Business and political leaders
Emperor Tiberius
Category: Business and political leaders
Tiberius (Latin: Tiberius Caesar Dīvī Augustī Fīlius Augustus; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March 37 AD) was a Roman Emperor from 14 AD to 37 AD.
Wikipedia
Born Tiberius Claudius Nero, a Claudian, Tiberius was the son of Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia Drusilla. His mother divorced Nero and married Octavian, later known as Augustus, in 39 BC, making him a step-son of Octavian.
Tiberius would later marry Augustus' daughter (from his marriage to Scribonia), Julia the Elder, 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 following thirty years; historians have named it the Julio-Claudian dynasty. In relations to the other emperors of this dynasty, Tiberius was the stepson of Augustus, grand-uncle of Caligula, paternal uncle of Claudius, and great-grand uncle of Nero.
As Roman Emperors go, Tiberius was not a great deal different to many of the others. He was one of Rome's greatest generals; for example, his conquest of Pannonia, Dalmatia, Raetia, and temporarily, parts of Germania, laid the foundations for the northern frontier.
But he came to be remembered as a “dark, reclusive, and sombre ruler who never really desired to be emperor”. Power is often best given to those who do not want it. Pliny the Elder called him tristissimus hominum, "the gloomiest of men." After the death of Tiberius’ son Drusus Julius Caesar in 23 AD, he became even more reclusive and aloof.
In 26 AD Tiberius removed 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' grand-nephew and adopted grandson, succeeded Tiberius upon his death.
So why is he on the site? Tacitus struggles to find a good word for him:
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.
The answer is that he was a nyctalope – someone who could see in the dark, someone with night vision. In Tiberius’s case he only had the ability when he was in a hypnagogic state, but some people have the capability without needing to be in this state. Although the observation implies it was because he had big eyes, this is not the reason he could do this. Many people when they are asleep go out of body, and in the out of body state everything is infused with a sort of light, that means that there is no ‘dark’ as such.
This is why some supposedly blind people can ‘see’, they are permanently out of body or receiving spiritual images from the composer on a permanent basis.
Observations
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