Sunday, July 25, 2010

Tiberius

tiberius_05 Tiberius was Second the Roman emperor (AD 14 – 37). He was raised by Augustus, who had married his mother, Livia Drusilla. In his first military command, at age 22, he recovered Roman legionary standards lost for decades in Parthia and returned to great caprimapacclaim. He was forced to give up his beloved wife to marry Augustus's daughter Julia (12 BC). Despite becoming tribune, he went into self-imposed exile on Rhodes (6 BC), becoming an angry recluse. By 4 BC Julia was exiled for promiscuity by Augustus, who recalled Tiberius and named him his heir. (Once Tiberius became emperor, he cut off Julia’s allowance, and she starved to death in isolation on her island of exile.) As emperor he initially ran the state efficiently and instituted some reforms, with only occasional severity, such as exiling Rome's Jewish population on a pretext. When his son Drusus died mysteriously, he gave his trust to Sejanus and was persuaded to move to Capri (27). He became increasingly violent, killing and torturing at a whim. After Sejanus became co-consul in 31, Tiberius became suspicious of his ambition and executed him, then named Caligula his heir. In 37 the Praetorian Guard declared its support for Caligula and killed Tiberius when he was on his sickbed.
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From Suetonius The Lives of the Twelve Caesars:
On retiring to Capri he devised a pleasance for his secret orgies: teams of wantons of both sexes, selected as experts in deviant intercourse and dubbed analists, copulated before him in triple unions to excite his flagging passions. Its bedrooms were furnished with the most salacious paintings and sculptures, as well as with an erotic library, in case a performer should need an illustration of what was required. Then in Capri's woods and groves he arranged a number of nooks of venery where boys and girls got up as Pans and nymphs solicited outside bowers and grottoes: people openly called this "the old goat's garden," punning on the island's name.
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He acquired a reputation for still grosser depravities that one can hardly bear to tell or be told, let alone believe. For example, he trained little boys (whom he termed tiddlers) to crawl between his thighs when he went swimming and tease him with their licks and nibbles; and unweaned babies he would put to his organ as though to the breast, being by both nature and age rather fond of this form of satisfaction. Left a painting of Parrhasius's depicting Atalanta pleasuring Meleager with her lips on condition that if the theme displeased him he was to have a million sesterces instead, he chose to keep it and actually hung it in his bedroom. The story is also told that once at a sacrifice, attracted by the acolyte's beauty, he lost control of himself and, hardly waiting for the ceremony to end, rushed him off and debauched him and his brother, the flute-player, too; and subsequently, when they complained of the assault, he had their legs broken.
The “little boys to crawl between his thighs when he went swimming and tease him with their licks and nibbles” were known as his minnows.
Now if you imagine these boys being of legal age, could you imagine what the island of Capri would be like during Tiberius’s life. If you were one of the fortunate few, who were on his good side and would not face his wrath. If you could partake in the pleasures of the island. The joy of walking through f forest garden, seeing a beautiful pan or nymph with hairy legs, a full bush, hairy chest, and horns, just waiting for you to fuck him. Or to swim in a pool with beautiful young men (remember we are imagining this as of legal age) touching you, gently biting you, sucking on various parts of your body…The Roman emperors had the power and the money to make their fantasies come true.
However, one bit of warning: “Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.” You never knew when the emperor would turn on you. You never knew when this may be your last day. Even the emperors were not safe. Tiberius met his end when either his guards or Caligula himself smothered him with a pillow…

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