow closer to his great uncle during the 40s BC at the same time as Caesar was emerging as the seller of his age in 50 BC relations between pompey's faction in Rome and Caesar in Gore had reached a crisis Point anxious to limit Caesar's power the Roman senate was attempting to prevent him standing for a new term as Consul of Rome the highest political office in the Republic and they were also trying to strip him of his military command pressured by these efforts Caesar brought his armies south from Gaul towards Italy and on the 10th of January 49 BC crossed the Rubicon River in Northeast Italy this was a boundary Beyond which no Roman general was allowed to bring his troops and in Crossing it Caesar was effectively initiating a civil war in the weeks that followed Pompey and his followers evacuated Italy and headed for the Eastern Mediterranean Greece had now became the main theater of operations where Caesar initially lost the battle of dirachium in July 48 BC but followed it up with a resounding victory over Pompey at the Battle of farsalis just Weeks Later Pompey subsequently fled to Egypt where he was killed by the ptolemaic regime the Civil War would drag on for three more years in mopping up operations in parts of North Africa and Spain but the events of 48 BC had effectively left Caesar in command of the Roman Republic there is a popular misconception that Julius Caesar now became the first emperor of Rome this is not true Caesar held the title of dictator during the 40s BC this should not be confused with the modern idea of a dictator who holds absolute power and refuses to accept any challenges to their Authority in Rome dictatorial Powers were regularly given by the Roman senate to an individual to hold extensive Authority in civil and Military Affairs during a period of Crisis thus for instance the Roman politician and general quintus Fabius Maximus was granted dictatorial Powers by the senate in 217 BC during the Second Punic War when the carthaginian general Hannibal had invaded Italy by bringing an army over the Alps from carthage's European base in Spain he relinquished these Powers after a short time as had solar just two years after he won the civil war against Marius in the late is BC as such Caesar was operating within a relatively normal constitutional Arrangement when he served as dictator in the 40s BC but what was at issue was that as the years went by it seemed that he would never relinquish his dictatorial powers however it is important to note that he never made himself emperor of Rome and that constitutional novelty would be an invention of octavians ascent to power 20 years later during this period of immense political change young Octavian had been growing closer to his great uncle and also finding his own way in the world of Roman politics following his grandmother's death he had gone back to live with his own mother and stepfather in 47 BC when he was just 15 he was elected to the College of pontiffs a cast of Roman priests while in 46 BC he played a significant role in organizing the version of the Olympic Games which were held at this time he was also anxious to prove himself militarily and had petitioned his mother from early on in the Civil War to be allowed to join his great uncle on campaigns she initially refused but eventually acquiesced towards the end of the conflict and Octavian saw some of the last actions of the war in hispania in 46 BC where the remnants of pompey's supporters were making their Last Stand Octavian evidently made a a major impression on Caesar who sometime in late 46 BC or 45 BC altered his will to both adopt Octavian and make him his principal Heir adoptions of this kind were very common amongst the Roman ability at the time and octavian's position as the primary beneficiary of Caesar's will was relatively uncomplicated by the fact that Caesar did not have any legitimate male Heirs of his own although he had fathered an illegitimate son with the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra in 47 BC Caesar's adoption of Octavian and his naming of him as the primary beneficiary of his will were more vital than Caesar could have known at the time that he made that decision for ultimately the Roman dictator was not long for the world as the months rolled by after the end of the Civil War with Caesar giving no indication that he intended to renounce his dictatorial powers a conspiracy was developing amongst the ranks of the Roman senate to assassinate him although word of the conspiracy slipped out shortly before the assassination was to take place the individual who learned of it one of Caesar's closest commanders from his days in Gore Marcus Antonius typically known as Mark Anthony was prevented from alerting Caesar to the danger he was in accordingly when Caesar entered the senates on the 15th of March the Ides of March 44 BC One of the Great Festival days in the Roman Calendar he did not know what was about to occur in the minutes that followed a group of of senators surrounded him and began stabbing him furiously most near contemporary accounts agree that Caesar did not say anything as he was swiftly killed and the idea popularized later in William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar that the great Commander turned to one of his assailants Marcus Brutus a former Protege of his and said it to brute meaning and You Brutus is most likely a colorful invention Octavian was not in Rome at the time of Caesar's assassination but was undertaking military training in Illyria the region of the west of the Adriatic Sea corresponding with modern day Croatia and Albania the later Roman historical biographer swaytonius stated that Octavian considered whether he should try to assemble an army from amongst the Roman Legions in order to claim power when he heard of his great uncle's death but this is unlikely given Octavian was still just 18 years of age at this time he did head straight for Rome though upon learning of Caesar's death and it would only have been at this time that he learned that Caesar had made him the primary beneficiary of his very sizable estate moreover the fact that Caesar had adopted Octavian made him the successor to his great uncle's political power in the eyes of Caesar's many followers thus although he was still a very young man with only limited experience of military campaigning octane avian had both the financial power and the support network which was needed to begin asserting himself in Rome's politics in the power vacuum which followed his great uncle's assassination in 44 BC to broadcast his role as Caesar's political Heir he adopted his name at this point adding Caesar to his titles while The Clique of Roman Senators who had assassinated Caesar had intended to restore Republican rule they were soon frustrated in their efforts within weeks figures such as Brutus had been forced to flee Rome following an inflammatory eulogy given by Mark Anthony at Caesar's funeral in which he denounced the conspirators in the months that followed they would be condemned as traitors as Caesar's supporters reasserted some control over the government and with individuals such as Brutus out of the way Roman politics once again descended into a battle between a number of military commanders and interested groups to see who could succeed Caesar as the new dictator of the Republic foremost amongst the possible candidates was Mark Anthony who was serving as Consul at the time and who was in a position of strength yet others were wary of Anthony viewing him as an individual who would simply become the next in a line of over Mighty political generals which included solar and Caesar in recent times this faction began to give their support to Octavian and others such as Marcus emelius lepidus another one of Caesar's close allies from Gaul and the Civil War the emergence of these opposing factions would ensure that no one individual would succeed Caesar in the immediate aftermath of his assassination despite his Youth and relative inexperience Octavian showed just how astute a politician he could be within weeks in the months following Caesar's assassination in 44 BC he had acquired vast sums of money in Italy part of this was the war chest of 700 million sisters or silver coins which had been accumulated in southern Italy to pay for a massive military campaign which Caesar had been planning at the time of his death against Rome's foremost enemy The parthian Empire far to the east in Mesopotamia Octavian had reappropriated a substantial amount of this money to himself and then had augmented it by effectively stealing the enormous tribute which arrived from Rome's client states in the Eastern Mediterranean later that year now in late 44 BC and early 43 BC he put this money to good use bribing two of Mark Anthony's Legions to follow him and also recruiting thousands of Caesars former supporters across Italy to Copper fasten his Swift seizure of Italy Octavian had himself made a senator and in a highly unusual move was quickly given the right to vote on certain matters which were usually reserved for senators who had previously served as consoles finally in mid-43 BC he marched on Rome with several Legions and demanded to be made Consul himself as both the consuls who had been appointed for the year had died in military campaigns he encountered virtually zero opposition and as a result the 19 year old became the sole Consul the most significant political office in the Republic Octavian had clearly emerged as a significant political figure on a par with Mark Anthony and lepidus the emergence of these Rivals for power soon led to a new political arrangement in Rome which mirrored that which had been agreed to by Caesar Crassus and Pompey in 60 BC on the 27th of November 43 BC the Roman set passed the Lex tishia a law which formally divided power within the Roman Republic between Octavian Mark Anthony and lepidus this second triumvirates as it has become known differed in significant ways from the earlier first triumvirate the first had effectively been a private and informal agreement between Caesar Crassus and Pompey to cooperate with each other while the second triumvirate was a formal agreement which had the backing of the Senate and effectively divided the Republic into three spheres of influence which the three triumvirus would rule Octavian was given control over the region corresponding to Tunisia and Libya in North Africa as well as Sardinia and Corsica hispania and Southern Gore were granted to lepidus while Mark Anthony controlled the Alpine region and most of Gore the Senate would control Rome itself and Italy while much of the Republic's territories in the Eastern Mediterranean had fallen into the hands of others such as Brutus and Gaius Cassius longinus who had assassinated Caesar as these lands in the East constituted the Richer parts of the Empire whichever of the Triumph views could seize the region would be best placed to emerge Victorious amongst the triumvirs in the years that followed the first years of the second triumvirate saw Octavian Mark Anthony and lepidus acting cordially and in conjunction with each other firstly they began strengthening their position by prescribing former opponents of Caesars prescription was a process whereby Roman citizens were effectively outlawed by the Republic and had their Estates confiscated by prescribing hundreds of wealthy individuals the three triumvirs came into possession of vast Estates and wealth which they used to reward their followers and strengthen their own factions together the three began the work of crushing those who had assassinated Caesar and who had taken control of much of Rome's territories in the Eastern Mediterranean Octavian and Mark Anthony took the lead in this bringing 28 Legions across the Adriatic Sea to Greece from there they marched North and met with the forces led by Brutus and Cassius near Philippi in Macedonia the resulting battle involved upwards of 200 000 men in The Clash casualties were actually relatively limited and no side was the clear Victor in military terms however when Cassius was given false information that brutus's forces had been defeated he committed suicide and Brutus did the same when he learned of cassis's actual fate thereafter their forces surrendered it was a bizarre end to the wars which followed from Caesar's assassination the power dynamics of the second triumvirus shifted considerably in the aftermath of the victory at Philippi lepidus who had always been the least powerful of the three tranviers was quickly marginalized on the back of a spurious lie invented by Octavian and Marc Anthony that he had been secretly providing Aid to sextus pompeus a son of Pompey the great who had seized control of Sicily in the aftermath of Caesar's assassination with lepidus removed in this way Octavian and Mark Anthony agreed on a new division of power whereby Octavian would effectively control the western parts of the Republic notably Italy Gaul hispania and the North African provinces while Marc Anthony would control the Eastern provinces such as Greece and Syria as well as exercising influence over the many client Kingdoms in this region such as ptolemaic Egypt which were not formally part of the Roman Republic but which were effectively vassals who paid tribute to roam then to cement the new dispensation an agreement was reached whereby Anthony married Octavian sister Octavia in October 40 BC the alliance as uneasy as it was would hold for nearly a decade one of octavian's most pressing problems following the effective division of the Republic between himself and Anthony was the presence of sextus pompeus in Sicily pompeus had ensconced himself firmly on the island which sat right on the shipping routes between the Western and Eastern Mediterranean and he had even managed to gain a hold of Sardinia and Corsica having built up a formidable Navy by attacking and seizing shipping passing by the islands from the Eastern Mediterranean to Rome pompeus was able to interfere in the supplies of grain and other foodstuffs to roam the Eternal City was heavily reliant on such deliveries from Egypt and other countries to feed its swelling population and provide the famous bread Dole to its citizens consequently something needed to be done to remove pompeus from Sicily initially an agreement was brokered in 39 BC The Pact of mycenae where bisectus was acknowledged in his possession of the islands if he would cease attacking Roman shipping however once his plundering recommenced after a few months Octavian determined to act and sent his foremost Commander Marcus Agrippa to crush sextus a feat which he eventually accomplished in 36 BC pompeus fled to the east where he was captured on the Greek island of miletus and executed the following year the conclusion of the war against pompeus in Sicily also led to a further disintegration of the second triumvirate lepidus had been sidelined years earlier but the removal of sextors from the Italian Islands in 36 BC now saw him trying to re-establish himself by seizing Sicily Octavian made clear his dominance of the Western Mediterranean in the months that followed by sending his army South upon which lepidus's own Legions defected to Caesar's adopted air Octavian had once again shown his belief that gold was the key to loyalty here and had made it known to lepiduses and Legions but they would receive generous payments if they relinquish their allegiance to their Commander as a result of their defection the third triumvir was script of all his political officers by Octavian other than the largely ceremonial position of pontifex Maximus or chief priest of Rome yet lepidus was allowed to retire p peacefully to Cape Cersei not far from Rome and he would live for a nearly another quarter of a century once he agreed to largely stay out of Roman politics but the immediate consequence of his fall in the mid-30s BC was that there were now definitely only two triumvious left and the showdown between Octavian and Marc Anthony loomed ever nearer while Octavian was enjoying the successes in the west Anthony was experiencing some trouble in the east in the late 40s BC Anthony had struck up a relationship with Cleopatra the Queen of ptolemaic Egypt who had previously been the lover of Julius Caesar and had even borne him a son named cesarean making his base in Egypt in the early 30s BC Anthony had determined to strengthen his position relative to Octavian by undertaking further conquests on the Eastern borders of the Republic in particular he was anxious to rejuvenate Caesar's earlier plans to make war on the parthian empire in Mesopotamia thus in 36 BC he invaded Parthia with a massive Force however the invasion soon turned to disaster as Anthony's main force was separated from the baggage drains of supplies and Siege equipment when a mobile force of parthian Cavalry intercepted and destroyed much of the latter the Roman general was forced to retreat back towards Roman territory in Syria losing further men along the way as his forces were hurried by the parthians the campaign had turned into a disaster the embarrassment of which was only partially remedied by his conquest of the kingdom of Armenia in 34 BC and the installation of his son Alexander Helios as its king this was the context in which Octavian made his major grab for total power over the Republic Anthony's absence from the Eternal City his relationship with Cleopatra and seeming preference for the Egyptian capital of Alexandria over Rome and the nepotism he showed towards his followers in the East all provided ammunition for Octavian and his faction to begin claiming that Anthony wished to seize power in the Republic and begin building a new realm of which Egypt and the city of Alexandria would be the Heartland Octavian was particularly bullish in claiming this as he was angered by Anthony's embarrassing of his sister Octavia to whom Anthony was still married through his very public relationship with Cleopatra moreover Octavian was actually able to substantiate his claims that Anthony was orientalizing in 32 BC he entered the Temple of the Vestal virgins in Rome and removed Anthony's will which was housed there with this he was able to demonstrate that Anthony had plans to divide up the Republic's Eastern territories between his family and supporters and that he wished to be entombed at Alexandria following his death this combined with Anthony's celebration of his conquest of Armenia by holding a Triumph in Alexandria rather than at Rome seemed to confirm octavian's argument that Anthony was effectively turning into an Eastern despot who would expel Rome from its eastern territories if left unchecked in late 32 BC following this campaign to undermine Anthony the senate in Rome finally agreed to revoke Anthony's powers and declared war on ptolemaic Egypt a new Civil War had begun yet Octavian did not have unequivocal support in the west as much as 40 percent of the Roman senate had voted against the war and a large majority of these now left the capital and headed east with their supporters to join Anthony's cause in Egypt in the months that followed the largest military buildup that had accompanied any Roman civil war occurred by the summer of 31 BC Octavian had pulled together forces which numbered approximately two hundred thousand men to put this in perspective Caesar had only commanded roughly 25 000 men at the Battle of farsalis the decisive engagement in his civil war against Pompey in the Early Autumn of 48 BC and octavian's massive military buildup was matched by Anthony who was also able to field about two hundred thousand men just as significantly both quickly assembled large fleets of hundreds of galleys as this was a war which would play itself out as much in the Mediterranean as on land by this summer both sides were channeling their armies towards Greece which like Caesar and pompey's showdown in 48 BC and the end of Brutus and cassis's Revolt at Philippi in 42 BC would act as the theater in which yet another civil conflict of the late Roman Republic would play out Octavian and Mark Anthony's forces would finally Clash at Sea near the Roman colony of actium in Northwestern Greece in 31 BC this was at the mouth of the ambrosian gulf approximately 50 kilometers south of the southern tip of the island of Corfu Anthony had begun assembling his land and sea forces here in the summer of 31 BC in preparation for a planned strike against Mainland Italy Octavian responded by concentrating his forces on the Greek mainland opposite Corfu to the north of actium here by the late summer Octavian was beginning to gain the upper hand as his strength relative to Anthony's grew and Anthony became increasingly surrounded on the mainland then as the days went by desertion and disease began decimating his forces as a result on the 2nd of September 31 BC he attempted to break out from the ambrosian Gulf with slightly over 300 ships and perhaps many as 25 000 inventory and Cavalry on board octavian's forces of roughly 400 galleys under the overall command of Marcus Agrippa had lined up in the waters around the exit from the Gulf as Anthony's Fleet sailed past actium to try to break out into the wider Mediterranean the Battle of actium which followed would be the decisive conflict of the Civil War octavian's fleet was numerically superior but as ships of an Italian build was smaller than the larger galleys of Anthony's Eastern Fleet however even this seeming Advantage for Anthony was diluted by the fact that octavians ships proved more agile and could stay out of range of fire from Anthony's vessels in the hours that followed however what possibly sealed his fate at actium was that his ships became caught in dead water while trying to break out of the ambrosian gulf a marine phenomenon whereby ships can only move at a fraction of their normal speed due to being caught in highly saline water this or perhaps a run of bad winds stranded many of Anthony's ships for long enough that octavians galleys were able to come close enough to start many fires on the decks of Anthony's own galleys this combined with a breakdown in communication between between the different parts of Anthony's Fleet saw his Fleet almost completely destroyed in the hours that followed as nighttime descended near actium Mark Anthony's hopes of defeating Octavian were a blaze across the waters outside the embrosian Gulf in the aftermath of actium Anthony managed to escape back to Egypt Octavian and Marcus Agrippa pursued him and Anthony eventually committed suicide by falling on his own sword on the 1st of August 30 BC after another defeat at Alexandria this brought the latest Civil War the final Civil War of the Roman Republic to an end Cleopatra followed her Lover's example nine days later and killed herself by drinking poison not as Legend would have it through the bite of an asp and Octavian was not inclined to show Mercy to those who had survived both cesarean Cleopatra's Son by Julius Caesar and Marcus Antonius Antilles Mark Anthony's son by his earlier wife fulvia were executed the two had been born within weeks of each other in 47 BC and were consequently in their late teens in 30 BC Octavian had not been much older himself when Caesar was assassinated and he began his political vehicle and Military Ascent unwilling to take any risks that the pair would one day pose a threat to him he had them killed Egypt which had been a client state of Rome's up until 30 BC was formally annexed to become the latest province of the Roman Republic like Caesar before him Octavian did not move to immediately establish himself as emperor of Rome although he was now unrivaled in the same way Caesar had been between 48 BC and 44 BC unwilling to make the mistake his great uncle had made of claiming dictatorial powers and never relinquishing them or asking the Senate's consent he instead began slowly changing his own constitutional position in the months and years following the end of the Civil War in 30 BC firstly after returning to Rome he had himself and Marcus Agrippa made consoles for the year and he would hold the title every year down to the late 20s BC in tandem Octavian tightened his grip on the military and also began diverting the Republic's wealth into his own coffers in ways which allowed him to bestow enormous amounts of financial patronage then he reached an agreement with the Senate that he would divide control over the Republic's province is between them whereby Octavian and his magistrates administered some and the Senate others and by this means he created the idea that he was ruling with the consent of the Senate and the old aristocracy instead the bludgeoning it into obedience as Caesar had attempted for all that these changes magnified octavian's position in the aftermath of his victory over Anthony it was not until 27 BC that the real change in the Constitutional status of the Republic and his position within it was transformed in January of that year the Senate granted Octavian two new titles the first of these was that of princeps meaning first or the foremost within a group the new title signified that Octavian was now the first citizen of Rome the other title which was bestowed was that of Augustus roughly meaning illustrious one as a term of reverence Octavian now took the latter along with his great uncle's cognoman as his new name henceforth he would be known as Caesar Augustus while he styled himself as imperator a term which in Latin effectively means Commander but the meaning of which today is Emperor or ruler but based largely on the knowledge that the imperators who ruled after Augustus were Emperors of a Roman Empire and these developments in January of 27 BC are consequently generally interpreted as the point at which the Roman Republic came to an end and the date from which we can speak of the Roman Empire one which would last for nearly exactly 500 years thereafter having established himself in a position of secure and supreme authority in Rome Augustus soon set about expanding the Empire's borders Rome was a society whether it was ruled as a republic or as an Empire which viewed expansion as a natural thing for it to do at all times in the early years of augustus's rule this came quite easily Egypt had been annexed as part of the end of the Civil War the kingdom of galatia in central turkey was also converted into a Roman province in 25 BC when its ruler Amin task was killed in the years that followed that Augustus succeeded in crushing the independent tribes of Northern hispania which had resisted Roman rule for two centuries the final conquest of the Iberian Peninsula by 19 BC was especially beneficial as huge gold deposits were soon discovered there leading to a massive Financial windfall for both Augustus and The Wider Roman aristocracy in tandem Augustus tightened Roman control over the client kingdoms of the near East such as the herodian kingdom of Judea by the end of the 20s BC finally a diplomatic success was also secured with the parthian Empire to return the battle standards of the Roman Legions which had been lost at the Battle of Karai in 53 BC which Crassus Julius Caesar's associate in the first triumvirate had perished yet it was not all plain sailing during these years in the spring of 23 BC Augustus became seriously ill and many believed he was on his deathbed therefore he made Provisions at this time for a division of power upon his death whereby Marcus Agrippa would succeed him militarily and his nephew Marcus Claudius Marcellus would be groomed to succeed him politically in the long run although he recovered from the illness the entire episode made Augustus acutely conscious of the necessity for a clearer constitutional Arrangement and during the course of 23 BC he agreed with the Senate that henceforth he would not appoint himself as console but would be granted the office of Tribune for life with the powers of a Roman censor combined with this in this way he placated the Senate by giving back the office of Consul but retained great control over the magistracy by the creation of an entirely new office under the name of Tribune and while these these new Arrangements did incite some unrest most notably a shadowy conspiracy which was launched by one funniest kipio in 21 BC these threats were easily seen off and Augustus continued to solidify his rule into the Thames BC augustus's Reign saw many Innovations in terms of how Roman society was governed and managed the central so prior to his seizure of power had seen the Roman State expand dramatically but necessary social reforms had been neglected as the Republic struggled through successive civil wars in particular there were major issues in the Eternal City itself which was suffering from fires diseases a crime problem and growing poverty Augustus began addressing this imbalance in the city of Rome the population of which had swelled to upwards of a million people by the First Century A.D he transformed the municipal government instituting the first professional police force and fire service in a city where violent assaults and accidental fires had become rampant these vigilas did much to make Rome a more hospitable place by the end of his Reign he also drastically reformed the way in which Rome and the Italian Peninsula were administered expanding the personal bodyguard he had established for himself early in his career the praetorian guard to become a much larger unit whose loyalty was directly to the emperor and which was charged with the protection of the capital and the Italian peninsula in The Wider Empire Augustus in conjunction with the Senate established the system of administration which would last for much of the next two centuries this divided the empire into senatorial provinces which the Senate administered and Imperial provinces which were administered by magistrates appointed directly by the emperor there were some exceptions to this rule Egypt which had been conquered following the Battle of actium was one of the richest provinces of the entire Empire and Augustus placed it under the administration of a prefect from the Roman equestrian class who was directly responsible to him and he also introduced major reforms to the Roman tax base which increased the Imperial revenues that were collected this was a necessity as for decades Rome had relied on extracting resources from conquered territories for much of its wealth in introducing a proper taxation system of land and trade Augustus was creating a more stable and secure source of revenue for the Empire finally in order to improve the overall administration of the Empire Augustus initiated a massive Road building system and a system of relay stations complete with horses to deliver information at maximum speed to and from Rome as a result King Louis XIV nearly 2 000 years later would not have been able to send a messenger any faster than Augustus could the reign of Augustus is generally perceived as having been a golden age of Roman culture particularly of Latin literature the poet Horus published his Odes between 23 BC and 13 BC while Ovid composed several renowned works such as the Metamorphoses A Narrative of combined Hellenic Romano mythology and his ass amatoria meaning the art of love and the fasty a volume of the Roman Calendar all towards the latter end of augustus's Reign the historian Livi spent nearly 30 years during augustus's Reign composing an enormous History of Rome from the foundation of the city down to augustus's Reign entitled AB urbe condita meaning from the founding of the city yet it was Virgil an Italian from near modern day Mantua who became the greatest of the Roman poets his magnum opus The Aeneid providing a national epic of Rome's mythical establishment by Aeneas a refugee from the legendary Siege and fall of the city of Troy many of these poets were supported by Gaius mycinus one of augustus's right-hand men who acted as an unofficial minister of culture and the emperor's role in this flowering of Latin literature was considerable although Augustus did Exile overt to the city of Thomas beyond the Empire's borders in Romania in 8 A.D under mysterious circumstances possibly related to the scandals created by his love poetry the Augustine golden age extended beyond the written word Rome's first emperor left an indelible mark on the built environment of the city he was responsible for constructing numerous major Monumental buildings in the center of the city notably The Forum of Augustus complete with a temple to Mars Alto and the triumphal arch of Augustus while the mausoleum of Augustus which he built shortly after the end of the Civil War covered an area the size of several city streets along the banks of the river Tiber and became the resting place of the remains of all the Julio claudian Emperors and many members of augustus's extended family other buildings such as the Portico of Octavia which was built in honor of The Emperor's sister and the baths of Agrippa the city's first public baths constructed by augustus's most trusted Ally Marcus Agrippa were built either by or on behalf of the emperor's family and friends perhaps unsurprisingly given all this building work the foremost work on Roman architecture de architectura was written by the engineer and architect Vitruvius during the first decade of augustus's Reign it was still being used as a major work in the field as late as the 18th century and vitruvius's writings were used in such famous buildings as the dome which Filippo brunelleski built on top of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence in the 15th century throughout his Reign there continued to be widespread speculation as to who if anyone would succeed Augustus in the unique position he had carved out for himself within the Roman State Augustus had married three times his first two marriages were brief Affairs the first a Claudia between 42 BC and 40 BC was a political marriage designed to shore up alliances during the politically turbulent years following Caesar's assassination the second to scribonia followed immediately after his divorce from Claudia but similarly it only lasted two years down to 38 BC however this particular Union did result in augustus's only biological child a daughter named Julia Augustus who was still Octavian at that time divorced scribonia the very day that she gave birth to Julia the grounds were that she had committed adultery but this may have simply been a convenient excuse as Octavian had met and fallen for Livia Drusilla at this time Livia was married herself to Tiberius Claudius Nero a Roman Senator with whom she had two children she quickly obtained a divorce herself and she and Octavian were wed in 37 BC they would be happily married for the next 50 years down to augustus's death but the marriage never produced any children though the reasons are unclear as both Olivia and Augustus had children from their previous marriages had augustus's marriage to Libya resulted in a son the issue of the succession might have been clearer though this is by no means certain as Roman succession practices often involved the adoption of an heir who was considered a worthy successor from the 20s BC onwards Augustus considered many possible heirs early on his preference clearly seemed to be for Marcus Agrippa his most trusted General and Ally Agrippa was periodically