Ælius Sejanus, the Præfect of the Prætorians, had long been the friend and chief adviser of the emperor. He was cruel, unscrupulous, and ambitious—the proper instrument of a tyrant. In A.D. 21 an insurrection broke out in Gaul, which was scarcely subdued when the Germans rose against the Romans. The Gauls, too, led by Sacrovir, a Druid, who exercised a superstitious influence over his countrymen, once more rebelled. Drusus, who had been made Consul with his father, was sent against them, and reduced them to subjection. The Druid Sacrovir burned himself in a house to which he had fled. In A.D. 22 Drusus received the tribunitian power. He was the only son of Tiberius, and was married to Livia, or Livilla, as she was sometimes called.
Sejanus had now conceived a design which led him to resolve upon the destruction of all the imperial family, since he himself began to aspire to the throne; and the elevation of Drusus filled him with disgust. In A.D. 23 he prevailed upon Tiberius to remove all the Prætorian Guards, about nine or ten thousand in number, to a camp near the city. He appointed their officers, won the soldiers with bribes and flatteries, and thus believed he had gained a sure support.
Drusus stood in his path, and he resolved to destroy him. He won the affections of Livilla, and prevailed upon her to poison her husband. The unhappy prince died in 23. Tiberius received the news of his son's death with a composure almost incredible. He told the Senate, who put on mourning robes, that he had given himself to his country. A splendid funeral procession was prepared for Drusus, in which the statues of Attus Clausus, the Sabine chief, the founder of the Claudian Gens, and of Æneas, and the Alban kings, were carried side by side, thus recalling the memories of the early regal dynasty, as well as of the severe founders of the Republic.
Agrippina, the widow of Germanicus, together with her numerous family, next aroused the hostility of Sejanus, and he resolved upon their destruction. In A.D. 25 he proposed for the hand of Livilla, but Tiberius refused to sanction the connection. In A.D. 26 eleven cities contended for the privilege of making Tiberius their tutelar deity, but he declined this honor. Soon after, the emperor, as if anxious to escape from the sarcasms and the scandal of Rome, retired from the city, accompanied by a single Senator, Cocceius Nerva, and at length, in A.D. 27, hid himself in the island of Capreæ, on the coast of Campania. Here he built twelve villas in different parts of the island, and lived with a few companions, shut out from mankind. No one was allowed to land upon the shores of Capreæ, and even fishermen who broke this rule through ignorance were severely punished. Every day, however, dispatches were brought from the continent, and he still continued to direct the affairs of his vast empire.
Sejanus was left to govern Rome, but frequently visited the Emperor at his island. In A.D. 29, Livia, the widow of Augustus, died, at the age of eighty-six years, having retained her powerful intellect and her love of political intrigue to the close of her life. It is said that her private charities were great, and that she remained faithful to the memory of her imperial husband. The family of Germanicus, meanwhile, were crushed by the arts of Sejanus. In A.D. 29 Tiberius directed the Senate to banish Agrippina and her son Nero, and they were confined separately upon two barren islands. Drusus, the second son, was soon after imprisoned; while Caius, the youngest, by his flatteries and caresses, preserved the favor of Tiberius, and was admitted into Capreæ. The emperor now began to doubt the fidelity of his chosen friend Sejanus, although their statues had been placed together in the Temple of Friendship on the island; and he sent a letter to the Senate in which he denounced him as a traitor. Such was the end of a guilty friendship. Sejanus was flung into the Mamertine Prison, and there strangled. The people threw his body into the Tiber, A.D. 31. Great numbers of his friends or relatives perished with him, and a general massacre filled Rome with terror. He was succeeded in his power by Sertorius Macro, who had aided in his destruction.
Tiberius, meanwhile, seems to have become a raging madman. He put to death his niece Agrippina, with her two children, and ruled over the Senate with pitiless cruelty. His companion, Cocceius Nerva, filled with melancholy at the misfortunes of his country, resolved upon suicide; nor could all the entreaties or commands of Tiberius prevail upon him to live. In A.D. 35 Tiberius made his will, dividing his estate between Caius, the youngest son of Germanicus, and Tiberius Gemellus, the son of the second Drusus. Macro, probably fearing the fate of Sejanus, had formed a close intimacy with Caius, and they now planned the death of the emperor, whose feeble health, however, since he was near seventy-seven years of age, promised Rome a speedy deliverance. Tiberius died March 16, A.D. 37, Macro, it is said, having smothered him with a pillow.
If we may trust the account of the Jew Philo, he left the empire in a prosperous condition. His cruelty, in fact, seems to have been exercised upon the great and the rich, while the people lived in security. His administration may be said to have been a fortunate one. His character and his crimes disgrace human nature.
REIGN OF CAIUS CALIGULA, A.D. 37-41.—Caius Cæsar, known as Caligula, was the son of Germanicus and Agrippina, and men fondly hoped that he had inherited the virtues of his father, whom he resembled in his personal appearance. The soldiers proclaimed him emperor, and the Senate and the people acknowledged him with unfeigned joy. He was now twenty-five years of age, and his first acts were generous and humane. He recalled many exiles, abolished various taxes, and gratified the people with spectacles and gifts. He also buried the remains of his mother and brother, who had died in exile, with decent solemnity.
But, having been seized with a severe illness after he had reigned eight months, upon his recovery his mind seemed to have been fatally injured. He abandoned himself to cruelty and lust; he surpassed the vices of Tiberius; and at length, declaring himself to be a god, would often go through the streets of Rome dressed as Bacchus, Venus, or Apollo: he compelled the people to worship him, and made the wealthiest citizens his priests. He even conferred the consulship on his favorite horse.