TIBERIUS 14AD Pella Macedonia Authentic Biblical Times Ancient Roman Coin i52691

Item: i52691

Authentic Ancient

Coin of:

Tiberius
–
Roman Emperor
: 14-37 A.D. –

Bronze 25mm (9.52 grams) of

Pella in

Macedonia
under C. Baebius P.f. and L. Rusticelius Basterna, struck circa 14-23 A.D.
Reference: RPC 1537
TI CAESAR – AVG F AVGVSTVS, Bare head of Tiberius right.
C BAEBIVS P F / L RVSTICELIVS / BASTERNA / IIVIR QVINQ / DD legend five lines.

You are bidding on the exact item pictured,

Authenticity.

Pella (Greek:

Πέλλα), an ancient city located in

Pella Prefecture

of

Macedonia

in Greece

, was the

capital

of the

ancient

kingdom

of

Macedon

. A common

folk etymology

is traditionally given for the name Pella, ascribing

it to a form akin to the

Doric

Apella
,

originally meaning a ceremonial location where decisions were made.^[1]

However, the local form of Greek was not Doric, and the word exactly matches

standard Greek pélla “stone”, undoubtedly referring to a famous landmark

from the time of its foundation.

Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus, born Tiberius Claudius Nero (November

16, 42 BC

–

March 16
,

AD 37

), was the second

Roman

Emperor
, from the death of

Augustus
in

AD 14 until his own death in 37. Tiberius was by birth a

Claudian

, son of

Tiberius Claudius Nero

and

Livia Drusilla
.

His mother divorced his father and was remarried to

Octavian

Augustus
in 39 BC, making him a

step-son

of Octavian. Tiberius would later marry Augustus’ daughter

Julia the Elder

(from an earlier marriage) and even later be adopted by

Augustus, by which act he officially became a

Julian

, bearing the name Tiberius Julius Caesar. The subsequent

emperors after Tiberius would continue this blended dynasty of both families for

the next forty years; historians have named it the

Julio-Claudian dynasty

.

Tiberius was one of

Rome’s

greatest

generals

, whose campaigns in

Pannonia
,

Illyricum

,

Rhaetia

and Germania

laid the foundations for the northern frontier. But he came to be

remembered as a dark, reclusive, and somber ruler who never really desired to be

emperor;

Pliny the Elder

called him tristissimus hominum, “the gloomiest of

men.”

After the death of Tiberius’ son

Drusus Julius Caesar

in 23, the quality of his rule declined and ended in a

terror. In 26, Tiberius exiled himself from Rome and left administration largely

in the hands of his unscrupulous

Praetorian Prefects

Lucius Aelius

Sejanus
and Quintus

Naevius Sutorius Macro

.

Caligula
,

Tiberius’ adopted grandson, succeeded the Emperor upon his death.

//

 Early

life

 Background

Tiberius Nero was born on November 16, 42 BC to

Tiberius Nero

and

Livia Drusilla

, in Rome.

In 39 BC, his mother divorced his biological father and remarried

Gaius Julius

Caesar Octavianus
shortly thereafter, while still pregnant with Tiberius

Nero’s son. Shortly thereafter in 38 BC his brother,

Nero Claudius Drusus

, was born.

Little is recorded of Tiberius’s early life. In 32 BC, Tiberius made his first

public appearance at the age of nine, delivering the

eulogy
for his

biological father.

In 29 BC, both he and his brother Drusus rode in the triumphal chariot along

with their adoptive father Octavian in celebration of the defeat of Antony and

Cleopatra at Actium
.

In 26 BC, Augustus became gravely ill, and his possible death threatened to

plunge the Roman world into chaos again. Historians generally agree that it is

during this time that the question of Augustus’s heir became most acute, and

while Augustus had seemed to indicate that Agrippa and Marcellus would carry on

his position in the event of his death, the ambiguity of succession became

Augustus’s chief problem.

In response, a series of potential heirs seem to have been selected, among

them Tiberius and his brother, Drusus. In 24 BC, at the age of seventeen,

Tiberius entered politics under Augustus’s direction, receiving the position of

quaestor
,

and was granted the right to stand for election as

praetor
and

consul
five

years in advance of the age required by law.

Similar provisions were made for Drusus.

 Civil

and military career

Shortly thereafter Tiberius began appearing in court as an

advocate
,

and it is presumably here that his interest in Greek rhetoric began. In 20 BC,

Tiberius was sent East under

Marcus Agrippa

.