placed in charge of Affairs in the east of the Empire and Augustus betrothed his daughter Julia to him a union which resulted in five children however Agrippa had been born in 63 BC the same year as Octavian and he died in 12 BC long before the emperor thereafter Augustus began grooming his two grandchildren from Agrippa and Julia's marriage Gaius Caesar and Lucius Caesar as potential heirs unfortunately though the two young men and both died under relatively mysterious circumstances within 18 months of each other between the Autumn of 2 A.D and the spring of 4 A.D suspicions abounded that the empress Livia had them poisoned to ensure the succession of her surviving son from her first marriage Tiberius his route to the Imperial titles seemed assured from 6 A.D onwards when Julia and Marcus agrippa's only living son and augustus's only surviving biological grandson a gripper posthumous was banished from the empire for his excessively brutal and violent conduct in addition to concerns about the succession the final years of augustus's Reign saw a shifting situation with regard to the Empire's Borders or what we might call its foreign policy as we have seen the earlier years of augustus's Reign saw the consolidation of the Empire's borders in regions such as the Iberian Peninsula the full conquest of which was finally completed in the early tens BC the second half of his Reign saw an effort to consolidate the land Corridor between the Western and Eastern parts of the empire in Europe by Conquering the regions then known as pananya Illyria and moesia approximating with Croatia Bosnia and Herzegovina Albania Kosovo and parts of Serbia today in doing so the Empire's territories were extended into an unbroken chain from the Atlantic coast of Iberia all the way eastwards to Thrace in modern day Turkey a final Revolt known as the great illyrian Revolt began here in 6A A.D amongst the native tribes but once this was crushed in 9 A.D all of the western Balkans was brought firmly under Roman rule other consolidations involved acquiring greater control over Armenia in the East to shore up the eastern border while the herodian kingdom of Judea which had been a client state for decades was formally annexed and made into the province of Judea in 6 A.D thereafter Augustus began a process of downscaling the military preparedness of the Empire and limiting the amount of future conquests which would be undertaken the one region where Augustus continued to adopt an aggressive foreign policy stance was in Germania his great uncle had conquered the vast expanse of Gaul in less than 10 years in the 50s BC and Augustus was determined to emulate him by extending Roman control Eastward over the tribes of Germania operating out of a major settlement which was being established at Colonia the Roman town which would eventually grow into the modern city of Cologne the Roman Legions led by augustus's great nephew garamonica's Julius Caesar began firing beyond the river Rhine into Central and Eastern Germany in the late 1st Century BC the advance was so Swift at this time that by 7 BC Roman arms had extended as far as the river Elba in the east of the region and a new Province called Germania antiqua was established out of these lands however this seemingly comfortable conquest of such a broad expanse of land was too good to be true in secret the Germanic tribes of the region were plotting to expel the Romans from their lands and in 9 A.D when the Roman general Publius quintilius varus LED three Legions into the region around Saxony they were betrayed by a Germanic Ally arminius and ambushed virtually the entire three Legions some fifteen thousand men were killed at what has become known as the battle of the tutoburg forest henceforth plans to conquer Germania were abandoned and the river Rhine was established as the northern boundary of the empire Caesar Augustus died in the year of 14 A.D on the 19th of August a month which was named after him after July had been named after his great uncle Julius Caesar he was nearing his 80th year and was in poor health and we can probably discount to spurious rumors that Livia poisoned him to speed up the succession of her son Tiberius it was this stepson of the Emperor who would succeed him not because he had shown himself to be a particularly worthy or accomplished individual but because he had simply outlasted all of his Rivals for the position augustus's advice to him prior to his death had been to not expand the Empire any further but instead to secure its existing borders as these made Geographic sense being bounded on the south by the Sahara desert on the west and North by the Atlantic Ocean and North Sea and on the east by the river Rhine and the river Danube in Europe although this advice was not precisely followed by augustus's successes it was to a sufficient enough extent that it brought peace to the Empire for much of the next two centuries this is often referred to as the Pax Romana the Roman piece under which Rome's 50 to 70 million subjects lived through a period of unprecedented stability and prosperity it was a far cry from the chaos which characterized the Roman Republic when Octavian was born into it in the decades which followed it became clear how difficult augustus's job as first emperor of Rome had been his Reign was followed by several much poorer ones his direct successor Tiberius is generally understood to have been an aloof poor ruler who spent years absent from Rome and who relied on unscrupulous middlemen such as the soldier sejanus to rule on his behalf he was succeeded by Caligula in 37 BC a great grandson of Augustus who is generally deemed to have been a mad Tyrant and a sexual deviant when his short Reign ended in 41 BC another member of the Julio claudian Dynasty Tiberius Claudius Caesar became emperor Claudius although he was generally depicted as a weak ruler by Roman historians Claudius was actually the most successful of augustus's near successes taking an interest in reforming the legal system and initiating a major building program through throughout the Empire and the negative depiction of him was most likely on account of his being slightly disabled and having a limp and thus not being seen as a martial figure who could wage war in the Roman tradition the last Julio claudian Emperor Nero is typically understood to have been a borderline lunatic who burned down Rome and whose Reign eventually ended in Civil War and the end of the Julio claudian Dynasty in 68 BC thus Tiberius Caligula and Nero through their failings did much to highlight exactly how great augustus's accomplishment had been in bringing stability to the Roman state Caesar Augustus the man who became first citizen of Rome but who began his political Ascent as Octavian when he was little more than a boy is a character who has widely divided opinions in the 2000 years since he ruled as Rome's first emperor it could be argued and has been argued that he brought the Roman Republic to an end and established a system which destroyed the Empire's more democratic institutions such a view was articulated by subsequent generations of Roman historians such as the late first century A.D Senator and writer tacitus who claimed that Augustus had subverted the will of the people and made them slaves in this interpretation the man who was granted the title of the illustrious one by the Roman senate was nothing more than a power-hungry tyrant the last man left standing after Decades of Civil War which tore the Republic apart moreover his Reign was dominated by Warfare from the near constant turmoil of the second triumvirate to the civil war with Mark Anthony through successive wars in the Middle East and then in Germania tens of thousands and quite possibly hundreds of thousands of people died as a result of the conflicts he engaged in or directly initiated yet there is another completely opposite way of interpreting Augustus after several decades of internal strife within the Roman Republic he finally brought the constant Civil Wars between opposing generals to an end and inaugurated a period of renewed stability this allowed for the initiation of wide-ranging social reforms and the reorganization of the Empire while the more settled environment in Rome led to the flowering of arguably the greatest period of Roman culture that was seen in its Thousand-Year history moreover his foreign policy was practical insofar as he tried to consolidate Rome's control over the regions it was a major player in already and then created new borders along easily defensible Geographic areas such as the river Rhine in Germania in doing so he effectively Consolidated the Empire after a century and a half of somewhat chaotic expansion since the middle of the second century BC in doing all of this he bequeathed to his successors a much more stable situation than Rome faced in the days of Julius Caesar and when a line of generally competent Emperors arrived in the second Century A.D the Roman Empire enjoyed a period of unprecedented peace stability and prosperity but perhaps ultimately he was both of these things simultaneously both the ruthless and power-hungry man who ended the Roman Republic and made himself ruler of an Empire and the individual who brought stability to a wizard Republic which was dying long before he consigned it to history what do you think of Caesar Augustus was he a great emperor who finally brought peace to Rome after Decades of civil war or was he a power-hungry tyrant please let us know in the comment section and in the meantime thank you very much for watching [Music] The Man known to history as Emperor Tiberius Caesar Augustus was born as Tiberius Claudius Nero on the 16th of November 42 BC in Rome the capital of the Roman Empire Tiberius is the shorthand of his name which he would be known by throughout his life his father was also named Tiberius Claudius Nero a member of the Patrician Roman upper class who hailed from a branch of the claudian clan he served as questor of Rome in 48 BC a senior magistracy in which officials managed the Roman treasury it is indicative of the family's political significance that he attained this office his mother was Livia Drusilla who came from a separate more prominent branch of the claudian clan than her husband these Roman clans were not close-knit families but were more like wider familial networks of cousins it was not uncommon for intermarriage to occur within them Livia was born on the 30th of January of either 59 BC or 58 BC and was still a teenager by modern standards when she married Tiberius Claudius Nero in around 43 BC this marriage produced two children Tiberius who was named after his father andrewsus Claudius Nero known as nerodruses who was born on the 14th of January 38 BC tiberius's parents divorced late in 39 BC when his mother was already pregnant with his brother divorce was very common in Roman society as was remarriage and it is unsurprising to find that Olivia was quickly betrothed to Octavian a member of the Julian Clan Olivia married him just a few days following the birth of druses on the 17th of January 38 BC Livia's new marriage brought her into the heart of Roman power politics in the second half of the first century BC over the previous Century the Roman Republic had experienced a very paradoxical set of events on the one hand the Republic had expanded at breathtaking speed conquering huge swathes of territory across the Eastern Mediterranean and North into Gore while also solidifying its control over regions such as the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa but this rampant growth was matched by a speedy breakdown of the Republic's Politics as numerous Roman generals effectively became too powerful for the institutions of the Republic to control several Civil Wars had occurred as rival generals and politicians sought preeminence at Rome the most recent of these had occurred between pompeus Magnus and Julius Caesar Caesar had emerged victorious in the first years before tiberius's birth but he was then assassinated by a Coho report of Roman senators in 44 BC Octavian whom Livia married in 38 BC and who became tiberius's stepfather was Caesar's great nephew and his adoptive Heir in the immediate aftermath of Caesar's assassination Octavian along with one of Caesar's leading allies Mark Anthony had effectively divided up control of the Republic between them with Octavian dominant in the west and Anthony in the East thus though he cannot have been aware of it at the time Tiberius had entered into one of the most powerful political families in the dying Roman Republic following his mother's second marriage like many others Olivia's husband Tiberius Claudius Nero was caught up in the Civil War and initially sided with Caesar but he later turned on Caesar just before his assassination following Caesar's death he gave his support to Mark Anthony and was rewarded by being appointed as Prater another senior Roman public office in 42 BC he subsequently became involved in an attempted Rising against Octavian in 41 BC when this failed Tiberius Claudius Nero fled to Sicily which was under the control of pompeus magnus's son sextus pompeus at the time with Olivia and Tiberius in 40 BC before heading onwards to join Mark Anthony in Greece they returned to Italy the following year under the terms of an agreement known as The mycena Pact whereby Octavian Anthony and sextus agreed to end a naval blockade of Italy and pardon each other's supporters there Olivia drifted away from her husband who was more than twice her age and towards Octavian following their divorce tiberius's father played no further role in Roman public life there is some disagreement between historians over the earliest years of Tiberius and nerodruses as the stepsons of Octavian some suggest that the boys grew up within octavian's household with some contact with their father whereas others suggest that both boys or perhaps only drusus were placed in their biological father's care whatever the arrangement when their father died sometime between late 33 BC and early 32 BC he named Octavian in his will as guardian of his children as the Elder of his father's two children Tiberius gave the oration at his father's funeral despite being just nine years old tiberius's education was typical for a patrician boy his primary education taking place within the home rather than in a school before going on to a grammaticy school at 11 or 12 years on the 24th of April 27 BC at the age of 14 he assumed the toga vireless taking the symbolic step into manhood and beginning his education in oratory as well as philosophy law and history an education which gave him a lifelong interest in literature but even before assuming the toga varilis Tiberius was already involved in public life in 29 BC he led a troop of boys during the Lucius troyi a Roman public holiday and thereafter he began to play a part in many Roman public events by this time Tiberius was living within a family Arrangement which was increasingly at the very heart of Roman politics following years of growing tensions between his stepfather Octavian and Marc Anthony in the 30s BC the pair went to war in 32 BC with Octavian bringing the power of the western parts of the Empire to Bear against Anthony in the East the new Civil War was a quick Affair and was largely decided in a huge naval battle at actium off the northwest coast of Greece in 31 BC thereafter Anthony killed himself an Octavian Rose to become the Undisputed power within the Roman Republic to signify his new position in 27 BC he instituted a set of constitutional changes within the Republic for instance he would serve as the senior Roman magistrate that of consul for most of the next few years he also appointed his senior most allies such as the the general Marcus Agrippa to other positions of power finally he adopted the title of princeps and took the name imperator Caesar Augustus Augustus means revered and Caesar was adopted in honor of his great uncle Julius Caesar princess means First Citizen and was adopted by Augustus to signify that he was now the first citizen of the Roman Republic but historians have come to see the title imperator which means Commander as the more significant from it stems the word Emperor and it is that which Augustus would eventually become Rome's first emperor and the family which he had founded with Livia the giulio claudians named for a descent from the Julia and claudian clans became the first Imperial Dynasty of this new Roman Empire which replaced the Roman Republic in 26 BC Tiberius joined his stepfather Caesar Augustus in a military campaign in Spain Rome had controlled large parts of the peninsula since the second century BC but the Northwestern region had stubbornly held out one of the first acts of augustus's Reign was to pacify the last pockets of resistance in a conflict which became known as the cantabrian wars in these Tiberius held the rank of military Tribune despite his young age and in 25 BC he collaborated with octavian's nephew Marcellus to organize games for the soldiers in the camps Tiberius and Marcellus returned to Rome shortly after this at which point Marcellus married augustus's daughter Julia who was from an earlier marriage Julia was the emperor's only biological child and marcellus's marriage to her seemed to indicate that he was now augustus's designated successor should the emperor die prematurely indeed shortly after augustus's return to Rome himself in 24 BC Marcellus was granted the office of edile however Tiberius was made a Questa in a sign of his own significance within the Imperial family as he entered his adult years nevertheless it is clear that Augustus favored Marcellus as his Heir at this time in 23 BC Augustus fell ill and for a time it was thought he wouldn't recover it was expected that Marcellus would be named as his successor but at that time no one was officially designated Augustus received treatment and recovered but later the same year Marcellus himself died despite receiving treatment from the same physician this death left augustus's biological daughter Julia a widow and augustus's bloodline vulnerable to those with ambition to this end Marcus Agrippa augustus's famed General and close friend was chosen as Julia's next husband this had the double effect of counteracting any possible Ambitions a gripper might have to place his own children in the line of succession Agrippa divorced augustus's niece Marcella and married Julia in 21 BC their first two sons were born soon after Gaius Caesar in 20 BC and Lucius Caesar in 17 BC thus the marriage of Agrippa and Julia had formed a union between augustus's only biological child and his closest Ally it now seemed that the succession would fall to one of their two eldest Sons Gaius and Lucius in years to come to that end Augustus adopted the two boys a formalistic act which declared to Roman society their position within the line of succession with this done it seemed that the possibility of Tiberius succeeding his stepfather one day diminished considerably as well as holding several offices throughout the 20s BC Tiberius involved himself in matters of law mostly in the private sphere in cases dealing directly with Augustus but in 22 BC he was also involved in the successful prosecution of phanius capio a man accused of conspiring against the life of Augustus 20 BC saw Tiberius lead a force to Armenia major with the intention of installing tigranis son of King artavastes II on the throne of this client Kingdom of Rome's in the Caucasus in place of his brother are taxes who favored the parthian Empire Rome's perennial Eastern enemy based out of Iran and Iraq tigranis had been a hostage in Rome for 10 years and at the behest of Armenian Representatives Augustus sanctioned the mission Armenia had been lost to the Romans in the previous decade through Mark Anthony's dealings and Augustus now had his chance to reclaim it our taxes was murdered before tiberius's arrival and so he won a bloodless Victory and installed tigranis on the throne once again securing it as a client Kingdom the neighboring parthian Kingdom Under freitis IV gave no opposition and even returned the standards or banners of several Roman Legions which the parthians had defeated at the Battle of carhai 30 years earlier something which Augustus had been pursuing through diplomatic means for a number of years on his return to Rome Tiberius was celebrated for these achievements and shortly afterwards he married VIP Sanya agrippina Marcus agrippa's daughter in 16 BC Tiberius took office as Prater of Rome but much of his work as part of the wider Imperial family over the next years would occur far away from the Eternal City itself to the North in Germania for much of its history the Roman Republic had been exclusively a Mediterranean power with little control over land any further north than Tuscany and liguria in Italy the general Marius had gradually begun extending Roman power northwards to the Alps in the late 2nd Century BC and Julius Caesar had overseen a series of formidable conquests in Gaul the region approximating to modern-day France in the 50s BC now Augustus was determined not only to consolidate Caesar's earlier conquests by bringing Wayward Celtic tribes in the greater Gaul region under Rome's control but also by pushing the borders of the Empire north and east to defensive lines along the river Rhine and River Danube in the north this would involve conquering much of Germania while in the South it would require control over regions which the Romans knew as panonia norikum and lyricum which approximate with the countries of Austria Hungary Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina when Augustus began this process in the mid-10s BC he took Tiberius and his younger brother drewsus with him it was an Enterprise which Tiberius would engage with in one way or another for several decades much of the first year he spent dealing militarily with the incursions of the Germanic tribesmen across the Rhine as well as engaging in diplomacy to quell the quarrels of the gallic tribes following on from this in 15 and 14 BC Tiberius and nerodruses led forces within the Alpine regions of Radia and vindalisia conquering the tribes and securing the region as part of augustus's Greater plan to extend the frontier to the Danube it was while on campaign that dreesus's first son whom he named germanicus was born back in Rome some time later Tiberius took office as Consul on the 1st of January 13 BC around this time his first child by vipsania Nero Claudius drusas known as drewsus the younger to avoid confusing him with his uncle was born Tiberius seems to have been genuinely happy in his marriage to vipsanya but things were soon to change when her father Marcus Agrippa died early in 12 BC once again Julia augustus's only biological child as the emperor and Livia never had children of their own was widowed so on the instructions of Augustus Tiberius was forced to divorce vipsania who was also pregnant with their second child and to marry Julia it is unknown what became of the second child of ipsania but in the same year Julia gave birth to agrippa's last child Agrippa posthumous the wedding between Julia and Tiberius was delayed whilst he was on campaign in Panama and so was not formalized until 11 BC upon the conclusion of this panonian campaign Tiberius was also voted to be allowed a celebratory Triumph at Rome but Augustus refused to allow him to celebrate it a move which indicated that while Tiberius might now be marrying his daughter it was still the Elder sons from Julia's marriage to Marcus Agrippa Gaius and Lucius who were considered his designated heirs as these two were augustus's biological grandsons in 10 BC the only child of Tiberius and Julia was born shortly after their wedding but this child lived only a short time a not uncommon occurrence given the rate of infant mortality at the time for much of this period Tiberius was otherwise once again on campaign having accompanied Augustus de Gaulle he was subsequently sent on to panonia to repel an invasion there by the dacians a people from the Eastern Balkans and put down another uprising of Dalmatians along the coast of the western Balkans it was in the late summer that drewsus the elders Second Son a boy who was named Claudius was born in lagdunum the Roman name for the city of Leon in Gore this Claudius would one day many decades later become emperor of Rome despite suffering from a limp and partial deafness disabilities which typically rendered an individual unfit to hold office in the eyes of the Romans he would never know his father as tiberius's brother Drew says the Elder died after falling from his horse while campaigning in Germania the following year he lingered for a time which enabled Tiberius to quickly make the journey to Germania and he was at his brother's sight when he passed tiberius's display of mourning was moderate as was in keeping with Roman Traditions but he did accompany his brother's body back to Rome on foot and gave a eulogy at the Roman Forum Augustus gave a second eulogy in the circus flaminius to Mark the death of his stepson Tiberius now took his brother's place in Germania for the campaigning season of 8 BC and despite lackluster results caused in part by a lack of resources he was awarded a Triumph and appointed as consul for a second time in 7 BC in 6 BC Tiberius was granted tribunation powers for five years raising his status to that which Marcus Agrippa had held previously second only to Augustus himself at the same time though Gaius Julius eldest son by Marcus Agrippa was elected as Consul despite only being 14 years of age in a move which clearly indicated that Augustus still considered the boy his most obvious successor as he was his eldest biological grandson at this point in time tiberius's relationship with Julia was also souring and she was perhaps in part responsible for the attempted premature advancement of her son fearing Tiberius and his own son from his marriage to vibsania drewsus the younger would overshadow her children the rupturing of relations led to Tiberius absenting himself from Rome for some time he was supposed to return to Armenia to quell tensions in the wake of the death of King granis II there but he refused instead asking to retire to the island of Rhodes off the coast of Southern turkey after a four-day hunger strike an angry Augustus finally agreed to his request and Tiberius left Rome later in 6 BC many arguments have been put forward to explain tiberius's retirement but his true motives remain unclear what we do know is that this episode caused a rift between Tiberius and Augustus that would last for many years Tiberius retained his tribunation power and lived quietly on roads while Julia remained in Rome in the meantime both of her sons from her earlier marriage to Marcus Agrippa Gaius and Lucius received the title of Princess Juventus in 5 BC further cementing their positions within the succession then in 2bc Augustus ended the marriage between Tiberius and Julia this was caused in part by the emperor's resentment of his daughter following a series of Affairs which she engaged in including one with the younger son of his old rival Marc Anthony as a consequence Augustus exiled his only biological child from Rome despite the tense relations between Julia and Tiberius wrote to Augustus to plead for clemency for his wife perhaps in part because he knew that divorce would sever a link between himself and Augustus these appeals fell on deaf ears as a result the following year when tiberius's tribunition Powers expired he asked for augustus's permission to be allowed to return to Rome now that Gaius and Lucius had seemingly been confirmed in their positions as Augustus heirs the emperor surprisingly refused to renew tiberis's Powers as Tribune and instead he was only confirmed as a legate despite his mother Livia's interventions thus tiberius's position with Augustus seemed to have been completely undermined by his spell in Exile in roads and the collapse of his marriage to Julia augustus's grandson and his most likely successor Gaius was sent to the east in 1bc he was 19 years old by this time and was granted pro-consular Imperium in the East whereby the emperor effectively gave him significant military and political control over the provinces there Augustus was evidently training him as his successor shortly after his arrival in the East Tiberius left Rhodes to visit his stepson but the reception he received was hostile from here on tiberius's reputation steadily declined and his political position was at a low ebb in the first years of the First Century A.D he made repeated requests during this time to Augustus to be allowed to return to Rome but these were consistently refused with Augustus saying he would make no decision without the recommendation of Gaius in 2 A.D one of the most significant figures in the line of succession died this was Lucius the Second Son of Julia and Marcus Agrippa that year Lucius had been appointed by Augustus to undertake a military command suppressing a local Revolt in hispania on his way to Iberia he took ill in southern Gore and died within days he was just 18 years of age this Interruption to the succession was compounded two years later lucius's older brother the heir to the Empire to all intents and purposes Gaius had met with initial success in his mission to the east campaigning against the parthians who abandoned their claims to Armenia but Armenia itself was engaged in the Civil War following the Roman appointment of their new king it was during a Siege of an Armenian town on the 9th of September 3 A.D but Gaius was badly injured the injury caused him to fall into despondency and he request did retirement from public life Augustus convinced him to return to Rome although guys was still intent on retiring but on the 21st of February for A.D he died in the port town of limera now both Gaius and Lucius the two biological grandsons of Augustus whom he had been cultivating as his potential successes for the last decade had both died within less than two years of each other throwing the succession into disarray at a time when Augustus was in his mid-60s a ripe old age by the standards of the time Augustus was now once again left without a clear plan of succession his aspirations to preserve his direct bloodline could still be attained through the deceased drusus the eldest son germanicus this nephew of Tiberius was due to be married to agrapina the daughter of Julia and Marcus Agrippa as such any children of germanicus and agrippina's marriage would be augustus's biological great-grandchildren nevertheless germanicus was deemed too young and inexperienced to rule at that time and so once again Augustus turned to Tiberius despite his own reservations Tiberius accepted a restoration of his tribunition powers which his stepfather offered shortly after gaius's death in 4 A.D as well as a senior military command in Germania Augustus then instructed Tiberius to adopt his nephew germanicus following which Augustus reciprocated by adopting Tiberius over 40 years after first becoming his stepfather consequently it seemed to be clear that the new line of succession was that Tiberius would succeed Augustus and germanicus would be groomed to succeed Tiberius in turn down the line Tiberius was not popular with the general populace at Rome but when he returned to Germania he was received warmly by the soldiers that had previously served under him years earlier the German campaigns during 4 A.D and 5ad were massively successful indeed so successful were they that a new plan to extend the Roman border beyond the river Rhine to the more eastwardly River Elba was now being adopted in 6 A.D after wintering in Rome Tiberius prepared to attack the maricomani in the region around Austria and czechia today but revolts to the south in Dalmatia and panonia put an end to this ambition Tiberius quickly concluded a treaty with the marcomani and turned back to deal with the uprisings taking up a position at siskiya to stop any Rebel attempts to enter Italy and await reinforcements in 7 A.D he was joined by germanicus and moved slowly east and south in a series of small skirmishes rather than engaging the main forces of rebels although many wished for a quick end to the uprisings including Augustus Tiberius continued with his tactics engaging in a scorched Earth policy the revolts in panonia ended in capitulation in 8 A.D in part due to tiberius's tactics which had resulted in famine and disease ravaging the region in 9 A.D Tiberius moved against Dalmatia eventually capturing the leader of the uprising battle and stamping out the last remnants of rebellion having ended the panonian wars Tiberius was granted a Triumph at Rome but on his return to the city he delayed the celebration when use of the massacre of three Roman Legions in the tutorberg forest in central Germania by a massive Alliance of Germanic tribesmen reached the city it had transpired that the project to extend the northern border to the river Elba had been too ambitious and the Romans now pulled back to the river Rhine Tiberius left to oversee these Maneuvers he took command of the armies on the Rhine and implemented the same slow and steady Advance as in panonia again adopting a scorched Earth approach to secure the northern border along the course of the Rhine the campaign continued over the next two years and in 12 A.D when germanicus took his first consulship Tiberius returned to Rome celebrating the delayed panonian Triumph on the 23rd of October that year tiberius's influence increased greatly following his return from retirement and many of his friends and those serving under him saw advancement within public life his sons also Advanced through the ranks by way of contrast Tiberius stunted the career advancement of one of his Rivals for power Agrippa posthumous the third and now only living son of Julia and Marcus Agrippa who had been born after a gripper died his taking of the toga vireless was delayed until 5 A.D and no privileges were granted to him then at some point in 6 A.D Augustus made the decision to renounce Agrippa posthumous position as one of his heirs due to what he called posthumous's beastly nature effectively terminating his adoption and his place in the succession and sent him away to sorrentum before imposing a permanent Exile on the island of planasia off the coast of Tuscany in 7ad when his behavior failed to improve as a result by the last years of augustus's Reign there was no doubt that Tiberius would succeed his stepfather as princeps and imperato of Rome accordingly in the last years of the Reign his tribunition powers were renewed and at augustus's request a law was passed that made tiberius's Imperium equal with his own then in 1480 after conducting a census together Tiberius set out for illyricum accompanied by Augustus for a short distance before the two men separated just a few days later Tiberius was recalled as Augustus lay on his deathbed in the town of Nola in southern Italy it is unclear whether Tiberius arrived there before Augustus died on the 19th of August 14 A.D Augustus seems to have engineered one final political deed Agrippa posthumous would not survive him it seems he had left some form of standing order for a gripper's