ABSTRACT

Once in power, Tiberius expressed reluctance to exercise the responsibilities and take the opportunities which it offered. Had he been unwillingly projected to prominence by events or by the machinations of his scheming mother, Livia Drusilla? Or was it due to the backing of members of the senatorial nobility who thought they recognised in Tiberius a man of ‘republican’ sentiments, who would restore to them the kinds of privileges their families had enjoyed in the old republic? Indeed, Tiberius’ early actions and pronouncements as princeps seemed to suggest that he might perform such a role and that he believed the Augustan respublica to represent too sharp a departure from the traditions of the past.