The

Parthians

had captured the standards of the

legions

under the command of

Marcus Licinius Crassus

(53 BC) (at the

Battle of Carrhae

), Decidius Saxa (40 BC), and

Marc Antony

(36 BC).

After several years of negotiation, Tiberius led a sizable force into

Armenia

, presumably with the goal of establishing it as a Roman client-state

and as a threat on the Roman-Parthian border, and Augustus was able to reach a

compromise whereby these standards were returned, and Armenia remained a neutral

territory between the two powers.

After returning from the East in 19 BC, Tiberius was married to

Vipsania Agrippina

, the daughter of Augustus’s close friend and greatest

general,

Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa

,

appointed praetor, and sent with his legions to assist his brother Drusus in

campaigns in the west. While Drusus focused his forces in

Gallia Narbonensis

and along the German frontier, Tiberius combated the

tribes in the Alps

and within

Transalpine Gaul

,

conquering Raetia

. In 15 BC he discovered the sources of the

Danube
, and

soon afterwards the bend of the middle course.

Returning to Rome in 13 BC, Tiberius was appointed as consul, and around this

same time his son,

Drusus Julius Caesar

, was born.

Agrippa’s death in 12 BC elevated Tiberius and Drusus with respect to the

succession. At Augustus’ request, Tiberius divorced Vipsania and married

Julia the Elder

, Augustus’ daughter and Agrippa’s widow.

This event seems to have been the breaking point for Tiberius; his marriage with

Julia was never a happy one, and produced only a single child which died in

infancy.

Reportedly, Tiberius once ran into Vipsania again, and proceeded to follow her

home crying and begging forgiveness;

soon afterwards, Tiberius met with Augustus, and steps were taken to ensure that

Tiberius and Vipsania would never meet again.

Tiberius continued to be elevated by Augustus, and after Agrippa’s death and his

brother Drusus’ death in 9 BC, seemed the clear candidate for succession. As

such, in 12 BC he received military commissions in

Pannonia

and Germania
;

both areas highly volatile and key to Augustan policy. He returned to Rome and

was consul for a second time in 7 BC, and in 6 BC was granted

tribunician power

(tribunicia potestas) and control in the East,

all of which mirrored positions that Agrippa had previously held. However,

despite these successes and despite his advancement, Tiberius was not happy.

 Retirement

to Rhodes

In 6 BC, on the verge of accepting command in the East and becoming the

second most powerful man in Rome, Tiberius suddenly announced his withdrawal

from politics and retired to

Rhodes
.

The precise motives for Tiberius’s withdrawal are unclear.

Historians have speculated a connection with the fact that Augustus had adopted

Julia’s sons by Agrippa

Gaius

and Lucius

, and seemed to be moving them along the same political path that both

Tiberius and Drusus had trodden.

Tiberius thus seemed to be an interim solution: he would hold power only until

his stepsons would come of age, and then be swept aside. The promiscuous, and

very public, behavior of his unhappily married wife, Julia,

may have also played a part.

Indeed, Tacitus

calls it Tiberius’ intima causa, his innermost reason for departing for

Rhodes, and seems to ascribe the entire move to a hatred of Julia and a longing

for Vipsania.

Tiberius had found himself married to a woman he loathed, who publicly

humiliated him with nighttime escapades in the Forum, and forbidden to see the

woman he had loved.

Whatever Tiberius’s motives, the withdrawal was almost disastrous for

Augustus’s succession plans. Gaius and Lucius were still in their early teens,

and Augustus, now 57 years old, had no immediate successor. There was no longer

a guarantee of a peaceful transfer of power after Augustus’s death, nor a

guarantee that his family, and therefore his family’s allies, would continue to

hold power should the position of

princeps

survive. Somewhat apocryphal stories tell of Augustus pleading with Tiberius to

stay, even going so far as to stage a serious illness.

Tiberius’s response was to anchor off the shore of

Ostia
until word

came that Augustus had survived, then sailing straightway for Rhodes.

Tiberius reportedly discovered the error of his ways and requested to return to

Rome several times, but each time Augustus refused his requests.

 Heir

to Augustus

With Tiberius’s departure, succession rested solely on

Augustus
‘

two young grandsons, Lucius and Gaius Caesar. The situation became more

precarious in AD 2 with the death of Lucius. Augustus, with perhaps some

pressure from Livia, allowed Tiberius to return to Rome as a private citizen and

nothing more.

In AD 4, Gaius was killed in

Armenia
and,

Augustus had no other choice but to turn to Tiberius.

