Tiberius: The Memoirs of the Emperor

Emperors #2

by Allan Massie

A fictional autobiography of Emperor Tiberius offers a view of a proud, dutiful, and brooding man and his family, including Augustus Caesar, Caligula, and Nero

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Roman, Historical, Classics, Politics, Ancient History

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 3, 1991

About the author

Allan Massie is a Scottish journalist, sports writer and novelist. Massie is one of Scotland's most prolific and well-known journalists, writing regular columns for The Scotsman, The Sunday Times (Scotland) and the Scottish Daily Mail. He is also the author of nearly 30 books, including 20 novels. He is notable for writing about the distant past.

Reviews

[Ana Cristina Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

El emperador Tiberio no ha gozado de muy buena fama pero en esta novela Allan Massie nos muestra su lado humano en unas memorias que justifican al personaje y proponen una interpretación de los muchos sucesos conflictivos que le rodearon. Publicada en 1991, es la segunda entrega, tras Augustus, de una serie en que el autor repasa la vida de los primeros emperadores romanos.

Siguiendo la estela de las Memorias de Adriano de Marquerite Yourcenar, con un tono melanólico y reflexivo, asistimos al relato que el mismo emperador hace de su vida, primero desde su retiro en Rodas y luego desde su retiro final en Capri.

La novela es entretenida y se lee fácilmente, porque aunque tiene mucho contenido histórico está escrita de una manera amena y los hechos relatados son en muchos momentos impactantes.

[Rozonda · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best novel by Massie, who is a great author. Tiberius is totally different from his chronicles, and absolutely believable. Amazing.

[Fanna Casat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oooooookay then...I have credentials as a Classicist, and I'm wondering if I read the same book as some people...

The portrayals of the women: Julia is HARDLY painted as a mere "whore." In fact, the novel is more sympathetic towards her than I am myself. In this novel, Tiberius loves Julia, and she is just as much a tragic figure, a victim of Augustus's monstrous will, that Tiberius himself is. Julia rebels with her sexual transgressions out of a desperation to find true fulfillment, out of a resentment for being used as Augustus's pawn. And Livia! Tiberius loves her in the novel, too. Livia is nothing but noble and virtuous in Massie's novels, but in all honesty, she seems to have been a very difficult person, and we definitely get that sense here. It must have sucked for Tiberius, being an old man himself in charge of a world empire, and his ancient mother was still hanging around on the planet, trying to boss him around and call the shots. And as for Agrippina...this is from Tiberius's point of view, and he certainly hated Agrippina and was engaged in a bitter feud with her for years! What did you expect him to say about her in this book? "Yeah, Agrippina was great?!!" And ancient authors would have been biased the other way, since she was the widow of beloved Germanicus.

I don't think anyone said this for this book, but in general, I don't understand people who complain about the use of modern colloquialisms in ancient historical fiction. Can't you all wrap your heads around the fact that there's no way for us to ever truly understand ancient colloquialisms, and the authors are doing their best effort give us a sense of what the characters really might have said? A lot of the dialogue was quite funny.

Rated it four stars, because it's not without its cringe-worthy moments. The prologue and epilogue are pretty eye-roll-worthy, and while Massie's writing has its moments, other times...well, I think that a lot of the similes are pretty bad.

But overall, this book is an extremely insightful character study of a tortured and misunderstood man. I'm always grateful to find a sympathetic portrayal of Tiberius, and Massie seems to understand him. (In fact, he may be a bit too sympathetic...) It's well-researched and largely accurate, too; a lot of Tiberius's speeches and letters are straight out of Tacitus and I appreciated that. Although I'm a serious scholar of this time period, I'm still able to suspend my disbelief, and appreciate when something is FICTION and written for purposes of entertainment.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great piece of historical fiction. I thought it was better than the author's "Augustus". Very readable and entertaining.

[Gonzalo Cabello de los Cobos · Rating 3 out of 5]

No es un libro que destaque por su narrativa, ni (creo yo) por la veracidad de los hechos que en el se narran. Destaca especialmente por la facilidad con la que se lee, teniendo en cuenta además que se trata de unas memorias.
Me ha gustado especialmente la descripción que se hace del poder, todo lo que lo rodea y su inevitable corrupción. Aún así, creo que el pesimismo que destila es un tanto excesivo, por no decir brutal.
La conclusión que he sacado es que Tiberio era una persona buena pero inmadura, y demasiado aterrorizada con la realidad como para enfrentarse a ella de cara.