execution upon his own death and when word reached planazia that Augustus had died the orders were carried out by the praetorian Centurion guarding him while the exact motives for the execution remain unclear it is likely that Augustus sought to secure the succession by removing his unstable grandson even though a gripper could not be considered a serious Contender by this time Tiberius denied any knowledge of the deed when it was reported to him and pronounced he would bring those responsible before the Senate but this never happened and Tiberius later stated that Augustus had indeed left the order for the execution later the following year Julia also died Tiberius removed the small freedoms she had been granted by Augustus in Exile following her a move to regium but there is some question over whether her death was natural or caused by imposed starvation Tiberius accompanied augustus's body back to Rome and the opening meeting of the Senate where the will was to be read he was said to be so overcome with emotion that the speech had to be read for him the funeral and cremation followed in which Tiberius played his part and once augustus's ashes had been interred in his Mausoleum the Senate met again on the 17th of September and to deified Augustus discussion then turned to the succession and a motion was put forward by the Senate to determine tiberus's position in no way is it suggested that they intended to strip power away from the role that Augustus had created rather it was to confirm Tiberius in his position some historians have suggested it was at this point that we see tiberius's hesitation at stepping into the role of Emperor but others assert that it was not so much hesitation on tiberius's part as he could have vetoed the motion but did not rather he professed that the duty of governing the Empire should not fall on the shoulders of just one man but this was probably something of a ploy to ensure he was appointed to the role of princeps perhaps some of this hesitation was genuine after all Tiberius was already in his 50s by 14 A.D and to rule the newly formed Empire would be burdensome But ultimately his desire eye for power one out and after much back and forth and some sharp words from both sides Tiberius was acclaimed as augustus's successor through his actions Tiberius had likely sought to emulate Augustus who had laid down his powers in front of the Senate years before but in his case they saw only obstructiveness already so early in his rule Tiberius had caused bad feeling within the Senate which was to linger at the same meeting many honors were conferred on his mother Livia which went against tiberius's traditionalist values with regards to women's influence within the political sphere and at his own request germanicus who was effectively the new Heir was granted the pro-consular Imperium following the death of Augustus and before tiberus's rule was Secure trouble broke out within the legions in panonia and then those stationed further north along the river Rhine to deal with these Tiberius dispatched his own biological son from his earlier marriage to ipsania drewsus the younger to panonia he was accompanied by an individual who would play a major role in tiberius's reign this was sejanus the newly appointed prefect of the praetorian god the Imperial bodyguard which were the only troops allowed to be stationed at Rome and in central Italy the legions which had revolted and which drusus the younger and sejanas had been appointed to suppress the Insurrection of weren't necessarily opposed to tiberius's succession but they did believe that with the death of Augustus the time was right for them to demand redress of the wrongs which they believed had been perpetrated against them in recent times namely poor conditions in their barracks and inadequate pay and remuneration when drewsus the younger arrived in Camp in the north he read a letter from Tiberius who expressed concern for the treatment of his soldiers and claimed that he would bring their demands to the Roman senate once he had finished grieving his stepfather drewsus the younger would make some concessions in the meantime that same night if we are to believe the Roman historians who related the event there was a lunar eclipse which terrified the soldiers into thinking their actions in revolting had earned them the ire of the Gods drewsus the younger was quick to exploit this feeling and the mutineers calmed the next day two leading figures in the Mutiny were rounded up and executed While others were dealt with by the soldiers themselves to prove their loyalty a heavy downpour which kept the men confined to their Barracks was again interpreted as a sign of dissatisfaction and eventually the three Legions dispersed to their winter quarters without further quarrel initially the mutineers on the Rhine made the same demands as those in panonia better treatment at the hands of their superiors and higher pay as well as demobilization after their period of service and proper grants of land to retired soldiers some of these believed that they could install germanicus who had become very popular both among the citizens of Rome and within the Roman Legions as the emperor but he remained loyal to Tiberius when the Mutiny began germanicus was in Gaul but rushed back when he heard the news he was unable to offer concessions but exposing a weakness in his character it is said he forged a letter from Tiberius acceding to some of the demands but the soldiers weren't fooled to that end kirmanicus sent his tribunes to the task of demobilization and was eventually forced to use his own coin to meet the demand for higher wages but when envoys later arrived from Rome further of violence followed the Mutiny was only ended when germanicus had his pregnant wife akrapina sent out to carry their infant son to the safety of a neighboring tribe from the camp this act shamed the legions and they professed their loyalty crying out for the guilty to be punished girimanicus handed over the duty of punishing the ringleaders to the soldiers so as to keep the affection of his men Tiberius was criticized for not taking a more direct hand in dealing personally with the mutinies which followed his accession but defended himself by saying that had he visited either Army first the other would have taken offense thus worsening the situation his biological son drewsus the younger and his adoptive son germanicus were to act and he would back them from a distance this criticism early in his Reign foreshadowed later issues much of it related to his Public Image Tiberius was an eloquent speaker when he spoke sincerely but was known to struggle over words when he spoke in half truths when used for the mutinies had been dealt with reached Rome he spoke in the Senate of drusus the younger for whom his praise was sincere but gave a less than convincing performance when his words turned to germanicus despite extolling his courage Tiberius was suspicious of his conduct in halting the Mutiny and would later rescind the single granted concession which germanikus had made to the legionaries specifically a promise to reduce the number of years of service required by the Roman soldiers Tiberius had been princess for almost six months when he was granted the title pontifex Maximus on the 10th of March 15 A.D this was the most senior religious office in the Roman State however he refused to name himself as imperato and rejected the title of Pata Patria father of the nation as well as refusing the name Augustus despite the latter refusal he would still be known as Tiberius Caesar Augustus throughout his reign as coins and inscriptions on many monuments in Rome and elsewhere a test in refusing these honors and titles Tiberius provided a public demonstration of his adherence to moderation and his feeling on the role the Senate should play in governing the Roman state despite the hypocrisy Tiberius presented early on in the Senate he was not as hostile towards the old institutions of the Republic as some of his successes would be for instance in accordance with the wishes of Augustus and in keeping with his own beliefs on their role soon after his succession he granted the right to elect magistrates to the Senate moreover in the early years of his rule Tiberius would often sit in silence during debates held in the Senate allowing both sides to make their case in an attempt not to influence rulings believing firmly that the senate had the right to make their own free decisions under Augustus the senate had been servile rather than free to exercise their own will and in many cases despite the lack of interjection from Tiberius they often reverted to this attitude in deference to the princeps and the influence of other members of the Imperial family so ingrained was this attitude that at times Tiberius would become irritated when Senators passed matters to him which he felt they could deal with themselves but despite his neutrality Tiberius would intervene on occasion either in refusing to allow the Senate to pass off matters to him or after lengthy debates would interject late in proceedings to announce the outcome he desired over time this practice would inadvertently see the relationship between Tiberius and the Senate deteriorate further during these early years he turned a blind eye to the enmity of others even when directed at himself still holding with his belief of the right to free speech but he detested sycophants and in this way cultivated his virtues and reputation although he cared nothing for the affection of the people towards him he wanted only their respect Tiberius made some adjustments to matters pertaining to gladiatorial and theatrical entertainment at Rome early on as these were activities that he didn't enjoy limiting the number of gladiatorial games that could take place he rejected the motion that actors could be flogged following rights at a performance in 15 A.D thereby upholding augustus's ruling that they were immune from such punishments however he did introduce restrictions to actors pay and controlled who they could keep company with later in 23 A.D actors would be banished from Rome not to return during his rule these interventions in the public entertainments at Rome were not popular amongst the city's wider population however he attempted to counterbalance this repressive attitude with welfare measures for instance when the river Tiber flooded in 15 A.D and his people's welfare was at stake Tiberius created a new board of curators to deal with with the problem but their suggestions to remedy the situation met with hostility in the affected towns and parts of the city itself and so the Senate voted against the proposals later in 17 A.D Tiberius would once again demonstrate his generosity when he provided lavish grants to towns in Asia devastated by an earthquake and in 22 A.D would fix prices of corn to keep them affordable for the public while making up the difference to the dealers during a time of food scarcity throughout the early years of his Reign Tiberius took an active interest in the law and attended the courts taking a place to the side of the sitting Prater so they didn't have to give up their official seat Tiberius intervened when he felt it necessary in the face of corruption and bribery and the undue influence that some exerted on their cases given their High standing but under his rule there was a marked expansion of the law of maestas this lessened the status of the Roman people making treason sacrilegious due to the supposed Divinity of the emperor the treason law had been in use since late Republican times but have undergone several changes including under Augustus the newly strengthened law under Tiberius was readily exploited by informers who accused individuals of disrespecting the position of Emperor and the Imperial family as rewards were granted for successful prosecutions under the law of maestas and many cases were brought before the Senate on such charges coupled with other crimes such as adultery or extortion Tiberius would often intervene quashing trials he believed trivial and proposing milder sentences on those that were found guilty depending on the crime and their status while Tiberius remained in Rome the campaign in Germania continued in 15 A.D with germanicus overseeing Affairs the goal here was to secure the Border along the Rhine more firmly as Augustus had left orders on his death that his successors should seek to consolidate the Empire and protect its borders rather than expand it any further tiberius's earlier successful and cautious tactics were abandoned by kermanicus his aim was to split the main tribes of central Germania such as the cherowski and chatty from one another germanicus moved first against the chatty with the legions of the upper Rhine routing them from their lands and when he refused to Grant a peace the tribe split with some joining him while others melted away into the forests of the parts of gerimania beyond the Roman Border in the months that followed further campaigning occurred as arminius the German warlord who had orchestrated the defeat of three Roman Legions at the battle of the tutorberg forest back in 9 A.D materialized as the primary antagonist to germanicus arminius roused both his own followers and the neighboring tribes against the Romans in response germanicus dispatched three separate Roman forces eastwards beyond the river Rhine the goal here was to semi-passify this region Beyond Rome's borders which if left under the control of Warlords like arminius would always pose a serious threat to the Roman forts along the Rhine and the Roman colonies Beyond when this Roman Force Came Upon the site of the massacre of the tutoburg forest nearly a decade earlier they raised a burial mound to honor the Dead Further into this vast primeval Forest which is all but gone today but which covered a large proportion of Germany in ancient times germanicus's forces faced those of arminius but the sides never engaged as the campaigning season was almost over and neither was entirely confident of winning the day consequently the Romans withdrew but the alliance arminius had assembled would soon collapse as the other Germanic Lords became wary of his Growing Power and assassinated him in 21 A.D a Triumph and triumphal Arch were granted for germanicus at Rome following his initial campaign into Germania but these honors had another message behind them the Tiberius considered the conflict at an end Alat germanicus should now return to Rome kermanicus didn't heed the message and began the campaign Anew in 16 A.D Tiberius couldn't risk the political disaster of germanicus's refusal if he ordered him back to Rome and so for the moment germanicus got his way despite tiberius's disapproval germanicus won successive victories in the months that followed bolstering his popularity amongst the legions and the people of Rome even further he was a shrewd manipulator of public opinion for instance after disaster struck his Fleet during the German campaign on his way to Winter quarters along the coast of the North Atlantic girimanicus struck out quickly to prevent the loss of Roman morale by recovering one of the standards of the the Roman Legions which had been lost at the Battle of the tutorberg forest in 9 A.D the recovery of the standard made no practical difference to the Strategic situation in Germania but from a propaganda standpoint it was a major achievement Tiberius was aware of his potential Air's growing popularity as a result of these measures and late in 16 A.D he made it clear that his own biological son Drew so younger would soon be joining germanicus in the north to share the glory with him in Germania germanicus is growing popularity in the north was not the only thing which taxed Tiberius during these first years of his Reign a conspiracy against the Imperial family had also allegedly been Unearthed at Rome during the same period this involved scrivonius libodruses scribonius had served as Prater in 15 A.D even as Tiberius was having his actions monitored soon information was passed to the government that scribonius had consulted with astrologers and fortune tellers concerning Tiberius and the royal family while writings in his own hand contained the names of members of the Imperial family and Senators with strange symbols beside them these peculiar documents and scribonius's consultations with astrologers and other practitioners at Magic was deemed sufficient to have him placed on trial in 16 A.D on charges of conspiring against the emperor and the Imperial family scribonius subsequently appealed to Tiberius during directly but when the emperor dismissed his implorations scribonius committed suicide following this Tiberius pronounced that scribonius was guilty his property was divided as a reward between his prosecutors the name drusus was forbidden to be used by any member of the scribonia family and it is likely that scribonius's body was displayed on the gammonian stairs near the Roman Forum a further decrees banished fortune tellers and astrologers from the country but the trouble was not over new unrest would focus on a Freed Man Named Clements a former slave of Agrippa posthumous who had arrived too late to save his master back in 14 A.D when he was executed on augustus's orders this Clemens had laid low in the intervening period and allowed his hair and beard to grow to enhance his resemblance to Agrippa posthumous he then began spreading rumors that he was in fact Agrippa posthumous and was still alive the rumors took hold coupled with occasional fleeting glimpses of Clements purporting to be the deceased grandson of Augustus until they were believed throughout Italy and in Rome itself when Clements finally journeyed to Austria the main Port of Rome he was welcomed there by a large crowd Tiberius not wanting to make his own position seem Weak by sending troops to intercept him instead dispatched some of the praetorian Guard to capture Clements he was subsequently transferred in secret to Rome there despite being questioned extensively he refused to name his co-conspirators accordingly he was executed quietly and the whole matter was hushed up but the episode of both scribonius and Clements highlighted the weaknesses of the regime and heightened tiberius's own paranoia that his position might fall foul of one conspiracy or another in 17 A.D tiberius's biological son drewsus the younger took his place in the Army in iliricum while girimonicus was appointed to take command in the East but he wasn't to go alone girmanikus traveled East with calpurnius piso a senior Roman politician whom Tiberius had served alongside as Consul way back in 7 BC this piso was now appointed by Tiberius with the approval of the Senate as legit of the province of Syria it is likely that piso was to act as tiberius's eyes and ears in the East and to ensure that germanicus did not become too independent there or win the kind of great favor with the Syrian troops which he had done on the Rhine this Arrangement is indicative of the level of distrust Tiberius felt towards his adopted son by this time clearly germanicus's position in the succession was only being kept in place because of tiberius's continuing deference to augustus's earlier wishes and also because germanicus had simply become too powerful it could prove dangerous for Tiberius to try to demote him now whatever the motives for this arrangement in the East were piso and germanicus were unfavorably disposed to one another from the beginning piso arrived in Syria first and set about ingratiating himself with the soldiers earning the nickname Father of the legions geremonicus was aware of piso's Acts but had other matters in the East to attend to First and acquitted himself well in his duties but from the time piso and germanicus met again in Cirrus in Syria they were openly hostile to one another Gary Monica's journeyed to Egypt in 1980 and by doing so made a political blunder he was open-handed in his dealings and well received by the people of the capital there Alexandria but by entering Egypt he had gone against one of the decrees of Augustus who had stipulated that any member of the Senate must have authorization to enter the country Marc Anthony had carved out his power base here decades earlier and the country was the breadbasket of Rome Augustus had wished to avoid the country being politicized thereafter now Tiberius wrote to germanicus chastising his affability with the people and Adoption of Greek dress since his arrival in the East and further complaining of his Defiance in entering Egypt without Imperial authorization Tiberius held augustus's precepts in reverence and strove to uphold them and this action on germanicus's part must have seemed an affront to these ideals germanicus had assumed that each Egypt was just another province that he was to deal with in his command of the East for which his commission provided the necessary authorization relations between piso and germanicus didn't improve in the younger man's absence in Egypt and a short time after his return to Syria germanicus fell ill he would recover for a short period before relapsing and he became convinced that piso was poisoning him germanicus died on the 10th of October 19ad from an unknown illness with his death kirmanikus's supporters replaced piso as governor of Syria with one of their own and a short conflict ensued eventually piso surrendered and he was granted safe conduct to Rome when news first came to Rome of karmanikus's illness Rumors abounded in the capital that the popular young Heir had been poisoned by the emperor rumors of this kind regularly surfaced in Rome during the early Imperial period and indeed when Lucius and Gaius the sons of Julia and Marcus Agrippa had perished at Young ages within two years of each other in 2ad and 4ad many had speculated that tiberius's mother Livia had been responsible and was seeking to ensure the succession of Tiberius as Emperor by having augustus's blood heirs murdered now Tiberius faced charges of having done the same to germanicus to secure his own position and paved the way for his biological son drewsus the younger to succeed him when germanicus's wife agrippina returned to Rome with his ashes public feeling grew against Tiberius who had not shown any grief for him nor had any senior member of the Imperial family being part of agrippina's escort into the city tiberius's distrust of agrapina deepened as public sympathy for her grew in the midst of this crisis surrounding germanicus's death a thorny issue arose calpurnia's piso was faced with serious charges of misconduct when he returned from the East the Senate initially tried to pass his trial to Tiberius but the emperor refused and referred it back to the Senate knowing that if piso was cleared it would be taken as proof of tiberius's rumored complicity in germanicus's Murder Tiberius opened the case with a well-reasoned speech arguing that only facts should be taken into consideration and that they should not be influenced in their decisions by his personal connection to germanicus from the outset of the trial the mood within the Senate and indeed in Rome at large was hostile towards piso the politician seeing this and realizing that Tiberius was unlikely to intervene to save him committed suicide before a decision was reached but Tiberius did intervene at his mother Livia's request on behalf of piso's wife when she was was also placed on trial this was an act of Mercy but it only served to reinforce the belief amongst the people of Rome the Tiberius and his mother had been in some way involved in germanicus's death the period of endless crises at the start of tiberius's Reign and his dwindling popularity at Rome took its toll on Tiberius in 21 A.D citing ill health he left the capital for Campania the region to the south of Rome towards towns like Pompeii and neapolis overlooking the Bay of Naples he left his biological son and possible new Heir drewsus the younger in charge of the city to cement his son's position he made him Consul and wrote to the Senate asking that juices be granted the tribunation powers which Tiberius had held for so many years during augustus's Reign although still Emperor Tiberius yearned for a peaceful retirement and distance from public affairs accordingly when the Senate called upon him to decide on the appointment of a governor of the province of Africa in what is now Tunisia he criticized them in his response asserting that it was their responsibility to decide on this matter and ordering them to choose between the two candidates in a worry important of things to come the Senate chose blasius an uncle of Sir Janus the head of the praetorian guard as the governor it was a sign of the growing influence of the Imperial bodyguard and of sujanus in particular within Roman politics this first period of Exile from Rome for Tiberius only came to an end in 22 A.D when he reluctantly returned to the capital after learning that his mother Livia was ill Tiberius suffered a blow in 23 A.D when on the 14th of September his son and potential successor drewsus the younger died at the time no one believed it was any more than a natural death drusus had been ill in 21 A.D but recovered however some years later accusations arose that druses had in fact been poisoned by sejanus it is impossible to verify this claim with any certainty despite the role sir Janus was to play going forward following drewsis's death Tiberius spoke first impassively in the Senate not displaying his grief and rebuking others for their own expressions of mourning when his speech turned to the succession he commended the sons of germanicus Nero Caesar Andrews Caesar to the care of the Senate and asked that the burdens of government be increasingly shouldered by them once they came of age to do so whatever the truth of druses the youngest death might have been we know for certain that sir Janus quickly began cementing his position in the aftermath of the death of the empress son he wasted little time in trying to undermine germaricus's Widow agrapina who as mother to Nero Caesar and Drew's Caesar the two sons of germanicus whom Tiberius had indicated were now his heirs could play a significant role in Rome's politics going forward throughout 24 A.D and 25 A.D sajanus engineered accusations against many of agrapino's influential supporters and had them placed on trial Tiberius intervened on behalf of some of the condemned but for others insisted on the penalty of Exile and it is through these trials that we see a hardening of tiberius's attitude towards what others said or wrote about him whereas earlier in his rule he was prepared to brush insults off now he regarded them as breaches of the law of maestas which claimed that his position as princeps was inviolable he had also decided to continue his Exile from Rome and from the period of the death of bruceus the younger he largely resided at a pleasure Palace he had built for himself on the island of Capri in the Bay of Naples rumors abounded about Tiberius engaging in sadistic and sexually depraved acts here during his Exile much of this was probably spurious rumor related by later Roman historians such as the Imperial biographer suetonius but it is indicative of how poor tiberius's reputation was by the middle years of his Reign but such a view of him had developed meanwhile back in Rome sir Janus conspired and became the real power in the city in 25 A.D he wrote to diberius to offer himself as a potential husband for Livia Julia drewsis the younger's Widow stating that he would be happy to act in the defense of her children against the attacks of agrippina Tiberius initially replied praising sir janus's loyalty but tactfully refusing the offer it has been suggested that it was at this time that sir Janus began encouraging Tiberius to spend more and more time away from Rome but it seems to be an incident later in the year again possibly engineered by Sir Janus that pushed Tiberius towards his decision to fully retire to Capri when he was forced to listen to a witness in a maesta's trial recount all that the accused had supposedly said of the emperor prompting an outburst from Tiberius and causing him to shun later meetings of the Senate sejanis continued to cultivate the white tightening Rift between Tiberius and agrippina when a cousin of hers faced her own trial in 26 A.D agrippina abandoned caution and chided Tiberius publicly Tiberius replied accusing her of Envy as she did not enjoy a position of power but despite their differences when agrippina fell ill a short time later he did visit her agrippina took the opportunity to ask that she be married again but Tiberius left without giving her an answer still sir Janus persisted and later that year agrippina appeared to believe warnings that Tiberius wanted to poison her when she attended dinner with him but ate nothing it was later in 26 A.D that Tiberius finally made his decision to fully retire from his official duties in Rome first journeying to Campania to dedicate temples at capua and Nola before settling permanently at his new Palace on the island of Capri when Tiberius set out from Rome his retinue was made up largely of Scholars with only one Senator and two Equus sajanas being one of them it was while in cabania at a villa named spelunka that sijanus cemented himself firmly within tiberus's confidence when he protected the emperor from a rockfall that closed the mouth of the cave in which they were dining remaining in place until they were rescued with Tiberius away from Rome the business of ruling became more protracted as the Senate still declined the responsibility that Tiberius had tried to instill in them and so all matters had to be conducted through lettuce causing inevitable delays but when disaster track first at fidinai when a poorly built Amphitheater collapsed and then a fire raged across the celian hill Tiberius did compensate all involved depending on their losses welfare towards his subjects remained a Paramount concern of his despite how little praise he might have received for it capitalizing on his act in protecting Tiberius sajanas had wasted no time in furthering his plot against agrippina and began targeting her and germanicus's eldest son Nero Caesar reporting exaggerated remarks he had made to Tiberius and playing on the jealousy of his younger brother Joseph Caesar then when Tiberius was safely installed on Capri in 27 A.D he had a record kept of both agrapinas and nera's movements as well as anything they said that could be construed as being aimed against Tiberius sajanus moved against another of agropina's supporters Sabinas at the same time devising a plot in which sabinus was set up to incriminate himself in a conversation in front of hidden Witnesses who duly reported his words to Tiberius in a letter Tiberius wrote to the senate in January 28 A.D attacking Sabinas it has been suggested that some of his claims were products of his imagination rather than anything reported to him by Sir Janus as the emperor grew ever more suspicious of plots against him nevertheless his letter swayed the Senate and they passed a death sentence on savinus Tiberius wrote in thanks for their punishment of An Enemy of the State and that he feared for his life from the plots of his enemies in 29 A.D the matriarch of the giulio claudian dynasty tiberius's mother and augustus's Widow Olivia died surprisingly Tiberius did not return to Rome for her funeral instead he wrote to the Senate attacking agrippina and Nero Caesar on various grounds the people of Rome protested saying that these latest accusations were once again the work of sejanas for his part sajanas embellished the information given to Tiberius claiming it wouldn't be long before the people rose up and made Nero Caesar the new emperor with agrapina acting as the real power behind the throne Tiberius wrote to the Senate again and in his letter proclaimed that he would make the decision in this case which left the senate in no better position than they had been in after the receipt of the first letter the exact sequence of events between 29 and 31 A.D is patchy given the fragmentary nature of the sources over these years it was during this time that Nero Caesar was declared a Public Enemy by the Senate and both he and agropina were imprisoned on separate Islands agropina was treated badly by her guards and lost an eye during a beating and when she later attempted to starve herself to death she was force-fed to keep her alive Tiberius also engaged in vengeful Behavior towards others during this period having the senator gallus who had married his ex-wife hispania years earlier arrested in 30 A.D he died in confinement from starvation in 33 A.D sajanus moved also against Drew's Caesar agarpina's second eldest son in 30 A.D and though he was in tiberius's company at the time the emperor sent him back to Rome where he was declared a public enemy and imprisoned in the city then sajanas was betrothed to Olivia Julia later that year and was publicly acknowledged by Tiberius his designation for the consulship alongside Tiberius in 31 A.D was confirmed but by the end of that year sir janus's power and influence was at an end there are differing historical accounts for tiberius's reasons for turning on sajanas and it has been suggested that the emperor likely came to see him for what he really was at some time in 30 A.D or 31 A.D as more members of the Imperial family were arrested on trumped-up charges throughout 31 A.D Tiberius kept sajanus in a state of worry confusion over his position both praising and criticizing him a rumor even circulated that sajanus would receive tribunition power in the near future but ultimately it was not to be on the morning of the 18th of October 31 A.D a letter was received by the Roman senate from Tiberius at Capri in which the emperor effectively ordered the execution of the head of the praetorian Guard sajanas was imprisoned and his execution was carried out later that day his body was displayed on the gammonian steps where it was mutilated by a mob and three days later the remain remains were cast into the Tiber by the end of the year the rest of his family including his three children and Olivia Julia would be dead although whether this was ordered by Tiberius is uncertain following sir janus's fall and throughout the last years of tiberius's rule there was an increase in Trials including those on charge of maestas some were instigated by Tiberius against people he perceived to be former followers of sajanas and therefore ongoing threats to his safety some cases were dismissed by Tiberius on the grounds that they were trivial in nature as he had done years before but others were postponed until he could investigate them and many resulted in suicide Exile or the death penalty even those who could claim old friendships with Tiberius were not immune it was also in 33 A.D amidst these trials that Drew's Caesar agrapina's second eldest son was starved to death agrippina herself who had been held prisoner for several years by this time died later the same year with Nero Caesar dead since 31 A.D this left only Gaius among agrippina and garmanicus's living Sons Tiberius wrote sept letters to the Senate decrying both throughsus and agrippina going so far as to reveal the record that had been