The death of Gaius in AD 4 initiated a flurry of activity in the household of

Augustus. Tiberius was adopted as full son and heir and in turn, he was required

to adopt his nephew,

Germanicus
,

the son of his brother Drusus and Augustus’ niece

Antonia Minor

.

Along with his adoption, Tiberius received tribunician power as well as a share

of Augustus’s maius imperium, something that even Marcus Agrippa may

never have had.

In AD 7,

Agrippa Postumus

, a younger brother of Gaius and Lucius, was disowned by

Augustus and banned to the island of

Planasia
, to

live in solitary confinment.

Thus, when in AD 13, the powers held by Tiberius were made equal, rather than

second, to Augustus’s own powers, he was for all intents and purposes a

“co-princeps” with Augustus, and in the event of the latter’s passing, would

simply continue to rule without an

interregnum

or possible upheaval.

Augustus died in AD 14, at the age of 75.

He was buried with all due ceremony and, as had been arranged beforehand,

deified
,

his will read, and Tiberius confirmed as his sole surviving heir.

 Emperor

 Early

reign

The Senate convened on September 18, to validate Tiberius’s position as

Princeps and, as it had done with Augustus before, extend the powers of the

position to him.

These proceedings are fully accounted by

Tacitus
.

Tiberius already had the administrative and political powers of the Princeps,

all he lacked were the titles—Augustus,

Pater

Patriae
, and the

Civic

Crown
(a crown made from

laurel

and oak
,

in honor of Augustus having saved the lives of Roman citizens).

Tiberius, however, attempted to play the same role as Augustus, that of the

reluctant public servant who wants nothing more than to serve the state.

This ended up throwing the entire affair into confusion, and rather than humble,

he came across as derisive; rather than seeming to want to serve the state, he

seemed obstructive.

He cited his age as a reason why he could not act as Princeps, stated he did not

wish the position, and then proceeded to ask for only a section of the state.

Tiberius finally relented and accepted the powers voted to him, though according

to Tacitus and Suetonius he refused to bear the titles

Pater

Patriae
, Imperator, and Augustus, and declined the most solid emblem of the

Princeps, the Civic Crown and laurels.

This meeting seems to have set the tone for Tiberius’s entire rule. He seems

to have wished for the Senate and the state to simply act without him and his

direct orders were vague, inspiring debate more on what he actually meant than

on passing his legislation.

In his first few years, Tiberius seemed to have wanted the Senate to act on its

own,

rather than as a servant to his will as it had been under Augustus. According to

Tacitus, Tiberius derided the Senate as “men fit to be slaves.”

 Rise

and fall of Germanicus

Problems arose quickly for the new Princeps. The legions posted in

Pannonia

and in Germania

had not been paid the bonuses promised them by Augustus, and after a short

period of time, when it was clear that a response from Tiberius was not

forthcoming, mutinied

.

Germanicus

and Tiberius’s son,

Drusus

, were dispatched with a small force to quell the uprising and bring

the legions back in line. Rather than simply quell the mutiny however,

Germanicus rallied the mutineers and led them on a short campaign across the

Rhine into Germanic territory, stating that whatever booty they could grab would

count as their bonus.

Germanicus’s forces smashed across the Rhine and quickly occupied all of the

territory between the Rhine and the

Elbe. Additionally,

Tacitus records the capture of the

Teutoburg forest

and the reclaiming of

standards

lost years before by

Publius Quinctilius Varus

,

when three Roman legions and its auxiliary cohorts

had been ambushed

by a band of Germans.

Germanicus had managed to deal a significant blow to Rome’s enemies, quell an

uprising of troops, and once again return lost standards to Rome, actions that

increased the fame and legend of the already very popular Germanicus with the

Roman people.

After being recalled from Germania,

Germanicus celebrated a

triumph

in Rome in AD 17,

the first full triumph that the city had seen since Augustus’s own in 29 BC. As

a result, in AD 18 Germanicus was granted control over the eastern part of the

empire, just as both Agrippa and Tiberius had received before, and was clearly

the successor to Tiberius.

Germanicus survived a little over a year before dying, accusing

Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso

, the governor of

Syria
, of

poisoning him.

The Pisones had been longtime supporters of the Claudians, and had allied

themselves with the young Octavian after his marriage to Livia, the mother of

Tiberius; Germanicus’s death and accusations indicted the new Princeps. Piso was

placed on trial and, according to Tacitus, threatened to implicate Tiberius.