[João Roque · Rating 4 out of 5]

Allan Massie escreveu cinco livros sobre a vida de cinco imperadores romanos: César, António, Augusto, Tibério e Calígula, aqui ordenados por ordem cronológica.
Quis o acaso que tivesse lido em primeiro lugar “Calígula”, e a seguir “Tibério”, o que é curioso pois comecei a ler historicamente, de trás para a frente. Sucede que Massie, naturalmente, ocupa bastante das suas primeiras páginas com os tempos mais recuados do imperador que está a descrever, e portanto já em “Calígula” se falava algo de Tibério, o então imperador reinante; neste livro (“Tibério”), grande parte do livro, quase metade é passado nos tempos do imperador Augusto, seu padrasto, o que me vai levar a que seja a biografia deste último imperador a minha próxima leitura de Massie. E também é curioso que tivesse ido a recordar, após ter acabado de ler este livro, as primeiras páginas de “Calígula”.
Eu gosto muito de História e Roma, como a civilização grega, sempre me fascinou; já tinha lido antes livros sobre Adriano (M.Yourcenar) e sobre Juliano (G.Vidal) e começo a ter uma visão muito completa daqueles tempos, e duma forma global, o que me é particularmente grato.
Neste livro, Massie dá-nos uma visão muito completa de como era a vida na Roma, imediatamente anterior a Cristo e durante a sua vida terrena (a morte de Cristo aconteceu durante o reinado de Tibério, embora ele nada tivesse a ver com esse acontecimento). É fabulosa a descrição de toda a vida palaciana, com intrigas e acontecimentos sucessivos, sem descurar a parte militar do império e muito interessante a descrição como a vida da família imperial está totalmente nas mãos do imperador, que a modela como bem entende.
Massie é um apaixonado pela Roma imperial e eu cada vez estou mais apaixonado pela leitura dos seus livros. Imperdível para quem gosta de História.

[Ruth Harwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

This wasn't as good as Anthony, but better than Caesar. That's about the top and bottom of it: the writing is a little dry and reflective, which makes the proposition of it being a diary quite believable - Tiberius was perhaps the most dour and thoughtful of the early emperors, and it shows here, dealing with the ridiculous rumours of Suetonius whilst not blowing his own horn. If you'd like to feel you've been inside the man's head who was ruler of the world when an unknown man was crucified on a hill in Jerusalem, here's your story, and you may find that the emperor was the least charismatic of the two. Massie takes on his subject with knowledge and obvious wide reading, an understanding which many wouldn't be able to grasp, taking us back into the world of his step-father for most of this book, showing a very interesting understanding of the greatest spin doctor of them all, and showing that even his plans were castles in the sky when everyone, so it seemed, was dropping like flies around him to leave Tiberius almost the only man alive to pass his baton of empire on to x

[Solor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ambitious Allan Massie redrafts history books. By defying Tacitus and Suetonius accounts, he delivers a virtuous portrait of the second Roman Emperor liberating the patrician from all the controversial and perverse overtones that accompanies his memory.
Written out as a an extremely convincing autobiography, the book is never bland - it is so well researched that it feels as a genuine document.
Massie prose is artful, skillful, intelligent. Incidentally, Gore Vidal called him a "master of the long-ago historical novel".

[Andrew Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid, plausible read. Tiberius has as many obverse facets to his character as any of his family, and giving him a virtuous reading doesn't require that much of a stretch. The idea that he died in the same box he was born into, despite a singular effort to leave it, is a far more interesting tragedy to me than "wormy old pedo grump."

I read this as inspiration for a book I'm pondering writing on Caligula. It did not disappoint.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written as a personal memoir of Tiberius Caesar, we get a very interesting yet honest depiction of a people with little if any moral suasion. This is another book I read as background for my World History class which was tough to take at times. Massie paints a complex picture of Tiberius where he, of course, does not come out as the ultimate villain. The epilogue is the best!

