Editing Sejanus (section)

== Downfall ==

=== Denunciation ===
In AD 31, despite his equestrian rank, Sejanus shared the [[Roman consul|consulship]] with Tiberius [[wikt:in absentia|in absentia]],<ref>Suetonius, ''The Lives of Twelve Caesars'', Life of Tiberius [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Tiberius*.html#65 65]</ref> and finally became betrothed to [[Livilla]]. Tiberius had not been seen in Rome since AD 26 and senators and equestrians courted Sejanus's favour as if he were Emperor.<ref name="dio-history-lviii-2">Cassius Dio, ''Roman History'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/58*.html#1 LVIII.1]</ref> His birthday was publicly observed and statues were erected in his honour.<ref name="dio-history-lviii-2"/> With most of the political opposition crushed, Sejanus felt his position was unassailable. The ancient historian [[Cassius Dio]] wrote:

<blockquote>Sejanus was so great a person by reason both of his excessive haughtiness and of his vast power, that, to put it briefly, he himself seemed to be the emperor and Tiberius a kind of island potentate, inasmuch as the latter spent his time on the island of Capreae.<ref>Cassius Dio, ''Roman History'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/58*.html#5 LVIII.5]</ref></blockquote>

Through years of crafty intrigues and indispensable service to the emperor, Sejanus had worked himself up to become the most powerful man in the Empire.

But suddenly, at the end of AD 31, he was arrested, summarily [[Capital punishment|executed]] and his body unceremoniously cast down the [[Gemonian stairs]]. What caused his downfall is unclear:<ref>Bingham, p. 66.</ref> ancient historians disagree about the nature of his conspiracy, whether it was Tiberius or Sejanus who struck first and in which order subsequent events occurred.<ref name="boddington-sejanus">{{cite journal | last = Boddington | first = Ann | title = Sejanus. Whose Conspiracy? | journal = The American Journal of Philology | volume = 84 | issue = 1 | pages = 1–16 | date = January 1963 | doi = 10.2307/293155 | jstor = 293155}}</ref> Modern historians consider it unlikely that Sejanus plotted to seize power and, if he had planned so at all, rather might have aimed at overthrowing Tiberius to serve as a [[regent]] to [[Tiberius Gemellus]], son of Drusus, or possibly [[Caligula|Gaius Caligula]].<ref name="boddington-sejanus"/> Unfortunately the relevant section pertaining to this period in the ''Annals'' of Tacitus has been lost. According to [[Josephus]], it was [[Antonia Minor|Antonia]], the mother of Livilla, who finally alerted Tiberius to the growing threat Sejanus posed (possibly with information provided by [[Satrius Secundus]]), in a letter she dispatched to Capri in the care of her [[freedman]] [[Pallas (freedman)|Pallas]].<ref>Josephus, ''Antiquities of the Jews'' [[wikisource:The Antiquities of the Jews/Book XVIII#Chapter 6|XVIII.6.6]]</ref> According to Juvenal, a letter was sent from Capri with orders to execute Sejanus without a trial.<ref>Juvenal, Satire X.67–72</ref>

Further details concerning Sejanus's fall are provided by [[Cassius Dio]], writing nearly 200 years later in his ''Roman History''. It appears that, when Tiberius heard to what extent Sejanus had already [[usurper|usurped]] his authority in Rome, he immediately took steps to remove him from power. However, he realised that an outright condemnation could provoke Sejanus to attempt a [[Coup d'état|coup]].<ref name="dio-history-lviii-4"/> Instead, Tiberius addressed a number of contradictory letters to the Senate, some of which praised Sejanus and his friends and some of which denounced them. Tiberius variously announced that he would arrive in Rome the next day or that he was at the point of death.<ref>Cassius Dio, ''Roman History'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/58*.html#6 LVIII.6]</ref> He stepped down as consul, forcing Sejanus to do the same<ref>Cassius Dio, ''Roman History'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/58*.html#7 LVIII.7]</ref> and conferred an honorary priesthood upon Caligula, rekindling popular support for the house of Germanicus.<ref name="dio-history-lviii-8">Cassius Dio, ''Roman History'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/58*.html#8 LVIII.8]</ref> The ensuing confusion was successful in alienating Sejanus from many of his followers. With the intentions of the emperor no longer clear, it was now deemed a safer course of action in Rome to withdraw from overtly supporting Sejanus until the matter was clearly resolved.<ref name="dio-history-lviii-8"/>

When it became obvious to Tiberius that support for Sejanus was not as strong as the emperor had feared, his next step was to choose [[Naevius Sutorius Macro]], previously prefect of the [[vigiles]] (Roman police and fire department), to replace Sejanus and effect his downfall.<ref>Bingham, p. 63.</ref><ref name="dio-history-lviii-9">Cassius Dio, ''Roman History'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/58*.html#9 LVIII.9]</ref> On October 18, AD 31, Sejanus was summoned to a Senate meeting by a letter from Tiberius, ostensibly to bestow the tribunician powers upon him. At dawn, he entered the Senate; while the letter was being read, Macro assumed control of the Praetorian Guard, and members of the vigiles, led by Publius Graecinius Laco, surrounded the building.<ref name="dio-history-lviii-9"/> The senators at first congratulated Sejanus, but when the letter, which initially digressed into completely unrelated matters, suddenly denounced him and ordered his arrest, he was immediately apprehended and imprisoned in the [[Tullianum]].<ref>Cassius Dio, ''Roman History'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/58*.html#10 LVIII.10]</ref>

