Tiberius: The Reluctant Emperor

The mob now rampaged through the streets smashing the many statues of Sejanus and attacking anybody they believed may have been a supporter of the traitor. While the city was distracted, Macro carried out  the killing of Sejanus’s young children. His daughter was still a virgin. As it was illegal under Roman Law to kill a virgin she was raped before being murdered. Tiberius, who was nothing if not vindictive, now ordered a purge of the city and it was said that the streets flowed with blood as if the sewers had been opened up.

As for Sejanus’s lover Livilla, her mother Antonia dealt with her personally. She ordered her daughter to be barricaded in her rooms and starved to death. She remained outside and listened to her screams until they ceased and she had been certified dead.   

Falling the fall of Sejanus and having reasserted his control over Rome, Tiberius withdrew from politics altogether. The Civil Service could run the damn Empire. As for his successor, it would either be his nephew Caligula or his grandson Gemellus. He named them as co-Emperor’s in his will, but Gemellus was still a child.

Tiberius died at Misenum on 16 March AD 37, aged 78. The story circulated that after he had been pronounced dead he came back to life and noisily demanded his dinner. Caligula, who had already declared himself Emperor panicked and shaking with fear tried to run away from scene, and it was Macro who saved the day by entering the Emperor’s bedchamber and smothering the old man to death. Whether this was the case or not, Rome breathed a sigh of relief at Tiberius’s passing. Now they had a son of Germanicus as there new Emperor. Things would be like they were in the golden age. One of the first orders Caligula gave was to have the child Gemellus killed.