Summary
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Roman emperor Tiberius. When he was born in 42BC, there was little prospect of him ever becoming Emperor of Rome. Firstly, Rome was still a Republic and there had not yet been any Emperor so that had to change and, secondly, when his stepfather Augustus became Emperor there was no precedent for who should succeed him, if anyone. It somehow fell to Tiberius to develop this Roman imperial project and by some accounts he did this well, while to others his reign was marked by cruelty and paranoia inviting comparison with Nero.
With
Matthew Nicholls Senior Tutor at St. John’s College, University of Oxford
Shushma Malik Assistant Professor of Classics and Onassis Classics Fellow at Newnham College at the University of Cambridge
And
Catherine Steel Professor of Classics at the University of Glasgow
Producer: Simon Tillotson
Reading list:
Edward Champlin, ‘Tiberius the Wise’ (Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, 57.4, 2008)
Alison E. Cooley, ‘From the Augustan Principate to the invention of the Age of Augustus’ (Journal of Roman Studies 109, 2019)
Alison E. Cooley, The Senatus Consultum de Cn. Pisone Patre: text, translation, and commentary (Cambridge University Press, 2023)
Eleanor Cowan, ‘Tiberius and Augustus in Tiberian Sources’ (Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, 58.4, 2009)
Cassius Dio (trans. C. T. Mallan), Roman History: Books 57 and 58: The Reign of Tiberius (Oxford University Press, 2020)
Rebecca Edwards, ‘Tacitus, Tiberius and Capri’ (Latomus, 70.4, 2011)
A. Gibson (ed.), The Julio-Claudian Succession: Reality and Perception of the Augustan Model (Brill, 2012), especially ‘Tiberius and the invention of succession’ by C. Vout
Josephus (trans. E. Mary Smallwood and G. Williamson), The Jewish War (Penguin Classics, 1981)
Barbara Levick, Tiberius the Politician (Routledge, 1999)
E. O’Gorman, Tacitus’ History of Political Effective Speech: Truth to Power (Bloomsbury, 2019)
Velleius Paterculus (trans. J. C. Yardley and Anthony A. Barrett), Roman History: From Romulus and the Foundation of Rome to the Reign of the Emperor Tiberius (Hackett Publishing, 2011)
R. Seager, Tiberius (2nd ed., Wiley-Blackwell, 2005)
David Shotter, Tiberius Caesar (Routledge, 2005)
Suetonius (trans. Robert Graves), The Twelve Caesars (Penguin Classics, 2007)
Tacitus (trans. Michael Grant), The Annals of Imperial Rome (Penguin Classics, 2003)
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Does talking to strangers make you happier? |
| 0:04.5 | Could aging disgracefully help you live longer? |
| 0:08.0 | I'm Dr Michael Mosley and in my Just One Long Thing podcast series, I'll be chatting to doctors and scientists |
| 0:15.1 | we'll be covering topics like sleep exercise happiness and staying young with each of |
| 0:20.9 | our experts choosing a health hack they claim is the single most effective way you can improve your life |
| 0:27.0 | Just one long thing listen first on BBC Sounds |
| 0:36.0 | BBC Sounds BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. This is in our time from BBC Radio 4 and this is one of more than a thousand episodes |
| 0:41.5 | you can find on BBC Sounds and on our website. If you |
| 0:44.8 | scroll down the page for this edition you find a reading list to go with it. I hope |
| 0:49.2 | you enjoy the program. Hello when Tiberius was born in 42 BC, there was little prospect of his ever becoming |
| 0:55.6 | Emperor of Rome. Firstly, Rome was still a republic, and they'd not yet been any emperor, so |
| 1:01.8 | that had to change. And secondly, when his stepfather Augustus became emperor |
| 1:06.2 | there was no precedent for who should succeed him if anyone. It somehow felt |
| 1:10.8 | a Tiberius to develop this Roman imperial project and by some accounts he did this well, |
| 1:15.9 | while to others his reign was marked by cruelty and paranoia. |
| 1:20.0 | We need to discuss the Emperor Tiberius are Matthew Nichols, senior tutor at St John's College University of Oxford. |
| 1:27.0 | Shushma Malik, assistant professor of classics and our nurse's |
| 1:31.0 | classic fellow at Newnham College at the University of Cambridge |
| 1:34.2 | Catherine Steele Professor of Classics at the University of Glasgow. |
| 1:38.0 | Catherine Steele, how did time be various come to power? What do we need to understand about his family? |
| 1:44.9 | He comes from the heart of the Republican elite. So his father, Tiberius, Claudio Schenero, was a Republican aristocrat from a patrician family looking to have a political career. |
| 1:57.0 | He's lined up as a potential son in law for Cicero, though that doesn't happen. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.