kept on drewsis until his death in the hope that the Senate would come to the same understanding that he had namely the druses Was An Enemy of the State despite the insecurity he obviously felt and outright cruelty in some of his actions Tiberius was still capable of Reason in some spheres he secured marriages for germanicuses and agropina's three daughters on a visit to the mainland and made money available from the treasury for loans to ease the financial pressure in 33 A.D created by enforcement of the usury laws again three years later in 36 A.D he would make money available through a commission to those affected by a fire on the Aventine Hill in Rome when trouble broke out in the east in 35 A.D despite not winning a resounding military Victory the matter was settled in Rome's favor when Tiberius instructed his commander in the area to make peace with Arthur barnas the arsakid prince But ultimately when historians such as swaytonez would come to record tiberius's reign in subsequent decades it was the political excesses of his later years and the free hand which he gave to Sir Janus while he lived in Exile on Capri which would be remembered in 37 A.D Tiberius fell ill and later died on the 16th of March at the age of 77. much has been made of his death and it has been speculated that there was some foul play but there is no conclusive evidence of this and it is likely that later accounts that he collapsed when he got out of bed after his servants failed to attend him is closer to the truth he was succeeded by germaricus and agrippina's only surviving son Gaia Caesar better known by the nickname he acquired in his youth Caligula the much anticipated succession of a member of germanicus's line proved disastrous the reign of this biological great-grandson of Augustus quickly descended into tyranny sadism and sexual depravity on the part of the third emperor of Rome he was quickly overthrown by the praetorian guard and killed in 41 A.D history has often condemned Tiberius but by the time he succeeded Augustus he was already old by Roman standards and had served Rome and the first princep Faithfully for many years he was a sound military leader and tactician winning a number of Victories during his career and was firm in his traditional and Republican values despite his military Valor he wouldn't lead the legions again after becoming Emperor his rule was fairly peaceful and focused on consolidation of existing borders as Augustus had advised rather than on costly new conquests likely somewhat reluctant to Bear the burden of rule he was devoted to the precepts of Augustus and strove to uphold them even when they conflicted with his own beliefs it was to that end that he attempted to restore some semblance of the old Republican Senate but far from empowering the Senate the methods he used to try to bring them to their own decisions often cause confusion and were ultimately Hollow following his retirement he rarely strayed from his Palace at Capri making the Senate's job that much harder but tiberius's early years can be seen as fair and just he quashed many trials and paid little attention to the words of others but in later years would be enough to condemn them and was also generous when Public Welfare was at stake there is also little credibility to the suggestion that he had garamonicas killed with the death of his son drewsus the younger there was a marked change in Tiberius though he was still able to exercise clear judgment on some matters his increased suspicions of those around him no doubt fueled by The Whispers of sujanus became a blight on his rule though he wasn't concerned with his popularity amongst the people he never held their favor instead the reflection for demonicus and his line only increased his paranoia and suspicious nature driving him further into isolation and also further under the influence of sujanus however we must be wary of accepting the accounts of Roman historians such as swetonius too blindly when assessing rulers like Tiberius swaytonius depicted Tiberius as a tyrant of sorts but his work was biased by a desire to prove that the Imperial Crown would become tyranus when it descended through a hereditary family line rather than by one Emperor choosing a qualified successor such as was the case during sweet tonius's own time of writing upon sir janus's fall there was seemingly no return to reason and many fell victim to the trials and cruelty that followed as Tiberius increasingly saw himself surrounded by enemies whether real or imagined though he cannot be called a tyrant his actions in later years were far removed from the man he had been and it is ultimately this rather than his earlier actions that he is remembered for what do you think of Emperor Tiberius Caesar Augustus was he a competent and fair albeit reluctant ruler who would have been remembered for his virtues and generous Deeds had he not been targeted by an ambitious agitator or was he indeed a cruel and tyrannical ruler as some Roman historians claim whose true nature was only exposed in his later years please let us know in the comments section and in the meantime thank you very much for watching The Man known to history as Emperor Caligula was born on the 31st of August 12 A.D in the Italian town of antium his father germanicus was born in 15 BC the nephew of the future Emperor Tiberius he rose to command the legions in Germany and hold the consulship twice he was popular with the soldiers and people of Rome alike and was brought into the line of succession at augustus's request through his adoption by Tiberius following his campaigns in Germany germanicus was sent to the east by Tiberius where he later died in 1980. his mother agrippina the Elder was born in 14 BC and was the daughter of Julia and her second husband a gripper and granddaughter of Augustus she married guermanicus and they had nine children two died in infancy and one in early childhood in the end only four of her children would outlive her like her husband she was popular with the troops and with the people of Rome which caused an Ever widening Rift between her and Tiberius until she was eventually exiled in 29 A.D and subsequently starved to death in 33 A.D born as Gaius Caligula spent his first years in Italy spending some of the time within augustus's household when germanicus left for Germany in 13 A.D and was joined by agrapina Gaius was sent to join them by Augustus in 14 A.D beginning the journey in may he quickly became favored by the legions and they nicknamed him Caligula or Little Boots owing to the soldiers boots he wore as part of his miniature legionary uniform that his mother dressed him in for his part Caligula is said to have helped put down the Mutiny among the legions in 14 A.D as when agropina was instructed to carry him to safety to a nearby tribal settlement it shamed the soldiers and peace was restored the soldiers asked that both agropina and Caligula returned to Camp garimonicus agreed that Caligula could return but his mother would remain absent for the remainder of her current pregnancy Caligula likely remained in the camp until harmonicas returned to Rome in 17 A.D where he celebrated a Triumph and Caligula Road in his father's Chariot during the procession along with his four siblings when germanicus was appointed to command in the East agrapina and Caligula accompanied him the journey LED them through the provinces where they were received warmly their progress resembling a triumphal procession arriving in Asos in modern day Turkey in 18 A.D Caligula at only five years old was said to have made his first speech it is likely that when germanicus visited Egypt in 1980 that Caligula accompanied his parents when germaricus died later that year on their return Caligula was part of the procession alongside his mother that brought kiermonicas's ashes back to Rome arriving in Italy in 20 A.D little of his education or other matters pertaining to Caligula's early years unknown it is likely that his education would have followed that of other children of the senatorial class and while his brother's Nero Caesar and Bruce's Caesar assumed their places within the succession at this point in time it seems that Caligula didn't figure into tiberius's plan it was during these intervening years that sir Janus Rose to power favored by Tiberius relations between agropina and the emperor continued to sour and following the death of tiberius's son drusus the younger in 23 A.D his suspicion of her and those around her grew in 27 A.D Tiberius had grown so suspicious of both agropina and her eldest son Nero caesar no doubt fueled by the maneuvers of sajanas that they were both placed under house arrest which led to Caligula and two of his sisters Drusilla and lavilla being moved to live in their great grandmother Olivia's household his other sister agrapina the younger was betrothed by Tiberius two dimitius ahinobarbus shortly after in 28 A.D during one of tiberius's returns to the mainland following his retirement from Rome when Olivia died in 29 A.D it was Caligula who delivered her funeral oration following Livia's death Caligula and his sisters were taken into the household of his grandmother Antonia the daughter of Marc Anthony Antonia was well connected throughout the Eastern provinces and it was while staying with her that Caligula began his lasting friendships with three princes of Thrace it has been posited that it was whilst living with his grandmother that his incest with Drusilla began however modern interpretations of the evidence now suggest that while Caligula was close to his sister the charge of incest amounts to little more than slander how much contact Caligula had had with his mother and brothers in the previous two years is unknown however at the same time that they were brought into Antonio's household Tiberius had both Caligula's mother and elder brother Nero Caesar exiled and the following year saw the imprisonment of his brother Drew's Caesar with the machinations of sajanas in full swing by 30 A.D Antonio wrote to Tiberius although the contents of the letter are unknown it seems to have had an effect on Tiberius and towards the end of the year he summoned Caligula tacaprio the island he'd retired to some years earlier later than usual at 18 years old Caligula assumed the toga vireless but without the Honors that many of his predecessors had enjoyed on their assumption it may also have been at this point but Tiberius began to turn against sajanas and the possibility that Caligula may have become the next Target of his schemes against germanicus's family is not out of the question however it has also been suggested that in essence Caligula given his popularity as a son of germanicus was to serve as something of a hostage and ensure he couldn't be used against Tiberius perhaps even providing a stabilizing effect for tiberius's position given the bad feeling directed towards those who were perceived as complicit in the downfall of Gary monicus's family early in 31 A.D Caligula was granted a priesthood on the recommendation of Tiberius it is not known for sure what Caligula felt in 33 A.D when his brother Joseph Caesar was starved to death followed shortly thereafter by the death of his mother whatever he felt he kept to his own Council and didn't allow himself to be drawn into making complaints or speaking out against Tiberius in fact it has been suggested that given the emperor's feeling toward the other members of the family Caligula adapted his behavior depending on the situation to avoid invoking the anger of Tiberius evidently Caligula succeeded in his attempt to keep him on site and although he cannot be said to have won tiberius's affection neither did he do anything to provoke suspicion in the same year as the deaths of his brother and mother Caligula held his first public office as questor when he was still below the required minimum age and was granted the concession to hold offices five years before meeting the age requirements and although suggested for the position of auger was instead promoted to the higher Priestly College of the pontiffs later that year Tiberius arranged his marriage to Junior claudilla at antium but the marriage didn't last as she died in childbirth the following year following the death of his first wife Caligula possibly became involved in an affair with Enya the wife of the prefect macro the primary accounts differ in their explanations of how the affair began but each paints a picture of the character of Caligula that is typically known today however once again some Modern re-examinations of the evidence suggest that while both macro and Enya were initially favored by Caligula and played their part in helping to secure his future succession it is unlikely that an actual Affair took place by 35 A.D the succession had not been settled by Tiberius who was by now in his mid-70s it was in this year that he composed his will but did not definitively set out who was to succeed him instead it seems the matter was left open as he equally divided the Imperial assets between his grandson gimulus and Caligula many historians have suggested that this signaled tiberius's wish that they become the joint heirs but as neither Contender was officially designated as the next Emperor it is likely that Tiberius was somewhat conflicted with the choice and tacitus's accounts that the emperor could not summon the strengths to make a decision is most plausible it has also been suggested that Tiberius feared for the safety of gemalis at the hands of Caligula which may have hindered him in making a final decision it was in 36 A.D that Caligula came into contact with Julius Agrippa sometimes known as Herod agripper grandson of Herod the Great who received permission to visit capriif from Tiberius Agrippa was supposed to have become a companion for gamalus but instead sought favor with Caligula he flattered Caligula extolling that he would make a better Emperor than Tiberius and when his words were later reported to Tiberius he was arrested Caligula however faced no repercussions by the time Tiberius died in March 37 A.D in mycena the question of the succession was still open once again the primary accounts of Caligula differ but all suggest that he played a role in the emperor's death alongside the praetorian prefect macro although none of the claims can be substantiated whatever his involvement or lack thereof the praetorians took matters into their own hands and proclaimed Caligula imperato on the same day that Tiberius died and two days later when the Senate declared their own allegiance to Caligula they declared tiberus's will null and void due to the uncertain state of the deceased Emperor's mind even before reaching the city word was sent by Caligula the Julius Agrippa should be released from imprisonment into house arrest Caligula accompanied the body back to Rome arriving almost two weeks after the death at the end of March where he was greeted by joyous crowds the Senate then officially conferred the power of the principate to Caligula which he accepted only refusing the title of Pata patri which he would accept later in the year Caligula was now Emperor at just 24 and while as a son of germanicus he held the popularity of the people unlike those who would otherwise have succeeded Tiberius he had no preparation for the position in either governing or military command despite the Senate declaring tiberus's will as null and void one of Caligula's first acts as Emperor saw him announce that he would honor the bequests of payment that Tiberius had made to the people and army however despite communicating with the Senate before his arrival in Rome asking that Tiberius be deified the motion was rejected and Caligula didn't pursue it he also pronounced an end to the maestas trials that is those trials dealing with claims against the Roman State people or Emperor which had plagued the last years of tiberus's Reign proclaiming that any exiled or imprisoned victims of the trials would be given their freedom and all the documents pertaining to the trials would be publicly burned he also promised to work with the Senate by this point Olivia had been dead for nine years and only now were her bequests granted by the new emperor having been refused by Tiberius Caligula also added some of his own grants which added to the wealth bestowed upon the praetorians and people of Rome and renewed the games which had been few and far between and recalled the actors who'd been banished from Rome under Tiberius soon after he delivered the oration at tiberius's funeral but said very little about the deceased Emperor however early on he still had to deal with the parthians who had been causing trouble in the east in the last years of tiberius's Reign the parthians had been stopped in their Advance by the Syrian governor vitellius who had been instructed by Tiberius to make peace with them while still keeping a pro-roman ruler on the throne of Armenia which had always been a source of contention for the parthians the candidate for ruler under Tiberius mithradatis was recalled by Caligula to Rome and imprisoned and by not installing his own ruler made a concession to peace with the parthians although it went against the Augustin policy Caligula also sent set out to honor his family members and travel to the islands where his mother and eldest brother had died he gathered their remains with his own hands and returned them to Rome via ostia where they were carried through the crowded City to augustus's Mausoleum and interred within the procession taking on the style of a Triumph a raft of honors followed for members of his family September was renamed after germanicus coins were minted to honor his brothers Nero and rusas and statues of them were displayed in the city he also laid out a decree that an image of his mother agrapina would accompany future processions and funeral sacrifices and that games in her honor would take place each year he then turned to the remaining living members of the family Antonio was granted the title of Augusta the same title Olivia had borne during her life his three sisters were made honorary Vestal virgins although without the requirement of Chastity they were also to be included in the oath of Allegiance sworn to the emperor and were to be allowed to sit in the emperor's box during games at the circus to his uncle Claudius he allowed him to take his first steps into Political life which Tiberius had refused when he was designated to serve as Caligula's colleague as Consul he then adopted gemales allowing him to assume the toga vireless and granted him the title of princeps inventutus effectively making him Caligula's Heir but he went further still forbidding all honors for himself including the displaying of statues in His image within the city it was around this time that Julius Agrippa was formally released by Caligula and was rewarded by being granted part of his grandfather herod's territory comprising trachonitis golanitas and Britannia that had been under the purview of the governor of Syria since the death of the tetrarch Philip a few years earlier Agrippa was named as king and the funds that had been kept aside from the territories under Tiberius were granted to him there is some suggestion that he may also have received the territory of Abilene at this time another friend of the emperor Antiochus had his father's territory of comma Jean returned to him which had been brought into the Empire as a province by Tiberius Caligula took up his first consulship on the 1st of July 37 A.D thereby allowing the previous consoles to serve their full term when he assumed the office he gave a speech in the Senate criticizing and announcing tiberius's actions he also made changes to the way he would be formally greeted in public leg dispensing with the customary greeting the consulship lasted just a couple of months but during this time Caligula dedicated the Temple of Augustus of which construction had begun during tiberius's Reign to celebrate the dedication a great banquet and lavish gains were held approximately 800 animals were killed in the arena for the entertainment of the people there were also chariot races and Caligula himself appeared driving a triumphal Chariot both he and Claudius held the consulship for only two months before resigning to allow those next designated for the position to take up the role for the remainder of the year despite lacking the experience and age of his predecessors Caligula performed the role of Emperor well in the early months ingratiating himself with the wealthy and plebeian classes alike however his success cannot all be attributed to himself for macro and his former father-in-law solanus seemed to have been instrumental in guiding him seeming to strengthen their own positions within his regime but soon after resigning the consulship disaster struck and Caligula fell ill sometime around September or October 37 A.D and came close to death however it is unknown what Afflicted him the people of Rome was said to be grieved by the news and nightly Gatherings around the Palatine were observed Caligula had no children but had adopted gamalus and so macro and silanas in an attempt to avert a succession Crisis began to make moves to ensure that should the emperor die gemilis would succeed him but it seems that Caligula had other their ideas it has long been asserted that of his three sisters it was Drusilla whom Caligula favored the most and had grown close to her second husband emilius lepidus while still sick he chose Drusilla to inherit and while a woman couldn't succeed him her husband could Caligula recovered and immediately set out to remove gemales who was accused of plotting against the emperor gimulus was forced to commit suicide but not before being instructed on how to do it but the soldiers sent to see it done another incident that took place shortly after his recovery tells of his attitude towards would-be flatterers when he ordered two men who had sworn Oaths for his recovery to carry out their words one had offered his own death in place of caligulas the other had sworn to fight as a gladiator if the emperor recovered there is some disagreement however whether the two men actually died or were merely submitted to the humiliations of their attended ordeals there is some dispute on the exact sequence but shortly after Caligula recovered solanus fell from his favor his right to vote in the Senate first was rescinded when Caligula changed the procedure and there is some suggestion that solanus remaining in Rome while Caligula traveled to recover his family's remains aroused his suspicions thinking that silanas wished to take over should the emperor not return from the sea Voyage whatever the true cause of his fall solanus took matters into his own hands and committed suicide then early in 38 A.D Caligula moved against macro Who was appointed as the prefect of Egypt and was replaced as praetorian prefect by two men instead of one of whom only Marcus aracenus Clements is named as Augustus had done during his Reign but macro never made it to Egypt and it has been suggested by one historian that the appointment was merely a deception similar to that that Tiberius had engineered against sujanus primary source is a test that charges were laid against macro and his wife Enya and they both committed suicide it was in the midst of these first deaths that Caligula remarried late in 37 A.D to Libya or estilla who was already engaged at the time but like his first marriage it didn't last when they divorced a short time later Livia was banished from Rome sometime following the divorce although the date is uncertain for the moment the business of ruling the Empire continued as normal the New Year Oaths were sworn in 38 A.D but tiberius's decrees were excluded and his ban on historical writings were rescinded by Caligula he also took the step of publishing the Empire's accounts which had been suppressed during tiberius's Reign he made changes within the justice system adding a fifth panel of senatorial judges to hear cases and reducing the number he would hear himself Caligula also made reforms within the equestrian class allowing new members to be admitted including men from among the provinces since reductions made during tiberius's Reign had put a stop to new entrance and those deemed suitable could Advance further still to hold a position in the Senate but Caligula went further still abolishing the sales tax across Italy that had been introduced by Augustus and continued under Tiberius benefiting the lower classes he also returned the election of magistrates the people which Tiberius had given over to the Senate as per augustus's wishes he held lavish games going so far as to have the floor removed from the scepter and flooding it so Naval battles could be staged given the popularity of his policies early on the Senate granted him a number of honors including giving the first day of his Reign the title of Parilla which had come to be associated with the founding of Rome Tiberius died leaving a particularly healthy Imperial treasury which Caligula made full use of during his tenure Banquets in Rome were customary among the upper class and reused as a method of displaying wealth and tastes as well as affording appropriate status to the attendees amongst their peers via their positions on the banqueting couches however Caligula who had no precedent from either Tiberius or Augustus on how formal Imperial Banquets should proceed flouted the wealth of the Empire holding a string of opulent Banquets where tradition was pushed aside in order to give his favorites including his sisters positions of Honor around the table it is said that at one of these Banquets he drank vinegar in which pearls had been dissolved and that food would be served covered in Gold Leaf in outrageous displays of wealth in another affronto tradition and despite the earlier warnings of macro about etiquette Caligula invited guests that many would deem suitable such as the charioteer uticus whom he gifted with 2 million sisters but despite his affront to tradition early in his role it was still deemed an honor to be invited to Caligula's Banquets but his spending didn't stop at Banquets Caligula himself was a great fan of gladiatorial games and theatrical performances he frequented the circus Maximus spending much time with the team of the green faction but would also spend time in the company of actors and mimes one mime in particular monaster would later be called Caligula's lover given the amount of time they spent in each other's company rules surrounding entertainment were relaxed and under Caligula men of the aristocracy of Rome acted in the performances something that had been prohibited under his predecessors the frequency of games and performances increased dramatically during his rule whereas they had been hugely scaled back into Tiberius it seems that Caligula with his own love of the popular entertainments indulged at every opportunity he was even known to train and fight with Gladiators he also extended the saturnalia festival to five days however as much of the entertainment was provided by elected pretors it was the senatorial class who came under the burden of most of the expenses rather than the Emperor as well as lavish entertainment Caligula embarked on both public and private building projects which had been much curtailed under Tiberius although most would be unfinished by the time of his death of the public buildings he began where an Amphitheater the aqua Claudia and anionovus aqueducts and a harbor at regium as well as dedicating the theater of Pompey which alongside the construction of the Temple of Augustus had been in the process of renovation under Tiberius but he also wasn't afraid to build for his own pleasure either on the Vatican Hill he built his own stadium for Chariot racing no known as the guyanum and began extensive extensions to the palace on the Palatine on the 10th of June 38 A.D Drusilla Caligula's favorite sister died unexpectedly his grief was immense and when she was granted a public funeral he was unable to attend due to the depth of his grief her eulogy instead being delivered by her husband lepidus Caligula left Rome first making for his Villa at Alba before traveling to Campania and then to Sicily all the while letting his hair and beard go uncut as a sign of his grief a period of mourning for her was decreed and observed in Rome and other parts of the Empire such as Egypt those that didn't observe the morning period may have risked conviction as well as receiving the same honors as Libya after death whose own morning period was not subject to suspension of business she was terrified by the Senate and a statue erected to her in the temple of Venus she was also to receive her own Temple and College of priests she was to be part of the Oaths sworn by any woman and was to be known throughout the cities of the Empire as Panthea or all goddess Caligula even bowed to the flattery of one who announced he had seen Drusilla Ascend to the heavens and should be struck down if he was lying to which Caligula rewarded him with a handsome son elaborate two-day games were to be held for her each year on her birthday following her death these honors although many were not extraordinary in themselves only that they went to a woman who was of so little political consequence in the months following drusilla's death and his return to Rome Caligula married for the third time although the exact date is unknown his wife lolia Paulina was a woman of immense wealth through inheritance who at one of the more modest Banquets supposedly wore Jewels worth 40 million sisters when Caligula first sought her as a bride she was already married to the governor of moesia Macedonia and archaea Publius memius regulus a man of more modest means he agreed to divorce his wife and supposedly gave her in marriage to Caligula himself towards the end of 38 A.D Caligula granted further territories this time to the thracian princess rheumatelsis polymon II and kotis whom he had known since his time in Antonia's household they be granted Thrace pontus and lesser Armenia respectively which had been under Roman governance since the death of their Mother cotis King of Thrace in 1980 it was around the same time that the governor of Egypt Alice alvilius flasis was recalled and arrested although the exact charges are unknown throughout the year they had been unrest in Alexandria between the Greeks and Jews but tensions diffused somewhat with the removal of the governor flasis was condemned to Exile and had his property confiscated lepidus however intervened and ensured a more comfortable Exile than had been intended Caligula began his second consulship on the 1st of January 39 A.D colleague by Lucius apronius cesianis and while apronius completed the sixth month term Caligula resigned the position after only 30 days whereby he was replaced by San quinnius Maximus but it was in 39 A.D that things started to change although the sources are vague for the months following Caligula's resignation from the consulship a conspiracy involving former consoles against the emperor was discovered the cases went through the court and the conspirators condemned under maestas although we are not provided with their name a number of others were then tried for corruption for the misuse of funds relating to Road repairs stretching back into tiberius's Reign five other trials of senators are recorded for the time including that of Seneca of which three resulted in death or suicide only Seneca and the orator domitius Arthur is escaped condemnation however the wholesale Slaughter of the Senators by Caligula at this time has been dismissed for lack of evidence in modern interpretations of the available sources Caligula wasn't finished with the Mata though and addressed the Senate where he denounced their treatment of Tiberius and placed the blame on them rather than the former Emperor for the many deaths that had accompanied the maestas trials in the last years of his Reign information on the individuals that had fallen victim to the trials were recounted and here Caligula revealed his hand as much of what was spoken came from the documents that were supposed to have been burned but he went on rebuking the senate for the hypocrisy in the way in which they spoke to him presenting him with honors and then conspiring behind his back at the end of his speech he reinstated the maastus trials and left the Senate having made his position as ruler clear the following day the Senate responded in the only way they could praising him as as a Pious sincere ruler voting that annual sacrifices should be offered in lieu of his clemency on the anniversary of his speech and granting him an ovation practicing the same flattery Caligula had criticized them for and so it would continue for a Time Caligula now began to exploit the tradition of friendship that existed between members of the aristocracy the Senate were under No Illusion his speech had made it clear what the emperor thought of them but Caligula held the power and for the moment at least they had no choice but to comply a resolution was passed through the Senate whereby all those that had named Tiberius in their will must now change it to name Caligula instead but this wasn't all Caligula gave large sums as gifts to force the recipients to make even larger gifts to him which in some cases forced people into debt furthermore when Caligula put his own Gladiators up for auction his presence at the event caused their prices to rise as those present felt obliged to bid he is even said to have caused a ponius saturniness to bid 9 million sisters for 13 Gladiators when Caligula drew the auctioneer's attention to the man nodding in his sleep which was taken to mean he was bidding one of the most notorious acts which Caligula is known for is wanting to make his horse a console and both ancient and modern historians have used this example to highlight his supposed insanity but there is another explanation following the discovery of the conspiracy Caligula had not been shy in expressing his feelings towards the members of the Senate and thus far had employed fiscal humiliation tactics he is said to have invited his favorite racehorse in sitatus to Banquets where he would eat food made of gold and was served with golden dinner services but Caligula was also supposed to have had a fine marble stall constructed for him a Manger of ivory to hold his food and purple blankets before being given a palace staff and a dinner service so that he could entertain guests in the proper way by presenting incitatus with the accoutrements of aristocracy and stating his intentions to make him a Consul Caligula was made making a joke at their expense but also showing that power laid with him and ultimately he would appoint who he liked to be console at the same time although the date is uncertain Caligula ended his third marriage divorcing his wife lollia at the time he stated the reason that she was Barren however keeping with their negative narrative the sources state that this was just an excuse and he was in fact tired of her however later accounts from claudius's Reign give Credence to lollia's infertility a short time later during the summer of 39 A.D a child named Julia Drusilla was born to melonia cizonia