Editing Sejanus (section)

=== 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>}}