Whether the governor actually could connect the Princeps to the death of

Germanicus will never be known; rather than continuing to stand trial when it

became evident that the Senate was against him, Piso committed

suicide
.

Tiberius seems to have tired of politics at this point. In AD 22, he shared his

tribunician authority with his son Drusus,

and began making yearly excursions to Campania that reportedly became longer and

longer every year. In AD 23, Drusus mysteriously died,

and Tiberius seems to have made no effort to elevate a replacement. Finally, in

AD 26, Tiberius retired

from Rome altogether to the island of

Capri
.

 Tiberius

in Capri, Sejanus in Rome

Lucius Aelius

Sejanus
had served the imperial family for almost twenty years when he

became

Praetorian Prefect

in AD 15. As Tiberius became more embittered with the

position of Princeps, he began to depend more and more upon the limited

secretariat left to him by Augustus, and specifically upon Sejanus and the

Praetorians. In AD 17 or 18, Tiberius had trimmed the ranks of the

Praetorian guard

responsible for the defense of the city, and had moved it

from encampments outside of the city walls

into the city itself

,

giving Sejanus access to somewhere between 6000 and 9000 troops. The death of

Drusus elevated Sejanus, at least in Tiberius’s eyes, who thereafter refers to

him as his ‘Socius Laborum’ (Partner in my labours). Tiberius had statues of

Sejanus erected throughout the city,

and Sejanus became more and more visible as Tiberius began to withdraw from Rome

altogether. Finally, with Tiberius’s withdrawal in AD 26, Sejanus was left in

charge of the entire state mechanism and the city of Rome.

Sejanus’s position was not quite that of successor; he had requested marriage

in AD 25 to Tiberius’s niece,

Livilla
,

though under pressure quickly withdrew the request.

While Sejanus’s Praetorians controlled the imperial post, and therefore the

information that Tiberius received from Rome and the information Rome received

from Tiberius,

the presence of Livia

seems to have checked his overt power for a time. Her death in AD 29 changed all

that.

Sejanus began a series of purge trials of Senators and wealthy equestrians in

the city of Rome, removing those capable of opposing his power as well as

extending the imperial (and his own) treasury. Germanicus’s widow

Agrippina

the elder and two of her sons,

Nero

and

Drusus

were arrested and exiled in AD 30 and later all died in suspicious

circumstances.

In 31, Sejanus held the consulship with Tiberius

absentia
,

and began his play for power in earnest. Precisely what happened is difficult to

determine, but Sejanus seems to have covertly attempted to court those families

who were tied to the Julians, and attempted to ingratiate himself with the

Julian family line with an eye towards placing himself, as an adopted Julian, in

the position of Princeps, or as a possible regent.

Livilla
was

later implicated in this plot, and was revealed to have been Sejanus’s lover for

a number of years.

The plot seems to have involved the two of them overthrowing Tiberius, with the

support of the Julians, and either assuming the

Principate

themselves, or serving as regent to the young

Tiberius Gemellus

or possibly even

Gaius Caligula

.

Those who stood in his way were tried for treason and swiftly dealt with.

In AD 31 Sejanus was summoned to a meeting of the Senate, where a letter from

Tiberius was read condemning Sejanus and ordering his immediate execution.

Sejanus was tried, and he and several of his colleagues were executed within the

week.

As commander of the Praetorian Guard, he was replaced by

Naevius Sutorius Macro

.

Tacitus writes that more treason trials followed and that whereas Tiberius

had been hesitant to act at the outset of his reign, now, towards the end of his

life, he seemed to do so without compunction. Hardest hit were those families

with political ties to the Julians. Even the imperial magistracy was hit, as any

and all who had associated with Sejanus or could in some way be tied to his

schemes were summarily tried and executed, their properties seized by the state.

As Tacitus vividly describes,

Executions were now a stimulus to his fury, and he ordered the death of

all who were lying in prison under accusation of complicity with Sejanus.
There lay, singly or in heaps, the unnumbered dead, of every age and sex,
the illustrious with the obscure. Kinsfolk and friends were not allowed to
be near them, to weep over them, or even to gaze on them too long. Spies
were set round them, who noted the sorrow of each mourner and followed the
rotting corpses, till they were dragged to the Tiber, where, floating or
driven on the bank, no one dared to burn or to touch them.

However, Tacitus’ portrayal of a tyrannical, vengeful emperor has been

challenged by several modern historians. The prominent ancient historian

Edward Togo Salmon

notes in his work, A history of the Roman world from

30 B.C. to A.D. 138:

“In the whole twenty two years of Tiberius’ reign, not more than

fifty-two persons were accused of treason, of whom almost half escaped

conviction, while the four innocent people to be condemned fell victims to

the excessive zeal of the Senate, not to the Emperor’s tyranny”.