a woman of proven fertility who already had three daughters Caligula married melonia following the birth possibly on the same day although once again the timeline is uncertain milonia was already pregnant by the time Caligula divorced lollia and while there isn't any question that Caligula was the father he reportedly carried the child to the capital Line Temple and placed her on the Statue of Jupiter confirming her paternity and then on that of Minerva giving her education over to the goddess but Caligula also used the opportunity of Julia's birth when he discussed the expenses of being a father which forced members of the aristocracy to offer monetary gifts or risk a public demonstration of their lack of friendship to the emperor throughout the first half of the Year planning was underway for a campaign in Germany including the raising of two new Legions but at the same time another plot against Caligula was being developed among the conspirators were lepidus and both of the emperor's sisters having been all but excluded from the succession with the birth of Caligula's child the commander of upper Germany guide tullicus who had held his position since 29 A.D as well as the Suffolk consuls were also involved and it is said that the plot was known of by many within the Senate the plot was betrayed although it is unknown by whom but not all of the conspirators were immediately unmasked Caligula moved first against the consuls removing them from office and having their fasces or rods of Office Broken this led to one of the unnamed consuls committing suicide and dimitius Arthur and owlis didias Galas being appointed by Caligula to replaced the disgraced consoles it is likely around this time that Caligula also took the decision to divide the province of Africa in two and remove the last Legion stationed there from the control of the Senate command passing from the senatorial position of proconsul to the control of an imperial Leggett thus restricting senatorial military commands he then traveled to Umbria but stayed only a short while and going against the planning for the campaign started without warning the journey to Germany at an unrelenting Pace his sisters and lepidus among the retinue although the sources are somewhat unreliable recent attempts have been made to produce a coherent account of the events surrounding the conspiracy and campaign it has been suggested that Caligula suspecting italicus left Umbria without warning in order to surprise the commander thereby giving him no time to prepare to stand against him gaitolicus was executed and replaced by General galba at the same time his sisters and levitus's complicity came to light lepidus was executed and both sisters exiled while he paid the soldiers for their loyalty and supposedly sent the swords that were to have been used against him back to Rome to be offered in the temple of Mars ultor he informed the Senate by letter of the plot and forbade the granting of any future honors to his relatives a number of Trials also took place for members of the Senate who had links to the conspirators involved in the plot and others such as the future Emperor Vespasian were forced to denounce the actions of those evolved as with the first conspiracy earlier that year the Senate granted an ovation for Caligula but this backfired on them when they chose Claudius to lead the delegation that set out to deliver the news as their choice went directly against Caligula's prohibition of honors for his family most of the delegation were dismissed back to Rome before reaching the emperor and only a few including Claudius were allowed to attend him although not without hostility on Caligula's part following this mistake by the Senate Caligula then forbade them to Grant any future honors to him under guy talicus the Army had become lacks and had failed to Halt German incursions into Gaul now it fell to Caligula to correct things he reduced the amount paid on completion of service and discharged many centurions due to their age and poor physical condition dishonorable discharges went to a number of commanders who when redeployed to Germany were thought to have delayed matters waiting on the outcome of the conspiracy galba was rewarded for his loyalty with a commendation and the task of restoring the army of the upper Rhine to an effective Force similarly the commander of the lower Rhine Army apronius was replaced by Publius gabinius secundus due to his familial connections with gaitolicus and a record of defeats given the lateness of the Season little in the way of actual military campaign took place at the end of 39 A.D however those small engagements that did take place resulted in Victory for the Roman army galba was successful in pushing back the enemy and Vespasian put a proposal to the Senate to hold games celebrating Caligula's victory in Germany Caligula wintered in Lyon where it appears he took account of the tax rolls Dio suggests that to pay for the campaign he ordered that the Richer inhabitants of Gore be executed and their wealth confiscated however this scenario is likely another attempt of an ancient historian to distort the interpretation of the situation to suit his own bias against Caligula as it is known that at this time Caligula auctioned off the entirety of his sister's households he then went further ordering that many of the valuable possessions accumulated under Augustus and Tiberius throughout the Imperial household should also be auctioned in Gaul serving to raise Caligula's profile by allowing those in Gaul to acquire objects connected with the prestige of Rome the town of Lyon gained from the emperor's visit as it benefited from games and theatrical performances put on at Caligula's expense while Leon enjoyed the festivities provided by the emperor the inhabitants of the nearby town of Vienna modern-day vien France were granted Roman citizenship at the beginning of 40 A.D Caligula took up his third consulship but given his absence from Rome the Senate fearing recriminations of acting on his behalf delayed all business until they heard from him on the 12th of January they received word from the emperor that he was resigning the consulship business commenced with sacrifices to Caligula in the temple on the capital and prostrations before the empty Throne then in The Courier the Senators offered praise and prayers for the young Emperor shortly after the new consuls had taken up their positions another letter arrived from Caligula which led to the dedication and erection of statues for both the emperor and Drusilla the events early in 40 A.D are still subject to much debate as no definitive answers can be gleaned from the sources rather than setting out to conquer further Germanic territory The Campaign on the Rhine continued in a defensive capacity following Caligula's reorganization within the ranks under the leadership of galba Caligula then set out supposedly with his sights set on an invasion of Britain however we cannot state with certainty that he intended to invade Britain at this time given that the Rhine Frontier although in a better position than it had been under guy talicus was not yet secure it has been suggested on the one hand that Caligula set out on a military procession from the Rhine towards the channel where on arrival he officially received the exiled adminius from Britain and accepted his surrender the order to collect seashells was given as part of the victory celebrations and they were taken back to Rome and displayed as part of his Triumph and a donative paid to the soldiers on the other hand there is a suggestion that the legion's mutinied on the shore refusing to make the crossing to Britain and they were then ordered to collect shells as a humiliating punishment given the lack of details and biased nature of the sources these suggestions are the more plausible among the many profit but neither can be proved with certainty Caligula then turned back for Rome and was met Part Way by a delegation from the Senate who urged him to hurry back to the capital perhaps in no small part caused by the foil conspiracy his feelings towards the senate had not improved and he is purported to have uttered the words to the effect that he was coming back and so was this tapping the hilt of his sword going further still he forbade the Senate from coming out to meet him on his return to the city around this point there was also a change in those he surrounded himself with now only in public would he still be accompanied by members of the Senate and aristocracy as a whole his wife and both praetorian prefects were among his confidants but he now chose Freed Man such as callistus and protegenis and the slave Helicon over Senators as part of his inner circle further severing relations with them on the way to Rome it is likely that Caligula met with the client King Ptolemy of Mauritania having been summoned by the emperor while he was absent Ptolemy was arrested and imprisoned in Rome for a time before being executed a number of reasons have been put forward for the execution one is that Caligula took offense at the purple robes he wore another is the Caligula wanted ptolemy's wealth or perhaps Ptolemy had in some way been involved in the plot against the emperor through a familial association with gaiteligus however as with so much of Caligula's Reign no one reason can be stated with any certainty if any are true at all while it seems that Ptolemy had not been hugely favored amongst his people his execution did spark a Revolt by his loyal elements which was not fully put down until 42 A.D under Claudius Caligula didn't enter the city immediately on his return it may have been at this time in The Gardens of agrapina where he met with the Jewish delegation led by Philo from Alexandria for the first time following the riots between them and the alexandrian Greeks although the timeline cannot be irrefutably confirmed partly out of concerns for his own safety amid a crowd and because he had forbidden honors from the Senate precluding a Triumph he turned from Rome and made his way south to his Villa near putioli modern-day podsworley where he planned to Stage his triumphant return by crossing the sea cargo ships were gathered from far and wide and set up in a double row across the three-mile span of the Gulf of Baye from putioli to baoli and were piled with Earth to form a solid Crossing Caligula supposedly wearing the breastplate of Alexander the Great made sacrifices to the gods and crossed the bridge from Bali accompanied by his troops the following day he made the return Crossing this time bringing a train of plundered items with him presumably from the north as well as his friends of the aristocracy troops and praetorians and supposedly they dined on a stage at the center of the bridge the celebration ended with many being thrown into the water while the bridge itself was attacked by ship-borne Rams with much of it being sunk some of those that went into the water drowned but others managed to pull themselves to safety there is uncertainty surrounding the exact date of the event many historians place it in accordance with Dio's account of 39 A.D before Caligula journeyed to the Rhine Frontier but others based on the accounts of Josephus and Seneca Place it a year later following Caligula's return from the north Caligula finally returned to Rome on the 31st of August 40 A.D his 28th birthday and received Innovation a number of Trials were instigated some of which fell under maestas Julius canis a stoic philosopher was sentenced to death likely by the senate for a possible connection to a conspiracy although for some such as the orator Julius gracinas reasons for trial and subsequent execution cannot be determined and few actual cases are named despite the assertion of the sources that Caligula was planning to eliminate much of the Senate and the Senators themselves once again began denouncing one another but not all of the trials resulted in executions when the senator pomponius was accused by another possibly of maestas his accuser called the freed Woman quintilia as a witness despite being tortured by the praetorian Tribune Cassius career she refused to reveal any information damning or exonerating alike when brought before Caligula following her ordeal he was touched by the lasting disfigurement inflicted upon her and released both quintilia and pomponius rewarding the freed woman with eight hundred thousand sisters as denunciations continued in a bid to prove loyalty to the emperor a third conspiracy came into being involving members of the aristocracy the son of a former Consul sextus papinius battilianes basus and Imperial questor and a third unnamed Senator were seized and executed after their plot was betrayed by the senator anisius cerealis who would meet his own end under the emperor Nero Caligula then exploited the feeling in the Senate following the discovery of the latest plot and in the next session granted impunity to the remaining members as there were few now that he was still ill-disposed towards but as likely intended his words caused further fear among the Senators for Caligula hadn't named those who still attracted his ire this led to Bloodshed in a later session Caligula didn't attend the session but protogenes the man tasked with keeping records on the Senators did when the senator scribonius proculus greeted him protogenes is reported to have replied with sharp words about the man's hatred for the emperor which provoked a response from the other Senators they set upon proculus and he was reportedly torn apart and his remains presented to Caligula for which he was reported to have shown pleasure following the death of proculus Caligula declared his reconciliation with the Senators who in turn voted festivals in his favor and issued a decree that he should sit on a high platform kept away from those who would approach him and would be allowed a military guard within the Senate now Caligula turned to a tactic of sajanas however and permitted slaves to bring charges against their masters so not only did the Leading Men of Rome have to guard their tongue in public lest they be denounced but now even their homes weren't safe from scrutiny as a consequence Claudius soon found himself denounced by one of his slaves and faced a trial although it is reported by Josephus the Caligula hoped for his uncle's execution a statement which cannot be proven either way the trial was dismissed without influence from the emperor one of the more notorious stories of Caligula is his opening of a brothel on the Palatine although we are not presented with a date for this apparent act however it has now been suggested that this was yet another way in which Caligula checked the behavior of the Senators and far from being a brothel was actually an extension of familiares the custom whereby favored members of the aristocracy lived within the palace this instance those women and children who were supposed to have been the prostitutes have been suggested to be the wives and children of those highest ranking consulers who were in a way Hostage to the Emperor their husbands and fathers thus compelled to repay the emperor with gifts for the honor bestowed on the family and a vowing to the supposed friendship between them other more overt attacks on the Senate now commenced from which no one was immune Caligula abolished the reserved seating for Senate and equestrians alike at theatrical performances leading to competition for seats which could become violent and force them to mix with plebs in the audience demeaning their status Claudius again was met with hostility when his vote in the Senate was demoted within the ranks so that he would be the last to vote in all matters not dissimilar to the treatment of silanus years earlier but going further Caligula targeted those old Republican families and decreed that their statues should be taken down from the Campus Martius and only he could decide whose statues and portraits were displayed those descendants of famous Republicans were also now denied the honors attached to their family including that of a great grandson of Pompey who was forbidden from using the title of the great within his name the humiliation continued further still Caligula took to offering his hand or foot to be kissed by members of the Senate and failed to return the gesture disdaining the symbolism of equality between them many times he would make the gesture to those of lower standing snubbing the well-respected and higher members completely and yet those that did receive public favor in this way still continued to offer their thanks openly sometime in mid to late 40 A.D following further unrest in the East this time in Judea Caligula announced that the imperial cult and a statue of himself should be set up in the temple of Jerusalem a move which has often been cited as evidence for his thinking that he was a god this act in fact was more likely in response to the destruction of an imperial altar at jamnia by the Jews during the unrest there is no evidence that Caligula actually considered himself a god since augustus's time the senate had often referred to the Emperors as Divine as part of their praising of deeds and both Augustus and Tiberius frequently refused such honors heaped upon them the same is true of the earlier part of Caligula's Reign it is only following the conspiracies when his attitude towards the Senate changed that Caligula permitted this type of veneration to himself and it has been suggested that it was yet another tactic he employed to humiliate the sentences in demonstrating their submissiveness rather than an official Cult of worship the Imperial cult in the provinces was an important reflection of provincial loyalty to Rome rather than a cult dedicated to the worship of the current Emperor although Divine ruler Cults existed elsewhere and had been prominent in the Hellenic regions again there is no suggestion that Caligula styled himself in this way and while he was known to have dressed as a number of gods and goddesses occasionally in public they should not be seen as his wish to be worshiped but instead as his attempt to publicly expose the hypocrisy of the Senate by their veneration of him while styled as a God by January of 41 A.D Caligula had finalized plans for an extended visit to Alexandria there is also a suggestion that he may have been planning to eventually move the capital to the city since the discovery of the third conspiracy Caligula's distrust among those in his inner circle had grown indeed basus's father capito had denounced those Aristocrats whom he still had associations with and his own aides as part of the conspiracy before he was executed the denunciations were dismissed but the seeds of Suspicion had been sown in Caligula and despite the protestations of his Freed Man callistus and the praetorian prefects that they were loyal Caligula was not convinced and this placed them in danger callistus and the prefix couldn't be the ones to assassinate Caligula themselves but as fear of possible future reprisals spread through the upper echelons of the praetorians Cassius queria a praetorian Tribune who had more contact with the emperor than most having been given the distasteful tasks of tax collection and torture and frequently made the butts of The Emperor's jokes is suggested to have proposed Caligula's assassination the plot then fell into place career seemed eager to see it done and brought another Tribune Cornelius sabinus on site however he was repeatedly put off from acting by the prefect Clements but finally the date was set for the 24th of January Caligula's departure for Alexandria was scheduled for the 25th Caligula spent the morning in the theater opening the performance with a sacrifice to Augustus before returning to the Palace later in the day separated from his Entourage that had accompanied him from the theater Caligula was now flanked by the two tribunes there are several differing accounts of the murder but most agree that it was kyria who struck the first blow before the emperor was set upon by Sabinas and a number of centurions Caligula's death was immediately followed by that of his wife and child at the hands of a Tribune by the name of lupus in the immediate aftermath of his death a number of conspirators were killed by members of the Imperial Germanic bodyguard within the palace while a search was instigated for others The Spectators in the theater were horrified at the news of the attack on the emperor and rumors were Rife some stating that the emperor wasn't dead at all only a short while later was it confirmed by arantius uristus the Caligula was indeed dead which quelled the Germanic bodyguard who'd surrounded the theater allowing The Spectators to leave arguments ensued over the future of the Empire amongst the Senate some going as far as to seek the restoration of the Republic but the following day the decision was taken out of their hands when the praetorian prefects declared Claudius as Emperor and soon the Senate followed suit confirming him in his position with the exception of Sabinas who committed suicide all the remaining assassins were then executed Caligula has been seen for many years as a mad and lustful Emperor but increasingly modern historians have re-evaluated the available primary sources and now suggest that many of the accounts were hostile towards him painting a picture of an insane tyrannical monster unfit to rule in their eyes muddling his deeds and projecting bad qualities of later Emperors onto him to suit their purpose rather than giving a true recounting of his short rule thereby biasing our own narratives of him a prime example of this can be seen during Caligula's time in Germany swetonius's accounts of the later Emperors galba and Vespasian point to small victories in Germany during the closing stages of 39 A.D but his writings on Caligula which completely failed to mention the foiled conspiracy distort his actions in the region painting a farcical picture of his time there rather than that of an emperor attempting to write a situation that had developed over the last decade similarly it has been well stated that having been left a healthy treasury by Tiberius Caligula bankrupted the Empire however in-depth modern examinations of fiscal activities during his Reign suggest that he in fact promoted sound economic policy and left the treasury in good condition despite his lavish spending as well as this for many years The Narrative of Caligula's incest with his three sisters has been propagated and is still thought of as true by a minority of historians today but but it is only in some of the later accounts such as suetonius rather than those of his contemporaries that this accusation is made similarly in an account of his sister agrapina by tacitus while he posits that she may have attempted incest with Nero nothing is mentioned of Caligula and so it is clear that these accusations should be seen as slander rather than truth Caligula's Reign began on a good note he was welcomed as the young Emperor to succeed the reviled Tiberius popular with the people and Senate alike and seemed to usher in a new era of cooperation and friendship Caligula in some way sought to emulate Augustus in the beginning painting himself as an equal to the Senate and promising to work with them his early policies benefited the populace and he instigated a program of public building that would benefit Roman years to come that had not been seen under his predecessor he also did much to assuage the fears of the aristocracy Banning the maestas trials that had become prevalent for much of the last decade and pardoning those still living that had fallen victim to them even following the deaths of gamelas selanus and macro he was seen as justified in his actions and remained popular with much of the populace and army until his death perhaps in part because of his own interests he repealed a number of time beerus's acts against entertainment and literature which were well received by all including the Senators for a time but change came following the discovery of the first conspiracy and Caligula's attitude towards the Senate and aristocracy as a whole soured becoming more hostile as time progressed and more inclined to rule without their input his attacks were subtle at first before becoming more overt resulting in public humiliations of many within the aristocracy and through their resentment the conspiracies continued to unfold only further worsening the relationships between them Caligula supposedly viewed the discomfort of those he targeted with a perverse humor feeling that they had brought everything on themselves and was unconcerned that his activities caused Financial or physical harm he took his actions to the extreme in exposing the hypocritical and submissive nature of the Senate and at the same time chipping away at their power which is made worse by the fact that they were the actions not of a Madman as many would have us believe but of a sane and calculating individual who ultimately sought to rule without the body that had held power in Rome for centuries what do you think of Emperor Caligula has he been rightly characterized by ancient and modern historians alike as an incompetent ruler and an insane Tyrant who lusted for the blood of those beneath him or is his reputation undeserved please let us know in the comment section and in the meantime The Man known to history as Emperor Claudius was born on the 1st of August 10 BC in lugdunum the principal city of the gallic province of lieutenensis his father Nero drusis brother to the emperor Tiberius was born on the 14th of January 38 BC the stepson of Augustus neurodruses was a capable military commander leading Alpine campaigns in Russia and vindalisia alongside Tiberius before taking up the governorship of Gaul in 13 BC following the death of Marcus Agrippa he led campaigns in Germany between 12 to 9 BC and it was here later in 9 BC where he died after an accident when his horse fell on him lingering for a time before passing with Tiberius at his sight for his successes in Germany he was posthumously awarded the title of germanicus his Mother Antonia daughter of Marc Anthony and Octavia augustus's sister was born on the 31st of January 36 BC married to Nero drusus by 16 BC they had several children of whom only germaricus Claudius and Olivia Julia survived following the death of Nero drusis she chose to remain unmarried for the rest of her life but remained a prominent figure in the Imperial family indeed it may have been a letter from her in 30 A.D the gave rise to the fall of tiberius's confidante sajanas although the contents of the letter are unknown as a child and young man it seems that Claudius was kept on the margins of the family because of his disability even his mother is supposed to have remarked that he was a monstrosity of a human being one that nature began and never finished there was no physical deformity he was well built but it seems that he was weak on his right side and walked with a limp sometimes exhibiting a shakiness in his hands and head and had a marked speech impediment as well as these physical manifestations he exhibited behavioral issues such as uncontrollable laughter inappropriate comments outbursts of anger which caused him to snarl but then apologize and an unusual sounding voice on some occasions when giving a speech his mind would one day if he strayed from the prepared text however Claudius was of a sound mind despite his obvious difficulties Claudius was a studious child and took an active in interest in his studies for even though he seems to have been a source of shame to some within the family he was still afforded an education befitting that of a patrician child he took an active interest in History Literature rhetoric language music maths and the law and although oratory was difficult for him when seated and using a prepared text he was well able to deliver a speech it is unclear exactly when claudius's disability was first apparent although it was quite likely early on in his life over the years several attempted diagnoses have been put forward for many cerebral palsy has been the accepted diagnosis however modern neurological studies of the available evidence on his condition have moved away from the traditional diagnosis and now suggest that Claudius may have suffered from a form of Gilda Tourette Syndrome or GTS much of the evidence for his condition comes from suertonius who it must be remembered was writing well after the death of Claudius and is not always a reliable source however from a neurological perspective of the described symptoms GTS is a better fit than the original diagnosis either in 5 or 6 A.D Claudius assumed that togetheris however unlike those that had gone before him he wasn't presented to the joyous crowds of the Forum and instead his ceremony took place at night away from watchful eyes even after taking the toga and formally stepping into manhood Claudius still found himself being supervised by a man he would later write about describing him as barbaric for his treatment of him similarly Claudius enjoyed few public appearances he did appear alongside germonicus at games honoring their deceased father but in 8 A.D only get a monicus is thought to have appeared at games Augustus held under both of their names Claudius studied history under Libby for a time and it was with the encouragement of the eminent historian that he wrote his own account of recent Roman history beginning with the assassination of Caesar the years of the second triumvirate were omitted when his grandmother Livia and his mother Antonia intervened so as not to give offense to Augustus before picking up to continue with augustus's Reign later he would also write other Histories on the Etruscans and carthaginians as the years went by the question of marriage arose Claudius was betrothed first to Emilia lepada daughter of Julia the younger but the betrothal was dissolved following Julia's disgrace his second betrothal was to the daughter of the consul of 8 A.D Marcus Furious Camillus the marriage would have gone ahead but for her death on the day of the wedding only after these two false starts did Claudius marry for the first time at some point in 9 to 10 A.D the daughter of the Elder Sylvanas who enjoyed the favor of Tiberius again although the date is not certain sometime in the first years of the marriage claudius's first son Claudius trusas was born at some point in 12 A.D Augustus and Tiberius gave serious consideration to whether Claudius should be given a public career prompted by an earlier question from Libya regarding claudius's role in the games of Mars held in May at the games themselves he presided over the banqueting Hall of the salian priests having been a member since infancy but under the supervision of another member his brother-in-law Marcus plotius Sylvanas however a career was ruled out and only when his disabilities could be hidden or held in check by those handed responsibility to supervise him was he to be given small roles following augustus's death in August of 14 A.D and perhaps frustrated at his lack of a career Claudius approached Tiberius to ask for a public role although which one is not known Tiberius denied his request and Claudius was only given an appointment within the priesthood of the cult of Augustus which conferred little Prestige and still denied him the career he sought furthermore when augustus's will was read Claudius although named was only a tertiary Heir and so inherited very little compared to the others but the following year Claudius tried again and was this time met with a rude refusal on tiberius's part under Tiberius there was no chance of Claudius having the public career he desired early in 20 A.D claudius's sister-in-law agrippina the Elder returned from Syria with germanikus's ashes landing at brandisium on the Adriatic Coast from there along with two praetorian cohorts they traveled across Italy and were met in tarachina by a small contingent from Rome which included Claudius when they arrived in Rome Claudius played a part in the ceremonies accompanying germonica's internment in augustus's mausoleum in June of the same year Tiberius announced the betrothal of Claudius drusis to the young daughter of the praetorian prefect sejanus Alia junilla the match was viewed with distaste by many but the wedding never took place as sometime after the betrothal Claudius trucis died he was said to have asphyxiated to death when he choked on a pair after throwing it into the air and catching it in his mouth the date of his death has traditionally been placed in 20 A.D but there are some that disagree and suggest suggested may have occurred around 23 A.D Claudius had a second child with plotier a daughter Claudia however shortly before he divorced plotia on the grounds of adultery and complicity in Murder he disowned the girl claiming she had been fathered by a Freed Man a number of dates have been suggested for these events ranging from before 20 A.D to 27 A.D by 28 A.D Claudius had married for the second time to Alia patina a relative of sajanas this marriage produced a daughter Claudia Antonia although he didn't divorce his second wife immediately following sir janus's fall in 31 A.D as many sought to distance themselves from any association with the man Claudius did play a small public role in bringing the thanks of the equestrians to the consuls for dealing with the traitor it may have been his enforced Life as a private citizen that led to his drinking and gambling both of which he was known to be fond of throughout his life he frequently had to be helped from Banquets at the end of the evening due to his drunkenness finally in 37 A.D things look to be turning around for Claudius when at 45 years old he was designated as Caligula's colleague for the Suffolk consulship Claudius and Caligula took office on the 1st of July 37 A.D allowing the previous consoles to serve their full terms in the position in order to allow the previously designated suffect consoles to assume their positions both the emperor and Claudius resigned the consulship after only two months on the 31st of August however produce's Mother Antonia wouldn't live to see her son take his first position as console as she died on the 1st of May although he likely inherited more substantially from her than he had from either Augustus or Tiberius still Claudius was not as wealthy as many of his peers and at times was forced to borrow money or sell property to raise funds one further event that would hold future implications occurred at the close of 37 A.D when the future emperor Nero was born at antium on the 15th of December the Caligula's sister agropina and domitius ahinobarbus their only child after nine years of marriage although the date is unknown by 38 A.D Claudius had divorced Alia although not because of Any Scandal as with his first wife either in 38 A.D or early 39 A.D Claudius married for a third time to Valeria messalina his first cousin once removed on his mother's side messalina's higher standing in society which better suited claudius's elevated position under Caligula has been stated as a possible reason for the divorce from Alia it was either in 39 A.D or early 40 A.D the claudius's fourth child a daughter by messalina Claudia Octavia