Avey and welcome to Emperor of Rome, a podcast series looking at the rulers of the ancient Roman Empire.

I'm your host Matt Smith and with me as always

is Dr. Rianen Evans lecturer in ancient Mediterranean studies at Latrobe University.

This is episode X I, Tiberius the Reluctant Emperor.

We last left Emperor of Rome with the death of Augustus, after a long and peaceful rule.

His stepson Tiberius now becomes Emperor, but it might not have been a role that he was completely happy with. Here's Rianin Evans.

Tiberius was the son of Livia and her first husband, Livia is going to be the second wife of Augustus.

So he comes from a very aristocratic family, more aristocratic than Augustus' father, for instance. He therefore has a very good

lineage, but the important thing is that he now has the connection to the imperial family when his mother

marries Octavian who becomes Augustus.

We know Tiberius as a great general

is the benefit of this lineage that he is able to to get in the position to become a great general and that he'd be able to lead the troops.

He certainly has the typical upbringing of a Roman aristocrat and part of that is being I guess given that sense of superiority

but Tiberius does seem to have been naturally a good military figure. He had a good understanding of the military.

And it's a combination of his very high birth and the fact that Augustus is there to place him in significant places, to be with the

army in Germany and in Pannonia, which is now Hungary, so that he gets that experience.

He's kind of lucky on both sides.

What sort of military engagements was he involved in?

Well, when he was in the northern part of the empire in Germany and in Pannonia he's in quite a lot of danger.

He's a high risk parts of the empire and he's got to keep control of armies there and even though we can't exactly say

that he's responsible for extending the empire we know that he did keep a firm

hand that he managed to maintain the boundaries.

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