While Tiberius was in Capri, rumuors abounded as to what exactly he was doing

there. Suetonius

records lurid tales of sexual perversity and cruelty,

and most of all his paranoia.

While sensationalized, Suetonius’ stories at least paint a picture of how

Tiberius was perceived by the Roman people, and what his impact on the

Principate was during his 23 years of rule.

 Final

years

The affair with Sejanus and the final years of treason trials permanently

damaged Tiberius’ image and

reputation
.

After Sejanus’s fall, Tiberius’s withdrawal from Rome was complete; the empire

continued to run under the inertia of the

bureaucracy

established by Augustus, rather than through the leadership of

the Princeps. Suetonius records that he became

paranoid
,

and spent a great deal of time brooding over the death of his son. Meanwhile,

during this period a short invasion by Parthia, incursions by tribes from

Dacia
and from

across the Rhine by several Germanic tribes occurred.

Little was done to either secure or indicate how his

succession

was to take place; the Julians and their supporters had fallen to the wrath of

Sejanus, and his own sons and immediate family were dead. Two of the few

possible candidates were Gaius “Caligula,”

the sole surviving son of Germanicus, as well as his own grandson

Tiberius Gemellus

.

However, only a half-hearted attempt at the end of his Tiberius’ life was made

to make Gaius a quaestor

, and thus give him some credibility as a possible successor, while

Gemellus himself was still only a teenager and thus completely unsuitable for

some years to come.

Tiberius died in

Misenum
on

March 16,

AD 37

, at the age of 77.

Tacitus records that upon the news of his death the crowd rejoiced, only to

become suddenly silent upon hearing that he had recovered, and rejoiced again at

the news that Caligula and Macro had smothered him.

This is not recorded by other ancient historians and is most likely apocryphal,

but it can be taken as an indication of how the senatorial class felt towards

the Emperor at the time of his death. In his

will
,

Tiberius had left his powers jointly to Caligula and Tiberius Gemellus;

Caligula’s first act on becoming Princeps was to void Tiberius’ will and have

Gemellus executed.

The level of unpopularity Tiberius had achieved by the time of his death with

both the upper and lower classes is revealed by these facts: the Senate refused

to vote him divine honors, and mobs filled the streets yelling “To the

Tiber
with

Tiberius!”—in reference to a method of disposal reserved for the corpses of

criminals.

Instead the body of the emperor was cremated and his ashes were quietly laid in

the

Mausoleum of Augustus

.

 Legacy

 Historiography

Were he to have died prior to AD 23, he might have been hailed as an

exemplary ruler.

Despite the overwhelmingly negative characterization left by Roman

historians

, Tiberius left the imperial

treasury

with nearly 3 billion

sesterces

upon his death.^[80][84]

Rather than embark on costly campaigns of conquest, he chose to strengthen the

existing empire by building additional bases, using

diplomacy

as well as military threats, and generally refraining from getting drawn into

petty squabbles between competing frontier tyrants.

The result was a stronger, more consolidated empire. Of the authors whose texts

have survived until the present day, only four describe the reign of Tiberius in

considerable detail:

Tacitus
,

Suetonius
,

Cassius

Dio
and

Velleius Paterculus

. Fragmentary evidence also remains from

Pliny the Elder

,

Strabo
and

Seneca the Elder

. Tiberius himself wrote an autobiography which Suetonius

describes as “brief and sketchy,” but this book has been lost.

 Publius

Cornelius Tacitus

The most detailed account of this period is handed down to us by

Tacitus
,

whose Annals

dedicate the first six books entirely to the reign of Tiberius. Tacitus was a

Roman of the

equestrian

order, born during the reign of

Nero in 56 AD. His

text is largely based on the

(the minutes of the session of the Senate) and the

(a collection of the acts of the government

and news of the court and capital), as well as speeches by Tiberius himself, and

the histories of contemporaries such as

Cluvius Rufus

,

Fabius Rusticus

and

Pliny the Elder

(all of which are lost). Tacitus’ narrative emphasizes both

political and psychological motivation. The characterisation of Tiberius

throughout the first six books is mostly negative, and gradually worsens as his

rule declines, identifying a clear breaking point with the death of

Drusus
in 23

AD.

The rule of Julio-Claudians is generally described as unjust and ‘criminal’ by

Tacitus.