was born in 39 A.D Caligula made a move against members of the Senate when the second conspiracy of that year was uncovered the emperor then set out with some haste to the Rhine Frontier where another key man within the conspiracy the commander of upper Germany gaitelicus was stationed and he swiftly removed him before dealing with members of his family and Close Associates that were amongst the conspirators Caligula reported his actions to the Senate and forbade all honors henceforth for any member of his family perhaps because of claudius's lack of power within the senate or because they felt he posed little threat he was chosen to lead a delegation of senators to bring the news of the Ovation voted to Caligula for his suppression of the conspiracy upon hearing what the senate had done Caligula dismissed most of the delegation before they reached him Claudius and a few others were allowed to continue but were received with hostility by the emperor when Caligula returned to Rome later in 40 A.D and continued with his campaign against the Senators Claudius was not excluded having proclaimed that as with the later years of tiberius's Reign slaves could denounce their masters claudus found himself facing a trial for a capital charge when he was denounced by his slave polyducis although the exact charge is not specifically stated the trial was dismissed without Caligula's intervention Claudius found himself further humiliated by Caligula when as a Consul his vote was demoted to come last on all motions by January 41 A.D a new conspiracy against Caligula had formed but unlike the three that had come before this one succeeded Caligula was assassinated on the 24th of January 41 A.D by the praetorian Tribune's Cassius Korea and Cornelius Sabinas along with a number of centurions and for a short time the empire was without an emperor Caligula's only child a daughter along with her mother had been killed immediately after Caligula and so there were no clear plans for succession but this quickly changed Claudius who had accompanied Caligula from the theater but separated from him once in the palace was found hiding in a room by the praetorian guard Gratis he was quickly proclaimed as imperator by the guard and escorted to their Barracks at the vimino gate although the praetorians had made up their mind as to the succession the senate had not almost straight away they began debating the succession with a few going so far as to call for the restoration of the Republic and it has been suggested that Claudius was declared An Enemy of the State in the midst of the debate two envoys were sent by the Senate to Claudius to deliver a warning against attempting a coup and among other things to invite him to the session to give his view Claudius replied that he was detained at the barracks and could not attend some Senators meanwhile saw themselves in a position to elect the new emperor when the Senate convened again that night despite having only 100 of its members and a number of men put themselves forward as candidates however as the night wore on claudius's backing was increasing the Loyalty of the praetorians had been secured with the promise of large donations the people already backed him and now the urban cohorts deserted the Senate and went over to him it has even been suggested that King Agrippa gave Claudius his backing messages continued through the night between the two parties in which Claudius stated that he had not sought power but wouldn't refuse an offer he had accepted and that the senate had nothing to fear from him but even as he promised to be a just ruler he also promised Vengeance if he wasn't accepted finally the Senate conceded Claudius returned to the Palatine with the praetorians where he met with the Senate and was confirmed as Emperor and granted all the titles and powers of his predecessors although he initially refused to be named Pata Patria only accepting the title in 42 A.D shortly after those praetorians involved with the conspiracy were condemned and executed with the exception of Sabinas who although not charged committed suicide the two praetorian prefects were replaced by refrious polio and catonius Eustis Caligula's Freed Man callistus suggested that Caligula had wanted his uncle poisoned but he had prevented it however it is unlikely that any such plot against Claudius existed and callistus merely invented the story as a means to ingratiate himself with the new emperor Claudius set about emphasizing his familial connection to enhance his legitimacy as Emperor and announce the annual games would be held for his parents nerodruses and Anton he also sought to highlight his connection to Augustus through his grandmother Olivia and his own mother who was the daughter of augustus's sister Octavia indeed it was Claudius who finally succeeded in having Olivia deified in 42 A.D which had been denied under Tiberius familial links through his wife messalina also strengthened his position all the more so when having been Emperor for less than a month his fifth child the boy who would be known as britannicus was born on the 12th of February 41 A.D he also acted to placate the senate in announcing an amnesty for those who had opposed him Exiles were recalled including Caligula's sisters agropina and La Villa taxes imposed by Caligula were rescinded the papers that had been kept on the Senators by protogenes and those from tiberius's Reign were destroyed and protogenes himself was executed a number of Caligula statues were removed but Claudius blocked the Senate's attempt to enact Dam natia Memorial condemnation of memory against his nephew which would have excluded all mention of him from public records however it would still be a full 30 days before Claudius actually entered the Senate chamber following his accession and when he finally did so he was accompanied by a bodyguard a further act he undertook was the reinstatement of names associated with their ancestry for prominent families such as the descendants of Pompey who were once again allowed to use Magnus or great which Caligula had forbidden thereafter when he attended the Senate Claudius showed deference to the other members and Rose to address the consuls in another placatory gesture unlike Caligula who had taken up the Suffolk consulship during his first year of rule Claudius refrained from taking the position immediately allowing those already chosen to hold the office he was also designated to serve his second consulship the following year however Claudius was ultimately inexperienced and governing the growing Empire was burdensome for him which is why four freed men within his household came to prominence within the Imperial household callistus was appointed to oversee embassies Palace to oversee finances narcissus was placed in charge of Correspondence and polybius looked after literary affairs under Caligula there had been significant unrest with the Jews over their privileges as a people living within the Empire Julius Agrippa grandson of Herod whom Caligula had given the kingship over large tracks of his uncle's land was considered a friend to the Jews as tensions were still somewhat raw Claudius acted early on and relinquished Roman control of Judea to King Agrippa which went some way to ease tensions a further Grant was made to the king's brother also named Herod giving him the land of chalces it is possible that the early expulsion of a sect of Jews who were considered Troublesome from Rome as well as possibly some early adherents of Christianity was done on the advice of King Agrippa following this episode Claudius issued an edict confirming religious freedom of the Jews but with a warning that as they had been given the freedom to worship in their own way so must they allow others who adhered to different religions to do the same furthermore trouble in Germany had been provoked by Caligula's excursions across the Rhine in 39 A.D which the commanders galba and gabinius were still dealing with however the legions were holding their own and a great victory was celebrated in 41 A.D when the commander of the lower Ryan Legions cabinius recovered the last of viruses lost Eagle standards 41 A.D also marked the beginning of a grand project by Claudius when he ordered the construction of a tunnel to drain the fusine lake 50 miles to the east of Rome the lake was fed by the apanine mountains and with no natural way for it to drain it periodically flooded the surrounding Farmland causing outbreaks of malaria and adding to grain shortages Augustus had refused earlier appeals to remedy the problem caused to those living in the area of the lake but now Claudius determined to do something grain shortages had plagued Rome for years and continued in claudius's reign one of the first things he had to deal with when he succeeded Caligula was the lack of grain held in storage there were still some weeks before the shipping season started again having closed for the winter and Claudius called on Merchants to Brave the winter Seas to bring in much needed extra grain promising to personally indemnify any ships lost during the Endeavor however it seems that there was still an undertone of fear and distrust in Claudius for example later in 41 A.D livilla who recently returned from Exile was charged with adultery with Seneca and both were exiled many have pointed to the machinations of messalina in La Villa's downfall as the presence of Caligula's sisters presented a threat to her as they had a better claim to the principate than Claudius did however lavilla's husband Marcus vinicius had been one of those who had put himself forward as a successor following Caligula's death and his marriage to the sister of the deceased Emperor was likely seen as a threat to his position by Claudius himself a short time after her Exile lavilla was executed possibly starved to death at the same time Claudius was seeking to bring other branches of augustus's extended family that could possibly pose a threat to legitimacy closer to him to ensure loyalty through marriage and positions of note one of those who could have posed a threat was appius solanus governor of tarakonensis and cousin of Caligula's first wife who was recalled from his post early in claudius's reign to marry messalina's mother dimitio lepida this act effectively nullified any Ambitions he had as a possible successor but it seems that it did little to assuage any doubts on claudius's part as in 42 A.D claudius's Freedman narcissus came to the emperor early in the morning while he was still in bed to tell him of a dream he'd had in which Claudius was murdered by Appiah salalis shortly after messalina stated that she had had a similar dream and when solanus appeared that morning his presence seemingly confirmed the dreams and Claudius had him executed without trial later Claudius related the events to the Senate which they had little choice but to accept ancient historians suggest that the scheme was engineered by messalina when solanus spurned her advances but it may have been that both Claudius and messalina harbored genuine suspicions against him even after marital ties were sealed following solanus's death a real plot against Claudius did materialize later in 42 A.D engineered by the senator Anis vinicianus who formed a conspiracy with the governor of Dalmatia Camillus scribonianis who for his part was said to be dissatisfied with claudius's accession and was already planning a Revolt but despite the support of senators and some are questions for vinicians in Rome the legions under Camillus were loyal and the Revolt ended quickly with camillus's death for their loyalty the legions were awarded the title Claudia Pierre Fidelis conspirators were rounded up in Dalmatia and sent to Rome although suspects already in the capital were imprisoned one of those sent from Dalmatia the Consular patus arrived in Rome followed by his wife Arya an old friend of masalina he was granted the small mercy of being allowed to commit suicide for his part in the Revolt his wife still loyal to him apparently showed him how when she took the sword from her him and stabbed herself supposedly uttering see patus it does not hurt a series of Trials took place and The Condemned were executed and exposed on the gammonian steps a wife of one of the guilty Chloe Attila was tried for burying her husband following his execution but was pardoned by Claudius camillus's property and wealth were confiscated following his condemnation but Claudius allowed a portion of the money from the confiscation to return to his son who was granted immunity from prosecution and allowed to continue in public life 42 A.D also saw the beginning of the Improvement and development of The Harbor at Austria with the construction of the artificial Harbor the port of putioli unlike Austria at the time was able to accommodate the larger capacity sea-going vessels and so served as the main point of entry for grain where it was offloaded to smaller ships before continuing up the coast to Austria from there it would be transferred heard again onto riverboats for the journey up the Tiber by developing ostia so that it could handle larger vessels it was hoped that much of the inefficiency in transporting the kneaded grain would be eliminated thus alleviating the shortages Claudius also had to deal with military matters early on when a further Uprising began in Mauritania the area had been brought back into Roman hands with the execution of its client King Ptolemy under Caligula and the initial Uprising following his death had been dealt with by the consul Marcus Crassus Fuji for which Fuji and Claudius received triumphal Insignia with the Resurgence of violence Claudius sent the praetorian commanders suertonius paolinas and hosidius Gator to deal with the revolting tribes who were finally brought to terms either in the close of the 42 A.D campaigning season or early in 43 A.D Mauritania was split into two provinces governed by equestrian procurators directly appointed by Claudius existing Roman colonies in the area created by Augustus were strengthened and Claudius added to their number with the creation of his own military colonies as well as granting municipium status to a number of native communities bestowing citizenship and other rights on the inhabitants further to the issues in Mauritania violence also broke out in 42 A.D in lycea Southwest turkey still an autonomous state recognized by the Romans lycea was ruled by a Federated League Roman citizens possibly natives that have been granted citizenship were murdered which prompted an investigation by Claudius the ruling League sent an embassy before Claudius in the Senate but failed to clear themselves of the crimes enacted against citizens and so it was decided to Annex the territory bringing it into the Empire as a province the senator varanius was sent in as the first governor of the province in 43 A.D successfully re-establishing peace and embarking on a campaign of road building through the difficult terrain connecting the isolated settlements of the land Claudius held his third consulship at the beginning of 43 A.D but as with the previous year when he held the position for the second time and for the first time as Emperor he and his colleague the former Syrian Governor vitalius resigned after two months allowing others to serve for the remainder of the term however vitalius continued to serve in a position of power directing things in Rome during claudius's absence and was possibly even promoted to the position of prefect of the city it was also in 43 A.D that Julia the daughter of tiberius's son drewsus the younger and claudius's niece was denounced possibly on the grounds of immorality by swelius Rufus an ally of messalina the exact details of the case are unknown but Julia perhaps preempting her execution committed suicide it has been suggested that Julia's downfall was engineered by messalina to ensure Julia's own son rubellius plotus didn't become a rival to Claude his son britannicus at the same time the praetorian prefect Justice was executed and replaced possibly for holding sympathies towards Julia given his earlier association with her father in the legions it has also been suggested that during this year an equestrian was executed by being thrown from The tarpeian Rock on the south side of the capital line for plotting against Claudius perhaps the achievement that Claudius is best known for also occurred in 43 A.D the invasion of Britain Rome had had connections with Southern Britain since Caesar's expedition to the island in 54 BC and while an invasion seems to have been a consideration under both Augustus and Caligula it was Claudius who would actually take the step it is likely that planning for the invasion began in 42 A.D and may have in part been prompted by the expulsion of verica by karategus of the catalavoni the son of the deceased pro-roman King kunu Balin the exact motives of the campaign are unclear as it cannot be known for sure whether Claudius intended only to relieve the southern kingdoms now under the purview of karatekas and his brother Togo Dominus or if a full invasion of the country was intended from the beginning however it has been suggested that as client kingdoms were already viewed as part of the Empire by those within it that annexation of the Southern kingdoms of Britain was likely to be undertaken on the death of the current rulers this shift may have provoked those in the line of succession causing a breakdown in relations with Rome victory in either case however would serve to enhance claudius's image whatever the true intent Arrangements were made and Legions redeployed to ensure seasoned men for fighting to come three Legions were drawn from the Rhine Frontier two from the upper Rhine one from the lower and a fourth Legion brought in from panonia to replace those from the Rhine Claudius sent the two new Legions raised under Caligula and another from Spain to lead the four Legions into Britain Claudius chose the governor of panonia owlis plotius a capable and loyal General among the officers who accompanied plotius was the future emperor of espasian who had been in command of one of the legions on the upper Rhine The Invasion didn't have the best of starts as the legions refused to embark on the ships to take them across the channel it was only at the urging of claudius's Freed Man narcissus that they finally came around to the idea and boarded at buloni setting out in three groups details surrounding the landings are unclear it is the accepted version of events that a landing took place in Richboro Kent although it is a matter of debates whether the three groups of ships all landed at the same location or if there were three separate Landing sites once back on dry land the legions fought their way west and north and at the river crossing on the Medway Vespasian distinguished himself with his actions when the legions reached the Thames the britons made another stand Togo Dominus was killed and the britons defeated allowing the Romans to capture a bridge making the river crossing that much easier given the marshy terrain that surrounded it however instead of making further advances the legions paused for a time to await claudius's arrival only after he arrived did they Advance further to Kamala Dunham modern day Colchester in the company of the emperor his elephants and a great number of Senators where they quickly captured the town Claudius received the surrender of at least 11 British rulers whilst at Kamala dunam including Queen Katie mandua of the regantes in the north although karaticus was still at large it is possible at this time that the loyal client King cogidumnus was installed in novio Magus modern day Chichester in place of verica whom he may have been related to however archaeological evidence in the southern areas that fell under his rule attests to an early military presence and it has been suggested that initially the area fell under military rule whilst dominance was established only later being handed over as a client Kingdom around 47 A.D Claudius did not Ling along in Britain and soon began the return Journey over at a leisurely Pace with news sent ahead of him of the victory over the britons on his return Journey Claudius followed a route for a new road through the Alps originally mapped out by his father during his campaigns in the region after some additional work to the layout to bring the form in line with other Roman roads construction began and was completed in 46 A.D it was just one of the many roads completed throughout the Empire during claudius's rule after his return to Rome Claudius celebrated his Triumph in 44 A.D having been hailed as imperato at least five times by this point and possibly up to nine emulating Caesar he ascended the steps of the capital on his knees with assistance hiding his usual limp and triumphal arches both in Rome and on the coast of Gaul were voted to mark his victory the Senate at this time also voted him the name britannicus which Claudius passed over instead designating it to his son Following claudius's return 44 A.D also saw reforms to the administration of the Empire the control of the State Treasury passed from the prators to questors who were engaged for a term of three years which was a considerably longer term than that of a normal questorship but those that fulfilled the full term and performed well in their duties could look forward to a swift advancement in their careers the use of procurators ansible to the emperor himself also steadily increased at this time in Austria the position of questor ostiensis was removed and replaced by a procurator portus ostiensis a position which was filled by a Freed Man equestrian governorships also increased under Claudius when Judea returned to the Empire as a province in 44 A.D following the death of King Agrippa it was placed under the control of a governor of equestrian rank the procurator caspius Fades who reported directly to the emperor Fades caused bad feeling within the Jewish community of the area almost immediately following his arrival executing and exiling leading members of the city of perea for warring with their neighbors he also confiscated the vestments of the high priest it was only when Claudius received an embassy from the Jews and on the advice of atelius that he had them returned as well as the governorships restructuring within the auxiliary cohorts to place so that commands would be exclusively held by equestrians thus providing them with a formalized career path for those that wish to pursue the military route into a public career duplicate the Senators who would lose out on these commands two posts were held exclusively for them in the legions 45 A.D was to present yet another opportunity to increase the bounds of the Empire when the client King chromatouses III was murdered by his wife leading to civil disorder the area surrounding Thrace had already come under scrutiny from Claudius when it was decided the previous year to split the unified provinces of Ikea Macedonia and moesia back into individual governorships moesia was placed under the command of the Consular Leggett didius gallis appointed directly by Claudius while the others fell under Pro consoles chosen by picking Lots didius as governor of the neighboring Province was sent in to quell the unrest taking two Legions annexation of Thrace followed in 46 A.D and shortly thereafter the colony of apri was founded and a procurator installed to govern at the same time norikum bordered by the Danube to the north was brought into the Empire and a new capital established which was given lack in rights at the beginning of 47 A.D Claudius took his fourth consulship for another two-month period he afforded his colleague vitellius a great honor by giving him his third term as consul for almost the last seven decades few had held even a second term in the consulship and only Marcus Agrippa and Augustus had obtained a third with the exception of the Emperors themselves a further honor was bestowed upon allas plotius when he returned from Britain later that year when Claudius granted him Innovation which since augustus's time had been an honor reserved only for those of the Imperial family while platius rode his horse through the streets of Rome Claudius is said to have accompanied him but another General called bulo who had recently been assigned to the lower Rhine caused Claudius much consternation when he overreacted to a raid by one branch of the chochi tribe his reaction in involving the second branch of the tribe to quell the Raiders was likely to revoke a war between the two and so the legions were officially recalled to the West Bank of the Rhine and corbullo was criticized for his actions to add to the celebrations of that year the Centennial games were held to commemorate the 800th year since Rome's founding although a century hadn't elapsed since Augustus held his games in 17 BC Claudius pressed on with lavish games and performances despite the Whispers against the proclamations that such festivities and performers hadn't been seen in Rome in a lifetime it was said to be at one of these games that the young Nero appeared garnering warmer praise from the audience than britannicus had received much to the displeasure of messalina Claudius had held an interest in the law for many years before becoming Emperor but after succeeding Caligula he set himself to the study and practice of law in Earnest reading cases and hearing those trials not overseen by the Senate although he was much criticized for his conduct and inconsistency in his acquittals and judgments however he did make some positive impacts on legislation and dealt with the accumulated backlog of cases also reinstated the consilium or body of advisors that would assist him however in 47 A.D is dealing with a case without the presence of the Senate would have repercussions for him supposedly messalina driven by jealousy over her lover nestor's interest in papaya Sabina and wanting to acquire The Gardens of lucillus concocted a story that the Consular Valerius asiaticus of gaulish origin owner of the gardens had committed adultery with Papaya the praetorian prefect crispinus was dispatched to arrest him finding him at a resort in baie and returned him to the Palace where he was brought before Claudius and members of the consilium and tried supposedly Claudius after hearing asiaticus's rebuttals to the charges laid against him was on the verge of announcing an acquittal but messalina intervened instructing vitalius to convince the emperor not to let him off to which end he succeeded and asiaticus as well as prepare who had not faced a trial both committed suicide the Senate was only informed after the event and so opinions against both messalina and Claudius hardened for this act of disposing of one of their own number without a senate trial doubt has been cast on the versions of this case presented by ancient historians who were writing years after the event and with a bias against members of the Imperial family we do know however that both asiaticus and prepare killed themselves but it has now been suggested that while the Char charges of adultery may have been the reason given to the Senate it is likely that asiaticus's vast wealth and means within Gaul may have painted him as someone who could bring trouble if supporting a rival which ultimately played a part in his downfall however this episode did have another effect as it was raised in the Senate that without Fair legal proceedings prosecutors would Grow Rich from their cases as successful prosecutions were afforded substantial rewards the consul designate cilius proposed a Revival of the sinsian law which prohibited the reward granted after the successful pleading of a case the Senate debated the matter vigorously but it was Claudius who had the final say declaring that no more than ten thousand sisters would be paid as a reward in the same year Claudius revived the office of sensor which had been dormant since 22 BC appointing vitalius to the post alongside him as the office was always held in twos in essence it was a census similar to that undertaken today and was used to take account of the citizens within the Empire and their means part of the reason suggested for the Revival of the office was a shortage of men eligible to hold Junior post within the Senate and as wealth was the main means of qualification a census would help to identify those citizens who met the required level at the same time Claudius had the opportunity to clean up the Senate as those who no longer met the wealth requirements could be removed and to this end he asked the members to assess themselves allowing them to resign themselves whilst also holding the power to remove those that didn't he went on further by advancing new families into the petition class whose ranks had become somewhat diminished ensuring that those priesthoods reserved only for patricians could be upheld a number of edicts were also issued and these included an edict against money lenders preventing them from lending to younger men against their future inheritance but the office wasn't all about means and legislation as Claudius also used the position to Champion the cause of the declining Harris species the Etruscan sooth says putting motion before the Senate to reorganize them into an official college so that their learning Would Not Fade Away this act may have in part reflected claudius's interest in history and his ties with arturia through his first wife who was of Etruscan descent according to tacitus at the completion of the census the number of citizens across the Empire had risen by over a million since Augustus and tiberius's census in 14 A.D to a total of five million 984 072 at the end of the census ritual purification of Rome was undertaken by the census who processed the boundary of the city sacrificing a pig sheep and a bull to Mars two reliefs survive from an unknown Monument which may depict the claudian ritual another aspect of claudius's time as censor came to somewhat of a compromise earlier in 47 A.D he had opened a discussion concerning the possible admission of qualifying men from Galia komata to the Senate Claudius put forward his case although not very eloquently highlighting his lack of skill in rhetoric and oratory and his nervousness when speaking to crowds he spoke of the narbernancian Gauls already admitted to the Senate but despite his praise for many he made vindictive references concerning asiaticus his speech was laid down by tacitus but was Rewritten however a portion of claudius's original speech survives in the form of a fragmentary bronze tablet in Lyon the tablet highlights claudus's inadequacies but the ideas behind the motion were sound and of his own making and despite numerous objections the Senate accepted the proposal however initially only leaders of the loyal idui tribe were permitted to wear the broad stripe signifying the their entitlement for the Senate despite the large numbers putting themselves forward for the honor in 48 A.D however other events in 48 A.D were about to take a drastic and deadly turn the accounts that have come down to us from ancient historians differ somewhat in their details but generally they report that messalina supposedly known for her promiscuity fell in love with and married Gaius cilius in front of witnesses Claudius was in Austria at the time and his freed men past news of the marriage through the emperor's Mistresses with narcissus present in Austria to further press the gravity of the situation upon Him supposedly at the news Claudius asked if he was still in control of the empire in the company vitalius Narcissus and claudius's friend kaisina lagus they hurried back to Rome and were intercepted first by messalina herself and then by a senior Vestal who demanded a hearing for the empress but was placated by narcissus moving on they stopped to inspect cilious's house where they found items from the Imperial household said to have been gifted to him by messalina before making their way to the praetorian barracks cilius was brought in and quickly condemned and executed without a chance to offer his own defense a number of equestrians and senators were also executed as accomplices as well as Nestor who was numbered amongst messalina's lovers messalina meanwhile was dispatched by a member of the praetorians in The Gardens of lucillus on the orders of narcissus after lacking the courage to commit suicide Claudius was said to have shown no emotion at the news of her death shortly after by decree of the Senate messalina was then subject to the practice of damatio Memorial meaning condemnation of memory whereby any trace of her in depictions were destroyed narcissus for his part was awarded the questors Insignia the exact nature of the events will likely never be confirmed and the debate still rages around her Downfall with a great number of theories put forward mostly amounting to conspiracy Series against one or more parties engineered by various others including agropina however whatever the case when it came messalina's fall was Swift and ultimately her status as empress and mother to claudius's Heir did nothing to protect her with messalina gone the vulnerability of his position once again came to the fore for Claudius messalina had for a Time proved an ally in strengthening his claim through familial ties with prominent branches of the family although neither had felt completely secure his three remaining leading freed men put forward their own candidates for marriage but it was eventually Palace suggestion of agrippina that won out agrippina was a Julian and would thus strengthen claudius's own claim however immediately there was a problem as agropina was claudius's niece and such a union was considered incestuous by Roman standards this was remedied early in 49 A.D when vitalius appeared in the Senate he interrupted the session and proceeded to extol the virtues of a union between Claudius and agropina stating how by ascending the Senate would be enhancing their own power his speech had the desired effect and the Senate voted that such marriages between men and their brother's daughters could take place unions between the daughters of sisters was still prohibited however the Senate and the people alike called for the marriage processing along the streets where they were met by Claudius in the Forum he agreed and some sources claimed the ceremony took place that very day Claudius then asked that the decree henceforth should be applied to all such unions which the Senate granted writing it into Roman law at the same time there were calls for his daughter Claudia Octavia to be betrothed to agrippina's son Nero Octavia had previously been betrothed to the young and upcoming Noble Lucius solanus however the betrothal was broken by Claudius in 48 A.D when vitalius accused him of incest with his sister and silanas was expelled from the Senate he would later commit suicide after his public shaming on the same day as the marriage the plot against him was engineered by agrippina as a marriage between Octavia and Nero would further strengthen both Claudius and agropina's positions shortly following their marriage Seneca was recalled from his Exile on Corsica and would be engaged as a tutor for Nero the following year as well as being