Episode 68. Tiberius, Part Two: The Years of Sejanus

Works Cited Primary Sources Cassius Dio. Roman History, Book 58. The continuous Greek-language narrative for the period of the Tacitean gap. Dio is writing two centuries later from sources we cannot reconstruct in detail, but he is, for the destruction of Germanicus's family and for Sejanus's fall, the most extensive surviving account.Josephus. Jewish Antiquities 18.180–182. Preserves the Antonia letter to Tiberius warning of Sejanus's planned move — material that may have been in the lost portions of Tacitus but that survives only in Josephus.Juvenal. Satire 10. The famous passage on Sejanus's broken statues — written decades after the events but useful for what it shows about how the fall was remembered in subsequent generations.Sperlonga sculptures and archaeology. The partial remains of the Sperlonga grotto can still be visited, and the marble sculptures that decorated it have been reconstructed and are housed at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Sperlonga. They give us the physical setting of the 26 CE incident that elevated Sejanus from administrator to indispensable man.Suetonius. Life of Tiberius, chapters 41 to 65. The personal habits, the Capri material in its early phase, the death of Sejanus. Chapter 61 contains the passage on the execution of Sejanus's daughter that is one of the most disturbing single passages in any Roman source.Tacitus. Annals, Books 4 and 5. Book 4 covers 23 to 28 CE, including the early Sejanus material we have used here. Book 5 covers 29 to 31 CE in the original — but survives only in its opening five chapters. The principal narrative source for Sejanus's fall is therefore lost. We have, instead, the fragments that other ancient authors quoted from the now-missing portions, plus the reconstructions modern scholarship has built from those fragments and from Cassius Dio.Velleius Paterculus. History of Rome, 2.127 to 128. Contemporary witness, written before Sejanus's fall and dedicated to the Tiberian consul Marcus Vinicius. Preserves a pre-fall portrait of Sejanus that the post-fall sources erased.Villa Jovis on Capri. The substantial archaeological remains of Tiberius's principal villa on Capri can be visited today. They give us the physical setting of the late-reign administration.Secondary SourcesBarrett, Anthony A. Agrippina: Sex, Power, and Politics in the Early Empire. Yale University Press, 1996. For the Agrippina the Elder material and the Antonia letter.Hennig, D. L. Aelius Seianus: Untersuchungen zur Regierung des Tiberius. C. H. Beck, 1975. German-language. The standard scholarly treatment of Sejanus specifically.Levick, Barbara. Tiberius the Politician. Revised edition, Routledge, 1999. The standard treatment. Cited throughout the recent episodes.Seager, Robin. Tiberius. Second edition, Blackwell, 2005. Alternative modern biography. More cautious than Levick on several specific points.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/real-roman-history/donations