Status Updates From I, Claudius

“ Sejanus also began discovering all kinds of plots against Tiberius and kept him in constant fear of assassination while assuring him that he need not have the least anxiety with himself on guard. He encouraged Tiberius to cross Livia in trifling ways, to show her that she over-estimated the strength of her position.”

“Though Tiberius hated his mother more than ever, he continued to let her rule him. All the appointments which he made to Consulships or provincial governorships were really hers: and they were very sensible ones, the men being chosen for merit…For I must make it plain…that however criminal the means used by Livia to win the direction of affairs for herself…she was an exceptionally able and just ruler…”

“ Germanicus insisted on Agrippina’s going away, though she swore that she was afraid of nothing and would far rather die with him there than have news from safety of his murder by the mutineers. But he asked her whether she thought that Livia would make a good mother for their orphaned children, and this decided her to do as he wished.”

“ There was talk of leaving the Rhine unguarded and marching into France, sacking cities, carrying off the women and setting up an independent military kingdom in the South-West, protected in the rear by the Pyrenees. Rome would be paralysed by this move and they would remain undisturbed long enough to be able to make their kingdom impregnable.”

“ It is a comment on my brother’s extreme simplicity that he did not realize the effect his words were having. By his father he meant Tiberius (who also was often styled Germanicus), but the veterans thought he meant his real father; and by Augustus’s successor he meant Tiberius again, but the veterans thought that he meant himself.”