elected to the pratership on the whole agrippina's Ascension hailed a new more Cooperative era between the emperor and the Senate her influence and reputation stood in stark contrast to that of messalina and hostility towards the Imperial household waned three candidates initially had been suggested to Claudius agrippina his second wife who he had divorced a decade earlier Alia patina and the third wife of Caligula lollia Paulina agrippina was part of both the Julian and claudian clans before her marriage to Claudius and could claim descent from both Augustus and Libya given this distinction there were few that could actively be seen as her rival in terms of familial ties nevertheless she quickly moved against lolia bringing charges against the woman for Consulting a astrologers and oracles over the emperor's marriage Claudius brought the matter before the sellers but refused her a hearing instead giving a lengthy speech emphasizing her connections and that she was harmful to the state he decreed that her wealth should be confiscated to prevent her embroiling herself in criminal activity the Senate acted and Lolly was forced to forfeit all but a tiny proportion of her vast wealth and was exiled from Italy later a praetorian guard was sent after her and she was executed purportedly her head was sent to agrippina at the empress's own request to confirm her death over the following years agropina would move against others she perceived as Rivals to her and her son but not in the underhanded and much maligned ways messalina had preferred cases were brought before the Senate to ensure at least on the surface that the accused were given the chance of a hearing and her named victims number far fewer than those who met their end during messalina's marriage the final prominent death of dimitia lepida mother of messalina Grandmother of britannicus and Nero's aunt came in 54 A.D shortly before claudius's death as well as these figures from 50 A.D agrippina set about removing those surrounding britannicus starting with his tutus eventually she convinced Claudius of factionalism within the household and he ordered the removal of malign influences and gradually britannicus lost most of those around him including his tutor socibius who was executed having been charged with plots against Nero she would also exert influence among the praetorians to have any officers who would deem to be sympathetic to britannicus replaced with those loyal to her 49 A.D also saw further territory added to the Empire when I too rare to the north of Galilee was annexed following the death of Sir Hamas who'd been gifted the kingdom by Caligula in 38 A.D it was to fall under the purview of the Syrian Governor by this time Claudius had seen much success in adding provinces to the Empire and his crowning achievement was the invasion of Britain and so he took it upon himself to extend the sacred boundary of Rome the pomerium as a visible marker of his success at the same time he revived the old practice of the augury of security after a lapse of 75 years which was an inquiry to determine whether the gods would be receptive to receiving a prayer for the security of the state this only occurred during times of Peace on the 25th of February 50 A.D Claudius formally adopted agrippina's son who became Nero Claudius drewsis germanicus Caesar to agrapina herself when the title of Augusta marking the first time a wife of a living Emperor received the honor in the same year Claudius went on to found more colonies the first in ubioram modern day cologne and agrapina's birthplace granting the rights of colonists to the loyal Ubi tribe brought across the Rhine by Marcus Agrippa in 38 BC around the same time in Britain Colonial Victor census was founded in Kamala dunam for veterans of the 20th Legion it was also in this year that chalces passed from King agrippa's brother Herod to his son Agrippa II on his uncle's death having been deemed Too Young by Claudius to succeed his father six years earlier Claudius took up his Fifth and Final consulship in 51 A.D but unlike the previous four he held the post at least until October if not for the whole year it is probable that he took the decision to remain in position as 51 represented not only 10 years as Emperor but it also marked his 60th birthday in August Vespasian would also hold his first Suffolk consulship for the final two months of the year in March Claudius oversaw the 13 year old Nero's taking of the toga virilis which had been brought forward by around nine months as 14 was the usual age for the ceremony in the weeks preceding his ceremony Nero was made console designate to hold the office in his 20th year and received the title of Princess juventutus at the same time despite good progress in the development of the port of Austria by now Grange shortages persisted and Claudius was lucky to escape when rioting broke out in response to the most recent shortage it was also in this year that the poster praetorian prefect was once again reduced to a single man through agropina's Persuasions it was initially a dual position under Caligula when afranius Boris a procurator who had served under Olivia Tiberius and Claudius was appointed as prefect claudus's long-standing friend and colleague vitalius likely died this year but not before he was accused of maestas by a junior senator who may have acted to thwart agropina's strengthening position through one of her supporters the case failed and the senator was exiled beginning early in his Reign and continuing throughout Claudius made many reforms including some to the military in 44 A.D he granted the rights of married men to soldiers within the legions but he also considered the auxiliary cohorts who were becoming increasingly important to the military structure of the empire Claudius regularized the 30-year term of service for auxiliaries and granted them citizenship following discharge after a minimum of 25 years as well as giving their children legitimacy through the right of cornubium although the reforms cannot be reliably dated it is 251 A.D that the earliest bronze diploma issued to a discharged auxiliary confirming his rights belongs two more prominent and opposing events occurred in 51 A.D firstly Armenia was lost from the sphere of Roman influence when the pro-roman ruler mithridartes was killed by his nephew Rudder mistus seizing it for himself for a short time before the parthian king Volo gassis invaded the territory Armenia would only be recovered after claudius's death in stark contrast to this loss in Britain the rebel leader caraticus and his family were finally caught by Queen cartimandua and handed over to the Army before being sent back to Rome to Mark the victory the prisoners were paraded to the Delight of the crowds however unlike prisoners paraded in Years Gone by Claudius spared karategus's life to further publicize his victory Claudius had a naval Crown affixed to the principal entrance of his Palatine house symbolizing his subduing of the ocean in 52 A.D a new piece of legislation was passed by the Senate pronouncing that free women who married slaves without the permission of their Master would be demoted to a slave themselves however if they obtained permission for the marriage they would hold the rank of freed woman this new decree had come about through the work of the Freedman Palace who Claudius had consulted on the matter the consul elect barrier cyranus proposed that Palace be awarded with the praetorian Insignia and received the substantial sum of 15 million systers but Palace declined the money at which another decree was passed praising him for his Frugal nature as well as the new legislation 52 A.D saw the culmination of two immense building projects two new aqueducts and the fusine Lake tunnel under Caligula two aqueducts had been in the early stages of development when he was assassinated Claudius continued with their construction the aqua Claudia followed a similar route to the existing Aqua Marcia built during the Republic with the source of the Claudia 40 miles outside of Rome substantial portions of this Aqueduct still survive today the anionovus began farther from Rome and followed a course along the anio river before coming above ground at the same point as the Claudia the anio was then piggybacked onto the arcade of the Claudia providing two separate lines of water into Rome with their construction finally complete they were dedicated and put into use a grander spectacle was planned for the draining of the fusine lake with its great size Claudius decided to Stage a mock sea Battle on the lake before it was drained a flotilla of quadraremes and tride Reams took part crude by 19 000 convicts who were encouraged to participate by the praetorians stationed around the periphery of the lake armed with catapults and ballisti graffiti depicting a quadrim found in the nearby town of Alba fusense attests to the presence of the ships crowds gathered in specially erected stands on the banks to watch the spectacle with Claudius and agropina in attendance the naval battle was a success and the show was to end with the opening of the sluices and draining of the lake but when that moment came it was a great disappointment the tunnel had not been dug to a sufficient depth and only a trickle of water drained away but Claudius didn't give up and instructed narcissus who had been given charge of the project to deepen the channel another spectacle was planned for the second opening with pontoons built on the lake on which to host gladiatorial bouts Claudius and acropina were positioned above the drainage outlet and this time when it opened the water poured through destroying part of the structure they were Seated on throwing them into the lake from which they were fortunate to survive agrippina openly blamed narcissus for the disaster and the two began hurling accusations at one another under agrippina narcissus's influence was beginning to wane either late in 52 A.D or early 53 A.D Claudius fell ill Nero already gaining in popularity entered the Senate and made a vow for claudius's Recovery Claudius did recover but the year was to hold mixed fortunes for the Imperial family a fire broke out within the tenements of the a miliana district raging for a number of days Claudius and agropina attended the scene during the disaster where they remained for two days and set themselves to the task of recruiting and paying firefighters to help tackle the blaze in response to further disasters and judgments on cities throughout the Empire Nero placed himself in the senate in advocacy of their claims winning recompense tax exemptions and championing the restoration of the freedom of roads which Claudius had previously removed Nero also held the post a prefect of the city whilst Claudius was absent for the Latin Festival but there was one final hurdle to overcome as Claudius had adopted Nero the marriage between him and Claudia Octavia was considered incestuous by Roman law to deal with this issue Claudius had Octavia adopted into another family and after the formalities were completed the young couple were married with Nero's promised games for Claudius following the ceremony 54 A.D began with an ill Omen when a Comet appeared the belief was held that the appearance of a comet heralded the death of kings and it was predicted that Claudius wouldn't live to see out the year among the many claimed portents for telling the emperor's death was the high mortality rate among the magistrates of that year another more plausible suggestion for these deaths as they weren't connected to trials is that there was some sort of sickness present in the city at the time similarly Claudius said to have had a premonition of his own death failed to designate suffix for the final two months of the year but again the more likely case is that he was simply unsure who to choose for the position on the 12th of October Claudius presided over the August Alia banquet on the capitoline hill and it is posited that his taster the unique halitus administered poison in a dish of mushrooms other accounts have the poison administered still using mushrooms at a dinner in the palace later that same day by halitus or agrippina with some suggesting that Claudius vomited up the first dose after which a second was administered by his doctor xenophon using a feather While others stated that one dose was sufficient the account suggested that his death was not announced immediately and in an effort to conceal the time of death claudius's body was covered with warm blankets to stymie the effects of rigor mortis and agropina sent for actors to entertain the ailing Emperor supposedly a claudius's request prayers for his recovery were offered by the Senate britannicus was confined to his room and his sister's movements monitored while preparations were made for Nero's succession then just after noon on the 13th of October 54 A.D the announcement was made that the emperor had died there is still much speculation over claudius's death all the existing accounts differ in their details but broadly agreed that he was poisoned either by those acting on behalf of agrapeena or by the empress herself to ensure her son Nero succeeded him his death May well have been murder but given his age state of health in his final years and heavy drinking throughout his life it is just as likely that he died of natural causes although if so it was fortuitous timing for Nero given that britannicus would soon take the toga varilis giving him at least an equal if not stronger claim however as with many such cases in the ancient world it is unlikely we will ever know the truth for certain Claudius from his earliest years was never supposed to have been Emperor having been denied a public career by both Augustus and Tiberius he was viewed as a source of Shame within the Imperial family only under Caligula did he gain a taste of public life but faced derision and humiliation at the hands of his nephew at the decisive moment following Caligula's assassination with no clear succession root he essentially forced himself upon the senate for which resentment among the members lingered throughout his Reign but having been of equestrian status for much of his life he enjoyed support from among their ranks and from those of his household as well as from the people of Rome and the military in turn the favor he bestowed on equestrians and freed men Through official posts and reforms while improving their prospects embittered others although much of his work was disparaged he was a diligent and hard-working Emperor though he did it have his flaws he worked tirelessly on matters of law greatly increased the provinces and citizenship rights within the Empire championed the advancement of the second strata of society and that of provincials while allowing for more Senators to rise to positions of Honor as the number of consulships throughout the year steadily increased through his construction and restoration projects He improved Rome and Austria substantially for many years to come and made efforts although not entirely successful to alleviate and prevent natural disasters such as the severe flooding of the Tiber and food shortages caused by the inconsistencies in the grain Supply although a great fan of the games he managed to strike a balance between the austerity seen under Tiberius and the excesses of Caligula that pleased all levels of society however his crowning achievement and perhaps that which he is best known for was the successful invasion of Britain which would remain a part of the empire for the next four centuries however there was another side to his Rule and while it would be unfair to completely credit the ancient sources which claimed that Claudius was dominated by his wives his third and fourth wives did wield influence for their own ends during messalina's time many men and women of notoriety would either meet their end or face impoverished Exiles without being granted a senate trial which only increased the resentment among the Senators who saw themselves as actively excluded from the Justice process to add to this claudius's insensitivity to the senate in his promotion of equestrians and to their chagra freed men added to their resentment and may have in part led to the conspiracy which occurred early in his Reign while this resentment did somewhat subside after his marriage to agropina ultimately her aims were similar to those of messalina in protecting both herself and her son by eliminating Rivals and promoting loyalty although her methods in cooperating with the senate in public trials one heard their favor rather than their anger it is likely that rather than dominating Claudius as so many have claimed both women exploited his fear in his somewhat shaky claim to the principate for their own advancement what do you think of Emperor plaudius was he the feeble bumbling oaf who was dominated by his wives as history claims or does he deserve to be recognized as a capable ruler responsible for expanding the bounds and Prestige of the Empire please let us know in the comment section and in the meantime thank you very much for watching foreign as the emperor Nero was born Lucius demitius ahenobarbus on the 15th of December 37 A.D at the Imperial Villa in the Italian town of antium Nero's father genius domitius ahina barbas was born sometime around two to one BC to The prominent to heino Barbie Clan originally of the plebeian class the family was raised to ruling petition status under Augustus and had produced many consoles the highest elected political office in the Roman Republic ganes de mitius held the consulship in 32 A.D for the entire year however four years later after a fire tore through the Aventine and circus maximus in Rome the emperor Tiberius appointed him to serve on a commission set up to compensate those who had lost their property to the blaze in the closing months of tiberius's Reigns to mitius found himself accused of incest with his sister dimitia lepada and of adultery with the noblewoman albusila in proceedings brought about by the praetorian prefect macro but with tiberius's death and the smooth succession of Caligula dimitius escaped prosecution Nero's mother agropina the younger was the daughter of the Elder vipsania agrippina mother also of the emperor Caligula as such agrippina the younger was also the great granddaughter of the first Roman Emperor Augustus agrippina's father was The prominent Roman general gemanicus and a member of both the Julian and claudian Clans and so agrippina had a distinguished ancestry she was born on the 6th of November 15 A.D in the Rhineland settlement of ARA uburum during one of her father's Germanic campaigns in 28 A.D when the emperor Tiberius returned to the mainland after his withdrawal to caprii today's island of Capri he arranged for the 13 year old agrapina to marry dimitius ahinobarbus their first and only child Nero would be born nine years later following tiberius's death in 37 A.D Nero's birth was accompanied by mixed Omens the delivery was traumatic for agropina as it was a breach berth contemporary philosopher Pliny the Elder noted that the only person to have been born in such a way who had ever made a success of their life was the Roman general Marcus Agrippa a close friend to Augustus but as Nero was finally delivered it is said that before he touched the ground for the first time he was touched by the Rays of the sun yet despite this positive Omen his horoscope was unfavorable and purportedly one astrologer predicted that Nero would rule but would kill his mother to which she exclaimed let him kill me only let him rule Nero was only two years old when he was parted from his mother in 39 A.D after she was implicated in a plot against her brother Caligula a number of Leading Men were executed in the wake of the conspiracy whereas both agrapina and her sister levila was sent into Exile agrapina taking up residence on the island of pontia where her older brother had served his own Exile initially Nero stayed with his father but ganes dimitius Hena barbus had been suffering from dropsy for a time from which he died in January of 41 A.D Nero was sent to live with his aunt dimitia lepida mother of the soon-to-be Empress messalina but despite her affections for the young boy he was subjected to a Spartan life thanks to Caligula when imposing Exile on his sisters Caligula had confiscated their property and not content with that when Nero's father died he also took Nero's share of his inheritance Nero stayed with his aunt for only a short time as on the 24th of January 41 A.D Caligula was assassinated Claudius became emperor the following day and quickly recalled both agrapina and La Villa from Exile restoring their property to them following her return from Exile agropina took her son back from dementia lepida appointing him appropriate tutors placed under the supervision of the freed men former slaves Barillas and anesitis and began the search for a new husband setting her sights first on the distinguished General galba however galber resisted her advances and instead she turned to the wealthy older Consular paciena's Crispus who at the time was married to dimitia leopard's older sister dimitio the Elder unlike galba pacienes already distinguished in himself likely saw the merits of a marriage to the daughter of distinguished General germanicus and married agropina Sometime Late in 41 A.D holding the pro-consulship of Asia in 42-43 A.D and taking his second consulship in 44 A.D pasianas's success continued but he would be dead by 47 A.D living his fortune to agrippina some of the ancient sources claim that agrippina murdered her husband after being made his Heir but whether there is any truth to the claim cannot be proven the year of passionus's death also marked the 800th year since the founding of Rome and accordingly Claudius held Centennial games to Mark the occasion both claudius's son britannicus and Nero appeared at the games taking part in the Lucius troyi equestrian event but of the two it was Nero who received the warmer reception it has been suggested that this adulation was orchestrated by agents of acropina it clearly had a negative effect on claudius's wife messalina as did the rumor that she had sent assassins to kill the infant Nero who was saved by a snake the skin of which he would wear in a golden bracelet messalina had played her part alongside her husband Claudius in removing those perceived as Rivals to his somewhat shaky claim to power including agrippina's sister La Villa early in his Reign after returning to Exile late in 41 A.D she was subsequently executed and so it is thought that during the years since her return from her Exile agrippina kept her head down in order to avoid attracting messalina's attention so much so that her actions during 41-47 A.D have gone largely unrecorded instead agropina seemed to have worked in such a way to keep attention from herself while subtly building up Nero the adulation for Nero garnered a hostile reaction from messalina but by this point her attention was elsewhere as she was engaged in an affair with the console designate Gaius cilius it was her latest supposed bigamist marriage to the man in 48 A.D that brought about her death and the end of the threat to agrippina and Nero whether agropina truly had designs on Claudius during this period cannot be proven but following the death of messalina she emerged as the favored candidate for marriage to Claudius among those put forward by his freed men already in 48 A.D she had had a hand in claudius's daughter Claudia Octavius betrothal to Lucius Junius solanus dissolved with the aim of having Nero marry her instead but her own marriage would come first engaging the assistance of vitellius the long-standing friend and colleague of Claudius the issue of their marriage was brought before the Senate unions between uncle and niece were considered incestuous by Roman standards but vitellius extolled the union and the Senate voted to allow the marriage and to the apparent joy of the people and senator-like Claudius gave his consent when he met the crowds in the Forum and supposedly they were married that same day early in January 49 A.D the betrothal of near and Claudia Octavia quickly followed as well as the recall of Seneca from Exile this was seen as a reversal of Fortune for Seneca who had been exiled some years earlier on the probable trumped-up charge of adultery with one of claudius's relatives Nero was formally adopted by his now stepfather Claudius in 50 A.D and in the following year still only 13 years old he took the toga very less or toga of manhood in March of that year but this wasn't the only honor bestowed upon him in the same month he was designated to hold the consulship in the year 56 A.D as well as being granted pro-consular Imperium or special command outside the city and given the title of Princess Juventus or first in order at the same time as promoting the advancement of her son agrippina sought to isolate claudius's natural sun britannicus and began systematically removing those tutors confidants and sympathizers that had surrounded the young man as well as convincing Claudius to revert the office of praetorian prefect to a single position with the appointment of afranius Buras Nero's Assumption of the toga varilis marked his step into a public career and in the same year he made his first appearance in the Senate giving a speech of thanks to Claudius in 52 A.D when Claudius was Ill Nero once again spoke in the Senate making vows for the recovery of the Aging Emperor and promising to hold Games should he recover then in 53 A.D he appeared before the Senate and Claudius to make petitions some spoken in Greek on behalf of towns and cities throughout the Empire that required help to recover from disasters that had befallen them as well as pleading the case for roads to have their freedom returned which Claudius had stripped in 44 A.D when Claudius left the city to attend the annual Latin Festival Nero was appointed as prefect of the city but 53 A.D also saw the culmination of agrippina's master plan when Nero married Claudia Octavia claudius's daughter as Nero by this time had been adopted by Claudius before the marriage could take place it was necessary for his daughter to be adopted into another family as once again the union would otherwise have been considered incestuous but after the formalities of adoption were completed the marriage went ahead and the games that Nero had promised for Claudius was celebrated following the ceremony 54 A.D opened with ill Omens when a Comet appeared in the sky early in the year charges of practicing magic and failure to control her slaves were brought against dimitia lepida possibly engineered by agrippina and so Nero's aunt was executed after Nero himself gave evidence against her but hers was not the only prominent death that year as on the 13th of October it was announced that the emperor Claudius had died the exact nature of his death is unknown but some sources suggest he was murdered either by agropina using poisoned mushrooms or her allies to ensure Nero succession although this cannot be conclusively proven the lead-up to the announcement of claudius's death saw feverish preparations to secure Nero's position the praetorian prefect Boris had already returned from Camp that morning to prepare the guard and following the announcement accompanied the 16 year old Nero out of the palace where he was greeted by the praetorians at the foot of the steps and hastily escorted to their camp at the viminal gate in the camp Nero gave a speech to the soldiers prepared by Seneca and was hailed as Emperor taking the name Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus germanicus before promising a generous gift for each man of the Guard matching the sum promised by Claudius on his own Ascension Nero was then escorted to the Senate where they granted him the tribunition power and pro-consular Imperium although as with his predecessors he initially declined the title of Pata Patria or father of the nation only accepting it later in 56 A.D it was likely at this time that Seneca received the title of Amicus principess or friend of the princess while the freed men beryllis and anesitas were rewarded with the positions of secretary for Greek correspondence and prefect of the mycena fleet respectively it was expected that claudius's will would be read at the Senate meeting but it was suppressed and while a lot of conjecture has been put forward the contents remain a mystery it's unknown whether britannicus had in any way been named in the will claudius's funeral was an elaborate Affair arranged by agropina taking place five days after his death to allow for a period of lying in States before processing to the Campus Martius and the funeral pyre Nero gave the eulogy the speech itself written Again by Seneca and a short period of mourning was declared on the 19th of October the day after the funeral Nero went before the Senate and asked that Claudius be deified which they granted and preparations for the establishment of his cult and Temple construction were made following the deification Nero didn't hesitate to use the title Divi Filius or son of a god agropina was granted honors from the Senate including the use of two lictors or bodyguards and made a priestess for claudius's newly founded cult and for a time she appeared on Imperial coinage both alone and in tandem with her son she is purported to have been left to deal with much of the day-to-day running in the beginning of Nero's Reign her son even went so far as to have Senate meetings held in the palace so that she could listen in on the proceedings but she still had her eyes set on dealing with potential Rivals although he cannot be completely certain that she played a part a short time after Nero's Ascension Marcus Junius cilanus governor of Asia and brother to the deceased Lucius Junius silanas was killed while at dinner possibly by the equestrian procurator Cela and Friedman hellius though no one was held to account for the crime by the end of the year claudius's loyal Friedman narcissus would also be dead in his first years as emperor Nero swiftly gained a reputation for generosity sharing power of the Senate and ending closed-door political trials though he would also pursue his own interests and largely left ruling up to three key advisers his tutor the philosopher Seneca the prefect Boris and also his mother agrapina in 55 A.D however agrippina's face was taken off the coinage Seneca had encouraged Nero's independence from his domineering mother which prompted her to turn against him and promote her stepson britannicus as the true heir to the throne she also protested against Nero's affair with Papaya Sabina the wife of a friend although Nero had openly praised Claudius in his speech to the Senate he made some efforts to distance himself from his adoptive father repealing acts such as the requirement that questor designates public officials should fund games from their own pocket and Reviving The cincian Law so that Advocates received no fee at all from defendants rather than the ten thousand sisters set by Claudius agropina was aggrieved by these actions but Nero was undeterred he also began to emphasize links to his natural father damitius ahinobarbus asking the Senate that a statue be granted to him and having his birthday commemorated outside his house each year as a further sign of tension between Nero and his mother in 55 A.D he began an affair with a former slave Claudia acte and threatened to divorce Octavia while he didn't get that far he did live openly with Claudia actor much to his mother's dismay supposedly Nero was assisted in initially hiding his affair by Seneca who recruited the prefect serenas to pretend to be the woman's lover while this may have worked in public agrippina knew better and was unable to contain herself from Doling out abusive comments to the woman but to further add to her anger the former slave Palace who had long been her Ally was dismissed from his post by Nero in that same year Nero's adopted brother Britannic has died sources suggest that Nero had engaged the services of a poisoner locusta after the emperor had become suspicious of britannicus Lucas was supposedly the same poisoner who had supplied the toxin to dispatch Claudius echoing claudius's Final hours the poison was said to have been administered during a dinner party and when it took effect Nero announced that britannicus was suffering from one of his epileptic seizures and would recover but after being removed on a stretcher he died and was hastily cremated the following day the murder was supposedly prompted by agropina's threats to Champion britannicus over her own son when the relationship began to deteriorate however as with the charge of murder neither can be conclusively proven despite ancient accounts agreeing on murder modern skepticism surrounds the events and as it is known that britannicus did indeed suffer from epilepsy it remains possible that he did in fact die as a result of his condition rather than Foul Play following britannicus's death agrippina sought to shore up her position finding an ally in his sister Claudia Octavia as well as other wealthy and influential individuals and those among the lower ranks of the praetorians having earlier lost the boris's support when she insulted him but Nero realized what she was doing and sought to do the same winning over the praetorians with an allotment of free grain Nero went further still by banishing his mother from the palace on the pretext that her morning salutation or formal greeting was too disruptive agrippina moved to her grandmother Antonio's house on the Palatine then in an effort to further isolate her from the guard Nero reformed their duties which culminated in agropina losing access to the guards assigned to her and those around the palace the reforms however were made in such a way that they couldn't be seen to be directly targeting his mother instead simply as making sure the praetorians were to be used purely for military purposes as well as the praetorians Nero also saw to it that agropina lost the use of the Germanic bodyguards assigned to her shortly after his accession perhaps seizing the opportunity of agropina's estrangement from Nero and with scores to settle the ex-wife of Gaius cilius Junior Selana and Nero's Aunt dementia the Elder joined forces against her Nero was still on good terms with his aunt and it was one of her former slaves the actor Paris who supposedly presented charges to Nero of maestas or crimes against the emperor targeting agropina Andrew bellius plotus tiberius's great-grandson Nero panicked and ordered the immediate execution of his mother but boroughs agreed only if the charges against agropina could be proven and so she was granted a hearing interrogated the following day by Burris in the presence of Seneca and a number of freed men as Witnesses agrippina argued her case and was subsequently heard by Nero who concluded the matter by dismissing the charges against her while showing clemency to his mother Nero was not so merciful to those who had acted against her and Junior Selana was exiled While others were condemned to death away from the family turmoil and day-to-day ruling of the Empire much of which certainly at this