Even at the outset of his reign, he seems to ascribe many of Tiberius’ virtues

merely to hypocrisy.

Another major recurring theme concerns the balance of power between the Senate

and the Emperors,

corruption

, and the growing

tyranny

among the governing classes of Rome. A substantial amount of his

account on Tiberius is therefore devoted to the treason trials and persecutions

following the revival of the maiestas law under

Augustus
.

Ultimately, Tacitus’ opinion on Tiberius is best illustrated by his conclusion

of the sixth book:

His character too had its distinct periods. It was a bright time in his

life and reputation, while under Augustus he was a private citizen or held

high offices; a time of reserve and crafty assumption of virtue, as long as

Germanicus and Drusus were alive. Again, while his mother lived, he was a

compound of good and evil; he was infamous for his cruelty, though he veiled

his debaucheries, while he loved or feared Sejanus. Finally, he plunged into

every wickedness and disgrace, when fear and shame being cast off, he simply

indulged his own inclinations.

 Suetonius

Tranquilius

Suetonius

was an equestrian who held administrative posts during the reigns of

Trajan
and

Hadrian
.

details a biographical history of the principate from

the birth of

Julius Caesar

to the death of

Domitian
in

AD 96. Like Tacitus, he drew upon the imperial archives, as well as histories by

Aufidius Bassus

,

Cluvius Rufus

,

Fabius Rusticus

and Augustus’ own letters, but his account is more

sensationalist and anecdotal than that of his contemporary. The most famous

sections of his biography delve into the numerous alleged debaucheries Tiberius

remitted himself to while at Capri.

Nevertheless, Suetonius also reserves praise for Tiberius’ actions during his

early reign, emphasizing his modesty.

 Velleius

Paterculus

One of the few surviving sources contemporary with the rule of Tiberius comes

from

Velleius Paterculus

, who served under Tiberius for eight years (from AD 4)

in Germany and Pannonia as

praefect

of cavalry and legatus. Paterculus’ Compendium of Roman

History spans a period from the fall of

Troy to the death

of Livia in AD 29. His text on Tiberius lavishes praise on both the emperor

and Sejanus.

How much of this is due to genuine admiration or prudence remains an open

question, but it has been conjectured that he was put to death in

AD 31 as a friend of

Sejanus.

 Gospels

The Gospels

record that during Tiberius’ reign,

Jesus
of

Nazareth

preached and was executed under the authority of

Pontius Pilate

, the Roman governor of

Judea
. In the

Bible
, Tiberius

is mentioned by name only once, in Luke,

stating that

John the Baptist

entered on his public ministry in the fifteenth year of his

reign. Many references to Caesar (or the emperor in some other

translations), without further specification, would seem to refer to Tiberius.

Similarly, the “Tribute

Penny” referred to in Matthew

and Mark

is popularly thought to be a

silver

denarius

coin of Tiberius.^[citation

needed]

 Archaeology

The palace of Tiberius at Rome was located on the

Palatine Hill

, the ruins of which can still be seen today. No major public

works were undertaken in the city during his reign, except a temple dedicated to

Augustus and the restoration of the

theater of Pompey

,

both of which were not finished until the reign of Caligula.

In addition, remnants of Tiberius’ villa at

Sperlonga
,

which includes a grotto

where several

Rhodean

sculptures have been recovered, and the

Jovis
on top of

Capri
have been

preserved. The original complex at Capri is thought to have spanned a total of

twelve villas across the island,

of which Villa Jovis was the largest.

Tiberius refused to be worshipped as a living god, and allowed only one

temple to be built in his honor at

Smyrna
.

The town Tiberias

, in modern

Israel
on the

western shore of the

Sea

of Galilee
was named in Tiberius’s honour by

Herod

Antipas
.

 In

fiction

Tiberius has been represented in fiction, both in literature and in film and

television, though often as a peripheral character in the central storyline. One

such modern representation is in the novel

Claudius
by

Robert Graves

,

and the consequent BBC

television series

adaptation, where he is portrayed by

George Baker

.^[101]

In addition, Tiberius has prominent roles in

Ben-Hur

(played by

George

Relph
in his last starring role), the 1968

ITV historical drama

(by

André

Morell
)

and in

(played by

Peter

O’Toole
). Played by

Ernest Thesiger

, he featured in

(1953). He was an important character in Taylor Caldwell’s 1958

novel, Dear and Glorious Physician, a biography of St Luke the

Evangelist, author of the third canonical Gospel.