=== Execution and aftermath ===
[[File:Sejanus Damnatio Memoriae.jpg|thumb|upright=1.05|A coin from [[Augusta Bilbilis]] with the words ''L. Aelio Seiano'' erased as a result of his sentence]]

That same evening the Senate convened at the [[Temple of Concord]] and summarily condemned Sejanus to death. He was taken from prison and [[Garotte|strangled]], after which his body was cast onto the [[Gemonian stairs]]. Riots ensued, in which mobs hunted down and killed anyone they could link to Sejanus. The Praetorians also resorted to [[looting]] when they were accused of having conspired with the former prefect.<ref>Cassius Dio, ''Roman History'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/58*.html#12 LVIII.12]</ref> Following the issue of ''[[damnatio memoriae]]'' by the Senate, Sejanus's statues were torn down and his name obliterated from all [[public records]], even from coins, as in the one pictured opposite. On October 24, Sejanus's eldest son Strabo was arrested and executed.<ref name="boddington-sejanus"/> Upon learning of his death, [[Apicata]] committed suicide on October 26, after addressing a letter to Tiberius which claimed that Drusus had been poisoned with the complicity of Livilla.<ref name="dio-history-lviii-11">Cassius Dio, ''Roman History'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/58*.html#11 LVIII.11]</ref><ref>A recovered fragment of the [[Fasti Ostienses]], shows that Cassius Dio erred in his account on the deaths of Sejanus's family (Dio, [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/58*.html#11 LVIII.11]). The eldest son Strabo was executed (October 24) and the remaining children were executed sometime in December. See Freeman, Adams (1955), op. cit., for the Latin inscription.</ref> The accusations were further corroborated by confessions from Livilla's slaves, who, under torture, admitted to having administered the poison to Drusus.<ref name="tacitus-annals-iv-11">Tacitus, ''Annals'' [[wikisource:The Annals (Tacitus)/Book 4#11|IV.11]]</ref>[The story should be read with caution. [[Barbara Levick]] says that Sejanus must have murdered Drusus in self-defense because only Tiberius stood between the Praetorian Prefect and the end of his career at the hands of Drusus. Furthermore, she says it is even less likely that Livilla would have been complicit in the destruction of her family, the key to her children's future. Levick dismisses the accusation of Apicata as the revenge of a woman whose husband left her for another.<ref>{{cite book |last=Levick |first=Barbara |author-link=Barbara Levick |date=1999 |title=Tiberius the Politician |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=47CCAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA127 |location=London |publisher=Routledge |page=127 |isbn=9780415217538 |access-date=19 February 2023 }}</ref>]

Enraged upon learning the truth, Tiberius soon ordered more killings. Livilla committed suicide or was starved to death by her mother [[Antonia Minor]].<ref name="dio-history-lviii-11"/> The remaining children of Sejanus, Capito Aelianus and Junilla, were executed in December of that year.<ref name=Adams1955/><ref name="tacitus-annals-v-9">Tacitus, ''Annals'' [[wikisource:The Annals (Tacitus)/Book 5#9|V.9]]</ref> Because there was no precedent for the capital punishment of a [[virgin]], Junilla was said to have been raped first, with the rope around her neck<ref name="dio-history-lviii-11"/><ref name="tacitus-annals-v-9"/> and her body thrown down the Gemonian stairs along with her brother's. At the beginning of the following year, ''damnatio memoriae'' was also passed on Livilla.<ref>Tacitus, ''Annals'' [[wikisource:The Annals (Tacitus)/Book 6#2|VI.2]]</ref>

Although Rome at first rejoiced at the demise of Sejanus, the city was quickly plunged into more extensive trials as Tiberius persecuted all those who could in any way be tied to the schemes of Sejanus or had courted his friendship.<ref name="tacitus-annals-vi-19">Tacitus, ''Annals'' [[wikisource:The Annals (Tacitus)/Book 6#19|VI.19]]</ref> The Senatorial ranks were purged; the hardest hit were those families with political ties to the Julians.<ref name="boddington-sejanus"/> Even the imperial magistracy was not exempted from Tiberius's wrath.<ref name="tacitus-annals-vi-10">Tacitus, ''Annals'' [[wikisource:The Annals (Tacitus)/Book 6#10|VI.10]]</ref> Arrests and executions were now supervised by [[Naevius Sutorius Macro]], who succeeded Sejanus as the [[Prefect of the Praetorian Guard]].<ref>Tacitus, ''Annals'' [[wikisource:The Annals (Tacitus)/Book 6#29|VI.29]]</ref> The political turmoil continued until the death of Tiberius in AD 37, after which he was succeeded by Caligula.

Most historical documentation of Tiberius's revenge is given by Suetonius and Tacitus; their portrayal of a tyrannical, vengeful emperor has been challenged by several modern historians. [[Edward Togo Salmon]] wrote that,

{{blockquote|In the whole twenty two years of Tiberius's reign, not more than fifty-two persons were accused of treason, of whom almost half escaped conviction, while the four innocent people to be condemned fell victims to the excessive zeal of the Senate, not to the Emperor's tyranny.<ref>{{cite book | author = Salmon, Edward Togo | title = A History of the Roman World From 30 B.C. to A.D. 138 
| year = 1987 | publisher = Methuen | edition = 6th | url = https://archive.org/details/historyofromanwo00salm/ | page = 133 }}</ref>}}