[Jenn Phizacklea · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t wonderful either. I wish the intro and postscript weren’t there - totally unnecessary, and totally cringey - and, loosely speaking, while I can give the first half of the novel the nod, the second half slowly lost me completely.

In the first half (or so) this books main issue (as far as my tastes go) was a distinct excess of telling, not showing, which is a turn-off for me in my reading. It means that, while we get a sense of events, but we can’t really feel involved in them. I’ll pay that this is in the memoirs style, and was meant to be all about voice, but I didn’t enjoy it for all that.
I think one of the great successes (in the first part at least) were the elements of psychological analysis of some of the characters - Tiberius, Livia, Augustus, even Julia - which were insightful and interesting to consider. This meant the characters were well developed and complex, which I think was a real strong point.

The second half or so, this goes into a steady decline. The elder Agrippina and Germanicus are hatefully described, which I think unwarranted; though Claudius ‘jabbering’ and ‘spraying spittle’ was worse; outdone only by the characterisation of Caligula, almost ejaculating at the sight of gore in the arena, and stabbing lizards for fun while leering like a maniac. These became ridiculous characatures that had me shaking my head more than once.

As for accuracy. Ancient history, when you start looking at details, is an amazingly fluid thing. People who talk about being accurate in this context have never really tried to write about this period. I’ve just finished drafting a Roman novel, and I can assure you, it is not at all easy. Almost every fact is contentious. Academia is fraught with long running battles over almost every point - from what they wore, ate or used to clean their teeth, to how many legions there were (& where they were), how they fed everyone, or even when wars and battles happened. A writer must chose what they believe and run with it. I no longer judge if a writer has a different version of ‘how it happened’ from me, because as far as anyone knows, they may be right.

That being said, I really found it hard to swallow the ‘Tiberius was a victim’ line. Sejanus, in Massie’s version of things, takes the blame for pretty much everything that happens after a certain point. It’s like in the first part of the book, Tiberius is pretty sharp and knows what’s going on; in the second part, he becomes completely oblivious to the bleeding obvious. I guess that’s one way to gloss over all the awful decisions he actually made during his time in power - of which there were many. He is not a figure that can easily be sympathised with in the ancient histories - a paranoid and vindictive pederast neatly sums it up - but Massie here insists on trying. Of course, Sejanus was the bad guy. If that doesn’t cover everything, well, Tiberius made promises to a golden figure on Capri, agreeing to lose his future reputation for ‘peace and beauty’, that’s why he’s so despised. He did nothing wrong, as Massie tells it.

Would I recommend it? Well, if you’re into the subject as I am, you may as well give it a look if you’ve nothing else to read; but I wouldn’t rush out the buy it.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

In his pseudo-autobiography of Tiberius Alan Massie manages to make one of the least attractive figures from ancient Rome seem like a highly sympathetic individual. It's no small achievement for history has not been kind to Tiberius.

Massie's Tiberius is a reluctant ruler, disenchanted with the entire imperial project, who continually hankers after an imagined past when Rome was a republic and its senatorial class motivated by a sense of civic responsibility. Instead, he finds himself surrounded by a ruthless and selfish coterie of relatives, colleagues and hangers on who constantly seek to enrich and empower themselves.

For Tiberius the thrust and parry of political life is hugely distasteful. He would rather spend his days on the island of Capri, reading and thinking, but his deeply reserved nature only makes him a target for his enemies and his attempts to appeal to their better natures are constantly misconstrued by everyone from the senators down to the mob in the arena who expect their emperor to take pleasure in displaying his power

It's a convincing portrait of a complex and layered individual, the victim of his upbringing, his family's expectations and his own fastidiousness.

[Fulmen Imp. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn't finish it. I struggled, I really did and there were several moments that I thought I should quit but I didn't until I reached page 50. It's just baaaaad and it's a shame provided that this is one of the emperors whose time period is very well documented. He deserves the role of a main character in a decent historical fiction book. This certainly is not the one. I won't comment on the historical accuracy of the characters as I think it's the author's personal choice how to develop them but still I think that a good book takes into account the known data about the existing historical characters as well as the specifities of the time era. Massie has done neither. The characters remain static, flat and I didn't feel them as real people who struggle with their life. There were some disturing moments due (in my opinion) to poor writing but I won't comment on them. I put two stars only because this is one of the few books which is not about Caesar, Augustus, Antony and Cleopatra and I appreciate the choice of a topic.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interestingly with no attempt to form explicit links or even implicit allusions to his other Emperor novels such as César and Augustus.