time may have been designated to his advisors Seneca and Burris among them Nero continued to indulge his love for the Arts and sports continuing with his daily lessons on the satara a type of liar as well as writing songs and learning poetry while he was a great fan of the Chariot racing he was not fond of gladiatorial combat only forcing himself to watch the competence as they fought to the death at nights he would go out into the streets in Disguise frequenting bars and causing trouble among his friends although perhaps harmless at first these events would descend further into violence and when the senator Julius montanus apologized for unknowingly hitting Nero during one of the attacks he was shamed to suicide while another Faustus Sula received the punishment of Exile when Nero wrongly suspected him of trying to Ambush him on another one of his jaunts 56 A.D saw a new piece of legislation come before the Senate looking at the rights of freed men it proposed that a law should be passed giving patrons the right to re-enslave disrespectful freed men which met with much support however they did consult Nero on the matter before voting Nero most likely Guided by his advisers wrote to the Senate suggesting that as freedmen played roles throughout Society their rights as a whole should not be diminished but each individual case should be assessed on its own merits which the Senate accepted Nero held his second consulship in 57 A.D and embarked on the expensive construction of an Amphitheater in the Campus Martius the stone-built foundations were faced with marble while the main structure was constructed of wood and shaded with a sky blue awning decorated with stars construction projects were not his only target for spending and ever willing to increase his support using his wealth he made a gift of 400 sistersis to each citizen of Rome in the following year when he held his third consulship complaints from Farmers and those in the harbors about the indirect taxes collected by the publicani or tax collectors reached the emperor initially Nero suggested abolishing all indirect taxes throughout the Empire however it seems he was dissuaded from this action and instead issued an edict to all the provincial Governors and the urban Prater of Rome but all cases brought against the publicani were to be given priority in another show of generosity Nero also improved the lot of three Senators who had fallen below the minimum wealth requirement for membership of the Senate granting them each a generous gift thereby satisfying the requirements perhaps in part because of his generosity and good standing with the Senate they offered him the consulship for life which he declined it was in the same year that the notorious prosecutor swirlius Rufus faced charges relating to his activities as a prosecutor during claudius's rule indeed it was his string of prosecutions that prompted Gaius cilius to raise the issue of Reviving The sinsian Law which banned defendants paying orators to plead their case Rufus argued his position in front of Nero stating that what he had done had been on the orders of the late Emperor but Nero found no mention of any orders in claudius's records and so Rufus changed Tac arguing that the orders had come from messalina but this claim while it wasn't challenged didn't save him and he was exiled but of all the events in 58 A.D likely the one that occupied nearer the most was his infatuation with popea Sabina a noble Woman married to a member of the Roman aristocracy some sources suggest her marriage to a man called Otto was a sham to disguise their Affair until such time as Nero could divorce Claudia Octavia whatever the truth of the matter Otto was appointed as governor of Lusitania located in present-day Portugal in Spain where he was to remain until the end of Nero's rule leaving Nero free to continue his affair with popeir Nero's mother agropina strongly opposed the idea of divorce which was frowned upon in Roman society angered by his mother's intransigence and in the belief that she was plotting to murder him he ordered his mother to be killed but killing his mother was not to prove easy Nero employed the services of the Freed Man anacetus who was in charge of the mycenae fleet who also had a dislike for agrippina supposedly the first plan anesitis devised involved a mechanism placed into the ceiling of agrippina's room which would loosen the supports and calls the ceiling to fall on her while she slept however it seems the plan was leaked and was scrapped it was then that the idea of the trick boat was conceived that would sink with agrapina on board however it should be noted that given the implaus ability of such a craft it is possible that there was some confusion in the ancient sources when describing the murder the Act was planned to take place during the Festival of Miniver while Nero was at the resort of Baya and to this end feigning a wish for reconciliation Nero invited agropina to join him which she accepted traveling by ship from antium on the night that agropina dined with Nero he showed her much outward affection and when the banquet was concluded walked her down to the shore where the ship was waiting agrippina is said to have casually reclined on board with her friend aceronia until the weighted canopy above them collapsed killing another companion instantly however the crucial section failed to work even so agrippina and aceronia ended up in the water and when asaronia called out for help claiming to be agrapina she was quickly killed here the sources differ in one account agrippina swam to shore unaided but injured but in another she swam to some fishing boats who took her to Shore and she made her way back to her Villa at bowley where feigning ignorance she sent a messenger to her son reporting the terrible accident Nero was horrified to discover she had survived the murder attempt on the boat and sent three men to her Villa to kill her agrippina is said to have died looking her killers in the eye before the Fatal blow she was said to have bared her stomach and told her executioner to strike the womb that had borne Nero officially described as a traitor she was denied a state funeral and was hastily cremated and buried in an unmarked grave at the age of 43. the incident damaged nera's popularity which he was never to recover supposedly haunted by his deed Nero moved to Naples where he sent a letter to the Senate written by Seneca in which he outlined his complaint that acropina had sought to bring power to herself and subvert the Loyalty of the praetorians people and Senate and blamed her for the scandals of claudius's Reign culminating in her attempt on Nero's own life following the accident on the ship far from condemning Nero it seems that the Senate reacted with relief and sought to offer their gratitude at her undoing including voting annual games to Mark the Festival of Miniver to celebrate the foiling of agrippina's alleged conspiracy Nero returned to Rome in June to scenes reminiscent of a Triumph and proceeded to the capital where sacrifices were made to the Triad Jupiter Juno and Miniver as well as to Mars ultor symbolizing a victory over Rome's enemies this seemed little ill feeling in Rome for Nero's deed and the few instances such as graffiti and afas performed by datus were treated leniently those that had been exiled during agropina's time as claudius's wife were allowed to return and the ashes of lolia Paulina the wife of former Emperor Caligula were returned to Italy and buried in a newly constructed tomb free from the Restraint of his mother Nera was now able to indulge his passions he began spending extravagantly and giving public performances as a poet and liar player and encouraged members of the upper classes to take dancing lessons although this was regarded as unseemly the Guyana built by Caligula on the far side of Rome was adapted so he could drive chariots away from public view it has been suggested that this concession was advised by Seneca and Burris to steer him away from openly pursuing his other interests which were considered less masculine however it soon became known what Nero was doing and crowds gathered to cheer on the young Emperor perhaps buoyed by his apparent support Nero instituted the juvenalia or youth games to Mark the Shaving of his first beard for which he had a private theater constructed in gardens across the Tiber entrance to the games which followed the dedication ceremony in the temple of Jupiter where his short hair was gathered into a golden box and presented in the temple was strictly By Invitation Only so Nero could be assured of a warm reception of his performances of song poetry and the liar but Nero was not the only one to perform as a number of the invited members of the nobility men and women alike also took to the stage the same year a group of equestrians was established who became the emperor's companions known as the augustiani who would praise and applaud Nero's actions as they followed him it may also be around the time of the juvenalia that Nero's Ludi maximi a series of plays dedicated to the eternity of the Empire took place it was at this event that tokens were thrown into the crowd which could be exchanged for a number of prizes including Jewels slaves horses and in some instances even houses 60 A.D the year in which Nero held his fourth consulship saw the establishment of more games Greek in style when the inaugural neronian games came into being Loosely modeled on those founded by Augustus in Greece after the victory at actium the festivities included recitations and music as well as Athletics competitions that in keeping with Greek tradition were performed naked although Nero didn't perform in the games himself he was still awarded a number of first prizes for Latin poetry and rhetoric only declining the prize for best performance on the liar instead placing it at the foot of a statue of Augustus as a mark of respect to the first emperor following the success of the games construction of a large public bath house and adjoining gymnasium began but all was not well with Nero and purportedly in this year as with the year of claudius's death a Comet appeared in the sky it's been suggested that Nero may also have suffered from a bout of ill health raising the question of the succession such was the speculation that Nero felt obliged to Exile rebellious plotus quietly to his Estates in Asia Minor seeing him as a rival given his descendancy from Augustus and Tiberius Rome saw both victories and defeats in the same year in Armenia and Britain general corbullo was successful in conquering the Armenian Capital artaxata which led to the installation of the pro-roman tigranes as king of Armenia but in Britain there was a very different story in the previous year the king of the icinai a client ruler of the Romans prasutagas died naming Nero as co-air along with his daughters in his will however in claiming the kingdom for the emperor the heavy-handed tactics of the financial procurator cattas decianus in plundering the land and confiscating the weapons of the tribe did not go down well with the widowed Queen Boudicca who tried to resist but her efforts were futile and resulted in her being flogged and both her daughters being raped outraged by the conduct of the Romans the icinai made common cause with the trinovantes tribe to the South who had their own grievances against the Romans uniting against them with the governor paulinus engaged Against The Druids in Anglesey Boudicca defeated a special force which had been sent against them before marching on kamaludunam sacking the town and removing the head of a statue of Claudius from Kamala dunam they marched on to londinium and then verulamian raiding both towns and putting many citizens to the sword but in their fervor the tribes wasted the opportunity to cut off the under strength paolinus who had returned ahead of the bulk of his main Force allowing him to join up with the men marching down from Anglesey despite Less in number paulinus now had the advantage and proceeded against boudicca's Army unable to bring their numbers to Bear against the Roman line the tribes were pressed against the Roman Shields losing the advantage of the greater reach their swords provided but putting them in range for the Roman short swords designed for stabbing to do their work the tribal Warriors fell in droves until their resolve broke but were hindered in their retreat by a line of wagons they'd drawn up behind them overconfident in their ability to Prevail against the legionaries following the defeat Boudicca took poison to avoid falling into the hands of the Romans and the legionaries subsequently took retribution on much of the area of Eastern England that had been involved in the Rebellion causing a famine among the beleaguered communities the Freed Man polychlitus was sent to assess the situation in Britain and soon paulinus was replaced as Governor archaeological evidence can be found in all three towns for the raids by Buddha forces however although the site of the final battle between the two armies has never been identified in 62 A.D the way was now clear for Nero to divorce Claudia Octavia as Burris who had always been staunchly opposed to the idea had died Nero rapidly pressed the case that Claudia Octavia had failed to provide him with an heir however as she had supplied the link to Augustus that legitimized his claim as Emperor and also given her personal popularity the Imperial bodyguard tigalinas suggested the removal of two figures who could be seen as Rivals Faustus Sula who was married to Claudia Antonia claudius's other daughter and rebellious plorters who were both already in Exile was summarily executed without trial with Nero portraying them as agitators in less than two weeks Nero concluded his divorce and had married the pregnant popeir demonstrations soon arose however when Claudia Octavia was exiled to Campagna to quell the growing unrest Nero once again utilized the services of anesitas convincing him to confess to adultery with Claudia Octavia which he did for his Services he received a comfortable Exile in Sardinia Claudia Octavia on the other hand was transferred to the island of panditaria and executed a few days later her veins being opened to make it appear as a suicide having not produced an heir with Claudia Octavia the birth of Nero and Papaya's daughter Claudia in January 63 A.D at the Imperial Villa in antium was a joyous occasion for all the Senate lavished honors upon both papaya and the infant including the title of Augusta for both of them and a great many of the Senators upon reaching the Villa would duly received into Claudia's presence however the happiness wasn't to last when only a few months later their daughter died Nero's outpouring of grief was only matched by The Joy he had shown at her birth following Claudia's death she was terrified but there were to be no more children for Nero and prepare this same year the gymnasium was said to have been struck by lightning and destroyed by fire burning so hot that a bronze statue of Nero melted although some place this event in the previous year by 64 A.D as the influence of tigalinus and papaya grew there was a feeling of discontentment among the Nobles of Rome but this didn't stop Nero from pressing ahead and taking the leap to make his debut artistic performance to the masses however he chose not to perform in Rome instead selecting the former Greek colony of Naples as he believed that those of Greek culture would appreciate his skills it may have been due to his plans to perform that is augustiani Entourage was increased to 5 000 individuals demand to see his performance was huge and so the event which ran over several days was held in an open-air arena rather than a theater to accommodate all those who wish to see the emperor perform Nero appeared for several days on end before the performances were cut short by an earthquake although it is said that Nero continued his act through the first Tremor not wishing to leave it unfinished only later that day after the performers and audience had vacated the structure did it collapse Nero unlike some took this as a good omen and composed a poem giving thanks to the gods that no life was lost following his performance in Naples Nero then planned to sail onto Greece stopping at beneventum where he was presented with the news of the suicide of Decimus unius silanas toquatas brother to the deceased Marcus Junius solanus Nero had arranged for turquoitus to face charges of harboring Imperial ambition before his departure for Naples upon receiving the news Nero lamented that had talkuatus only forestalled his suicide in advance of condemnation he would have been spared by Nero's own clemency Nero now changed his mind about the trip to Greece although no explicit reason was given it has been suggested that growing suspicions in the young Emperor coupled with talkatis's suicide may have played a part it was on his return to Rome when he first started thinking about making a trip to the east in particular Egypt and when he reached the city he assured the people that his trip wouldn't keep him away for long and everything would continue to operate as normal in his absence seeking to find the most favorable time for the journey Nero ascended the capital line the smallest of the Hills of Rome to venerate and make sacrifices to the gods paying particular attention to Jupiter and Apollo all seemed to be in his favor until he descended to the Temple of Vesta and was overtaken by a seizure which he interpreted as a poor Omen from the guardian of the Roman people and promptly canceled the trip publicly Nero gave the excuse for the cancellation that he couldn't bear to be away from his beloved people and instigated lavish celebrations to demonstrate his feelings for his subjects purportedly culminating in an orgy organized by tigalinas and the mock marriage of Nero as the bride to Friedman Pythagoras which some among Society considered to be an immoral excess the overindulgence of the Imperial Court was soon to end however when on the 18th of July 64 A.D a fire started in the Campus Martius and quickly spread through the shops and stalls surrounding it it wasn't long before the blaze driven by the wind was spreading up the Palatine Hill engulfing everything in its path soon overtaking Nero's Palace the emperor however wasn't in Residence that night but staying in antium and was only made aware of the fire in the early hours of the morning when a messenger arrived to convey the news Nero reacted immediately riding for Rome Rome had had a fire brigade since 21 BC and when Nero finally arrived in the city he set about organizing their efforts to help the population he opened up the buildings and temples on the field of Mars and his own Gardens providing a safe space for the survivors to rest escape the flames and tent to their wounds Nero threw himself into the firefighting efforts for six days until it seemed they had finally brought the situation under control exhausted those who had fought the fire sought sleep but it soon flared up again in the area of tigalina's property raging for a further three days of the 14 districts of Rome only four escaped the ravages of the fire with 75 percent of the city destroyed popular Legend claims Nero fiddled while Rome burned however although he did allegedly weep copiously and recite poetry at the disaster if he had played an instrument it would most likely have been one similar to a liar in the aftermath of the fire despite Nero's efforts to bring in extra grain supplies and slash prices to provide the populace with much needed food he and his associates including tigalinus were blamed for the blaze in the days that followed Nero went about the city to plan the rebuilding and issued a number of reforms to regulations in an attempt to make it a safer place but suspicions grew when he took for himself a huge parcel of land on which his massive New Palace the 100 Acre domus aurea or golden house would be built at the same time as planning for his new Palace in response to the difficulties in supplying Rome with much needed grain a canal was planned to be dug from the avernus lake to ostia but the work was later abandoned although it is unknown who instigated it the blame for the fire was shifted onto the burgeoning sect of Christians who refused to acknowledge the Roman gods bringing the ire of the Gods down on the city the number of Christians killed is unknown but they were subjected to cruel executions such as wearing garments soaked in pitch and burned alive as well as being torn apart by dogs or crucified but there was another serious outcome of the fire in 62 A.D shortly after his withdrawal Seneca had been linked with the senator NEOS calpurnius piso in accusations laid against him by the Informer Romanus Seneca successfully rebutted the accusations and little attention was paid to them going forward piso however nursed serious resentments against Nero while openly playing the role of his friend and in the aftermath of the fire with many seeing Nero as taking extravagant Liberties in his proposed rebuilding of the city and his own residence he began recruiting other disenchanted Senators to his cause piso attempted to recruit Seneca but was initially rebuffed although seemingly not out of loyalty to the emperor Seneca was purported to have only become involved when his nephew annais lukanas better known as the poet lukan joined the plot at the same time a small number of officers within the praetorians including the second prefect Phineas Rufus were also talking of conspiracy the two groups met but what discussions they had ended in stalemates with neither able to act without the support of the other but the decision was taken out of the hands of both sides by the freed woman epicarus the lover of lucan's Father Aeneas mailer when she tried unsuccessfully to recruit a captain of the mycena fleet volusius proculus who betrayed her to Nero epicarus was held in custody as Nero was holidaying in bayai but fear of what would be said once she passed into the hands of tigalinas prompted action by the conspirators the initial plan of piso murdering Nero as he visited his Villa was rejected likely out of fear that another would supplant him as candidate for Emperor with his absence from the city the conspirators finally settled on the Festival of Ceres in April 65 A.D to eliminate Nero with piso thereafter to be taken to the praetorian camp by the prefect Rufus to be hailed as Emperor but the plot was betrayed by one of the conspirators Nero didn't hesitate in ordering the execution without trial of piso who for his part did not resist committing suicide when the praetorians sent to deal with him arrived at his door but when it came to Seneca this seems to have been some reluctance on the emperor's part even after he was joined by popea and tigalinas who both had reasons to wish for seneca's death and instead of ordering his execution he sent the praetorian Tribune Sylvanas who was among the conspirators to find out what he had to say but by the time Sylvanas returned to Nero with seneca's response the situation had evolved and when lucan's part in the conspiracy was revealed Sylvanas was sent back to Seneca with a warrant for either his arrest or suicide despite the Tribune's delay in seeking the advice of Rufus on whether to present the waret he did go to Seneca in order to keep the praetorian's complicity in the plot secret on receiving the warrant Seneca is supposed to have lamented that Nero murdered his mother and brother now he has nothing worse left to do than kill his foster father and Mentor seneca's involvement in the plot is attested in various sources but many modern historians view his involvement as unlikely of the approximately 40 conspirators Elise 17 received the death penalty While others were pardoned or exiled Rufus was beheaded and replaced in his position as prefect by nymphedius Sabinas for his part in revealing the conspiracy the Freedman milicus was rewarded with wealth and the title of Savior one of those who died was epicarus who committed suicide to escape the torture she was subjected to now Nero turned on those who sought to vote him honors after the foiling of the conspiracy and had his agents actively search out possible conspiracies against him in the years that followed both Friends of the emperor and those who opposed him would face death among the victims would be Claudia Antonia the last surviving child of Claudius who was denounced and sentenced to death for a supposed part in the conspiracy after refusing Nero's offer of marriage to add to Nero's woes 65 A.D also saw the death of his beloved wife pupe it has long been said that in a fit of rage Nero kicked the pregnant papere to death after she chastised him for returning late from the races there is nothing to suggest this is more than a malicious rumor the likely true cause of her death is natural as early into her pregnancy she miscarried and began hemorrhaging and couldn't be saved rejecting traditional Roman Rite of cremation Nero instead chose to have prepare embalmed in the style of Egyptian Royal women and delivered her eulogy himself Nero married for the third time in 66 A.D to statelia messalina the Widow of the Consular vestinus Atticus who had been forced to commit suicide in the aftermath of the piso conspiracy in the same year Nero finally embarked on his postponed trip to Greece making his feelings towards the Senate clear Nero appointed the Freed Man helius and polyclitis to manage Affairs in his absence with assistance from the prefect nymphedius the thinned ranks of senators did not oppose his decision and Nero and his huge Entourage took the leave of the city in September sometime after Nero's arrival in Greece he invited corbullo to join him in Corinth in 67 A.D and the general Julie accepted his offer but instead of being welcomed by the emperor he was met by a warrant for his suicide likely for his connection to vinicianus corbullo didn't resist and ended his life shortly after the commanders of the armies the brothers Rufus and proculus scribonius who may have been in correspondence with corbullo received similar warrants and both committed suicide before leaving Rome Nero had sent word ahead to the Greeks that he wished to participate in all of their festivals and so the timetable was changed to accommodate the emperor he spent his time traveling around the country performing at various festivals and was awarded in the region of 1800 prizes even receiving a prize for his driving of a 10 horse Chariot which ended in an accident which he was lucky to survive however supposedly still haunted by the memory of his mother and the avenging deities the furies he refrained from visiting either Athens or eluses it was during this trip that he met the slave spores who was sent to resemble his wife prepare so much that the boy was castrated and married to Nero calvia Chris benila a woman of noble birth was placed in charge of spores's wardrobe with instructions to dress him in Only The Finest Clothing befitting of prepare and to ensure his hair and makeup made him the very image of his deceased wife his tour culminated in November 67 A.D in his giving Greece its freedom in the sense that the entire Province was released from the burden of taxes due to the Empire as a further gesture Nero laid plans and dug the first shovel full of Earth for the proposed canal through the Corinth Isthmus however as with the earlier avernus Canal the work was not to be completed but Nero's actions in Greece were viewed as favoritism and proof of his Hellenic leanings as well as making yet another show of his lavish spending habits and only caused further resentment towards him 67 A.D not only witnessed Nero's achievements in Greece however as trouble had been brewing in Judea and other areas of the Jewish diaspora during the previous year including the massacre of a Roman Garrison at Masada early in 67 A.D it descended into full-scale war following the murder of the Syrian Governor a new governor was installed and Vespasian was put in command of three Legions in order to quell the violence Vespasian was successful in his campaigns reaching Jerusalem in the summer of 68 A.D but Victory would not be achieved until two years after Nero's death in 70 A.D with some resistance continuing in 73 A.D his visit to Greece was supposed to have lasted two years but matters were declining in Rome helius attempted several times to persuade Nero to return to the imperial capital but the emperor ignored him it was only when he traveled to Greece to meet Nero in person that he was persuaded of the gravity of the ill feeling back in Rome and at last agreed to return but Nero still made time to enjoy a Triumph in Naples and again upon reaching Rome where he drove augustus's own triumphal Chariot but he didn't remain in the city for long and spent the spring of 68 A.D in the Bay of Naples his break was interrupted by news that the governor Gaius Julius vindex a romanized Gaul had rebelled and was raising an army of Gauls but it seems that the news did little to trouble him and he delayed informing the senate for some time again he showed little concern when he finally met the senate in a completed section of the domus aurea in the heart of Rome preferring to discuss the engineering of his new Palace rather than the Rebellion but more was to follow when on the 2nd of April galber proclaimed loyalty for the Senate instead of Nero and began building up his strength by recruiting a second Legion under his command and quickly he found support among other Governors including Otto who was still in Lusitania Nero's response was to name himself as sole suffect Consul and instruct three Legions on the Rhine to march on the rebels besieging lugdunum while those Legions in Italy were sent North dividing the forces between the defense of the river poor and sending some into Gaul Nero supposedly considered accompanying the Italian Legions but not in a military capacity instead having musical instruments loaded into wagons for the entertainment of troops as well as providing them with concubines who were to play the part of Amazon Warriors at a safe distance from any battle but it seems he gave up on the idea however things quickly grew worse when the commander of the Rhine Legions virginius supposedly Allied himself with vindex although the alliance unraveled the next day when the legions slaughtered 20 000 of the Gauls leading to vindex's Suicide virginius despite being held as imperato repeatedly by his troops refused to lead the them into Italy and instead wrote to the Senate to State his intention of waiting for their orders as the weeks wore on Nero seemed to have been planning to move a number of Legions and was making arrangements to travel to Alexandria to bring a large enough Force back to act in the protection of Italy but behind the scenes nymphedius was making his own plans for Nero's downfall in concert with an agent of galba an advance party was sent ahead to Alexandria likely on the advice of nymphedius comprising many of Nero's freed men and Germanic bodyguard leaving only the praetorians under the prefect to guard the emperor and when he instructed them to escort him to ostia they refused Nero went to bed that night still guarded but waking in the night he found both the praetorians and many of his servants gone finding the palace almost deserted he fled with two freed men fan and epaphroditis and sporus making forfeon's Villa outside Rome later that night news reached the Villa the Nero had been deposed in favor of and declared a public enemy and would face the ancient punishment of being paraded through the streets naked and beaten to death with staves epaphroditis suggested suicide a dawn on the 9th of June Nero went outside the villa and with epaphroditis helped stab himself through the throat Jester's soldiers arrived to take him into custody supposedly shortly before he died he uttered the words what an artist dies here his body was claimed by Claudia actor and prepared by her and two of his nurses from childhood before being quietly cremated his ashes were placed in the domitian family tomb with Nero's death the Julio claudian line came to an end but soon Rome would be plunged into turmoil with the Civil War in the following year that has become known as the year of the four emperors Nero's Reign was divided into two parts by the ancient historians the good and bad ears the Turning Point beginning with the death of agrapina ascending to the principate at a young age through the maneuvering of his mother he was assisted in his rule extensively by his advisors much of what he did in these early years was undoubtedly influenced by Seneca and Boris and less and less by agrippina as time went on and so it is difficult to truly assess Nero as an independent ruler in his own right in the beginning he was popular and enacted a number of reforms and decrees that benefited the people of the Empire from all ranks from the outset he chose to work with the Senate and banned the much-feared maestas trials which had caused the deaths of many his love of the Arts provided the Grateful masses with popular entertainment although gladiatorial combat was somewhat reduced in favor of the theater and chariot races which Nero preferred his building projects as as well initially were to the benefit of all and included a market and the large public baths and gymnasium as well as continuing with the construction of the ostia harbor begun under Claudius he also took steps to ensure the grain Supply although his Canal project would be later abandoned after the murder of his mother followed by the loss of burrows and the withdrawal of Seneca those that were close to him were of the more malign in influence and the lavishness of his court was resented by many even more so after the fire for which he was blamed when he claimed a huge parcel of land to build the 100 Acre domus aurea Golden House Palace complex taxation for the rebuilding of Rome and the subsequent reform that allowed him to confiscate the wealth of those who hadn't made provision for him in their will only served to make him more unpopular with the Restraint of his former advisors gone Nero was free to indulge his Follies and While others of the nobility took to the stage many despised Nero for his assault on Roman virtues although the prosecutions under Nero did not amount to the numbers seen under previous Emperors in the later years no one was safe as his suspicions deepened and took hold even his old tutor Seneca who had been held in high regard for years ultimately Nero's Hellenic leanings and lavishness sealed his downfall when after surviving two senatorial conspiracies he was brought down by the very man he relied upon for his protection what do you think of Emperor Nero should he be remembered and Vindicated for the good years of his rule or does he deserve the reputation of the man who fiddled while Rome burned that has come down to us Through the Ages please let us know in the comment section and in the meantime thank you very much for watching 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Id: wDIauB1jYcM

Length: 320min 24sec (19224 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 24 2023