Tiberius is painted in favourable light compared to his historical reputation – at one point he even agrees with a spirit he sees to gain peace of mind in exchange for future infamy; in practice he realises he has ended with neither peace or reputation.

Little is made of Tiberius’s military exploits which he says cannot really be described and he is explicitly not religious (in contrast to the Augustus book).

The book is set in two main parts –written in his two exiles in Rhodes and Capri as in both cases he looks back on what has happened in the previous years.

The overwhelming sense is of a Claudian aware of his own heritage and of his responsibility as one of Augustus’s heirs but disgusted both with the imperial powers and dynasty Augustus has set up (even though he is part of it) and with the inability of the ruling class of Rome and their weakness to govern themselves without a Princeps (a role which in the book he is genuinely very reluctant to take).

He is also continually dismayed by the betrayals of others – culminating in realising Sejanus the only person he thought he could trust - being the biggest betrayer of all. Few of the male characters are interesting - Caligula doesn't really emerge strongly as a character - but we do get very good portrayals of Livia and Julia.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was depressing. Tiberius is not a very likable guy and he is very boring. The writing might have contributed to the fact that this short book was pretty painful to finish. I am very interested in Roman history, especially the emperors, but this book was not exciting or interesting. Tiberius spends the whole book complaining about Rome, about his peers, about his sad life. It was very depressing and boring.
The writing was not great, it felt very mechanical and dry. There was nothing to make it interesting or exciting. I didn't like any of the characters and the story was really slow and boring. Overall 2 out of 5 stars.

[Jenny Haworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great insight into the mind of Tiberius and also of Rome at the time he was in charge. Never once did I feel that it was Allan Massie and not Tiberius talking. He is a master of this type of writing. In the end it saddened me because there did not appear to be anyone who was not guilty or gullable

[R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The “autobiography” of Tiberius presents him in a more appealing light than he is usually shown.

[Jorge Moscoso · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bellísimo

[ISABEL CORTS · Rating 4 out of 5]

Como siempre Allanassie no defrauda con sus historias de personajes romanos. La recreación de la vida en Roma, de la familia, rivales del emperador, sus pensamientos, etc dejan un buen sabor de boca

[Robert Ryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting alternative to the accepted view of Tiberius's later years

An intelligent and plausible alternative interpretation of Tiberius' self exile on Capri. Having myself stood on the cliff's edge in the ruins of his mighty palace on the island and listened to the accounts of how his victims were thrown from it, I wondered how this could be reconciled to his appreciation of such a place. Much we know of this time is scurrilous and probably sycophantic. Who is to know that Massie's narrative is not closer to the truth.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a little surprised by how much I liked this book. The style of narration was a bit jumpy and the reader is assumed to know most of the events of Tiberius's life prior to reading, but I did know them so it didn't bother me much. I liked Tiberius's dry sense of humor, but could have used more about the middle of his life (entirely left out for no reason), and some of his peculiarities could have used more explanation. Still, I enjoyed it.

[Murray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was Tiberius the dreadful paedophile suggested by commentators of the time? Well, victors write the history and Massie suggests that Tiberius may have been ruined in reputation somewhat in the same way as Richard III was by the Tudor dynasty that followed.
Massie's imagination certainly appealed to my intuition - that perhaps it happened just in the way he suggests.

[Pierre]

Muito triste a vida do Imperador Tibério. Primeiro, teve que aceitar contra sua vontade o cargo. Segundo, ao longo de seu mandato, foi acometido por visões e crises de paranóia que o levaram a se mudar de Roma e ir morar numa ilha, cercado de poetas, de onde governava. Terminou a vida assassinado e deixou o império para o depravado Calígula.

[Tom Choi · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a shame that this book, and its author, doesn't get more recognition. Massie's sympathetic fictionalization of the historical Tiberius should be read in contrast to Robert Grave's scathing depiction in "I, Claudius." As historical fiction, this is top-notch.