Tiberius, the second emperor of Rome, is remembered as a depraved pervert who ruled by murder and mayhem. He enjoyed watching people being flogged and forced noble youths of Rome to be his catamites. According to Suetonius, he had a room in his villa on Capri 'adapted to the purpose of secret wantonness, where he entertained companies of girls and catamites, and assembled from all quarters inventors of unnatural copulations'.
Tiberius's excesses in later life can be put down to the fact that the emperor Augustus - his stepfather - forced him to give up his good and virtuous wife Vipsania, whom he loved, to marry Augustus's daughter Julia, an inveterate adulteress. Earlier Tiberius's mother, Livia, had also been forced to divorce his father and marry Augustus, after his father had supported Mark Anthony against Augustus in Rome.
Vipsania remarried, and Tiberius was seen following her through the streets with 'tears in his eyes and intense unhappiness written on his face'. When Augustus heard of this, he gave orders that Tiberius was never to see Vipsania again. Tiberius went into voluntary exile in Rhodes, returning to become emperor in AD 14. He was then allowed to divorce Julia, who had gone off the rails and been sent into exile.
During his time as emperor, Tiberius became increasingly afraid that people were plotting against him. In AD 27, now in his late sixties, he left Rome and moved to the island of Capri, where he spent the remaining 11years of his life. He built a palace which had a special chamber with numerous couches called a cellaria where troupes of naked boys and girls from all over the empire performed for him. They would have sex in front of him in groups of three to ' excite his waning passion'. Then he would indulge in orgies of sodomy, fellatio and coprophilia.
A number of small rooms were furnished with the most obscene pictures and statutes he could lay his hands on, and the walls were decorated with porographic friezes. They also had sex manuals from Elephantis in Egypt ' so that none might want for a pattern for the filthy things they were expected to do ', according to Suetonius. In his own bedroom he had a painting of the goddess Atalanta performing fellatio on the warrior Meleager. In the woods and glades that surrounded the palace, Tiberius kept young people of both sexes to ' indulge their passions in the guise of Pans and nymphs'. It was also said that he trained young boys from noble families - whom he called his 'minnows'- to dive between his legs when he was swimming to nibble and suck on his private parts. In an even more outlandish version of this story, he was said to cover his genitals with crumbs to entice mullet to nibble on them as he reclined in a warm rock pool. Suetonius, author of Lives of the Caesar, claimed that Tiberius had unweaned babies suck on his penis as if it were their mother's breast. To encourage them, he coated his member with milk and honey.
Suetonius also said that, during a sacrifice, Tiberius took such a fancy to the beautiful boy holding the censer that, before the religious rites were over, he took him aside and sexually abused him, along with his brother who was playing the flute. When they protested about his disgusting behaviour, he had their legs broken.
Tiberius was just as bad with women, even those of high birth and stainless reputation. A Roman matron named Mallonia was forced into his bed. He was known to be an extremely ugly man in old age and, after she showed a certain repugnance at what was required of her, he had paid informers to make false accusations about her. During her trial he kept shouting out 'Are you sorry now? ' When Mallonia left court, she went home and, after a tirade against. ' that filthy - mouthed, hairy, stinking man ', she stabbed herself to death.
It is plain that what she objected to was the wrinkly old Tiberius performing cunnilingus on her, as a joke at his expense was inserted into a play about an ' old goat' savouring does with his tongue. Goat is caper in Latin and is a pun on the name Capri. Indeed, Tiberius's sexual theme park on Capri was known as Caprineum, which means ' Goatland'.
Recently discovered inscriptions in his ruined palace have revealed that Tiberius enjoyed triple anal penetration and that every member of his household had to bow down before his wizened, diseased penis every morning. He was also devoted to sexual research, measuring the maximum capacity of the anal cavity and setting up a mile-long daisy-chain with male slaves, each of whom was to be strangled at the moment of orgasm. His ultimate aim, apparently, was for everyone in the empire to participate so that the known world would explode in one giant eruption of semen.
Though some of the accusations against him are fanciful, there is little doubt that Tiberius wad a brutal sadist who had people mercilessly flogged merely for crossing his path
A fishermen offered him a large mullet he had caught and hauled up the cliff at the rear of the palace, but Tiberius had become so afraid of assassination that he ordered the man's face to be scrubbed raw with the fish scales. I did not offer Caesar the lobster I caught.' Hearing this, Tiberius ordered that his face be scrubbed with the lobster too. When his litter was held up by bushes obstructing the road, he ordered the centurion who was supposed to make sure the road was clear to lie on the ground and had him flogged to with in an inch of his life.
Not a day went by without someone being sentenced to death. Tiberius took such delight in cruelty that anyone who actually seemed willing to die was forced to live. He would send friendly letters to people, inviting them to Capri. When they arrived he would have them tortured to death. People were flung off the cliffs into the sea where sailors waited with poles and oars to beat to death anyone who has survived the fall. One particularly nasty torture
he devised was to tie a cord tightly around a mans penis, then force him to drink huge draughts of wine Many killed themselves rather than visit him on Capri. Despite Tiberius's fear of people plotting against him in Rome, the danger was rather closer to home. He was killed in his bed by Gaius Germanicus Caligula the very man he had chosen to be his successor. Tiberius's last wish was for his corpse to be buggeres by a well- endowed slave. No one could be found to perform the task despite the large amount of cash on offer.
Tiberius's excesses in later life can be put down to the fact that the emperor Augustus - his stepfather - forced him to give up his good and virtuous wife Vipsania, whom he loved, to marry Augustus's daughter Julia, an inveterate adulteress. Earlier Tiberius's mother, Livia, had also been forced to divorce his father and marry Augustus, after his father had supported Mark Anthony against Augustus in Rome.
Vipsania remarried, and Tiberius was seen following her through the streets with 'tears in his eyes and intense unhappiness written on his face'. When Augustus heard of this, he gave orders that Tiberius was never to see Vipsania again. Tiberius went into voluntary exile in Rhodes, returning to become emperor in AD 14. He was then allowed to divorce Julia, who had gone off the rails and been sent into exile.
During his time as emperor, Tiberius became increasingly afraid that people were plotting against him. In AD 27, now in his late sixties, he left Rome and moved to the island of Capri, where he spent the remaining 11years of his life. He built a palace which had a special chamber with numerous couches called a cellaria where troupes of naked boys and girls from all over the empire performed for him. They would have sex in front of him in groups of three to ' excite his waning passion'. Then he would indulge in orgies of sodomy, fellatio and coprophilia.
A number of small rooms were furnished with the most obscene pictures and statutes he could lay his hands on, and the walls were decorated with porographic friezes. They also had sex manuals from Elephantis in Egypt ' so that none might want for a pattern for the filthy things they were expected to do ', according to Suetonius. In his own bedroom he had a painting of the goddess Atalanta performing fellatio on the warrior Meleager. In the woods and glades that surrounded the palace, Tiberius kept young people of both sexes to ' indulge their passions in the guise of Pans and nymphs'. It was also said that he trained young boys from noble families - whom he called his 'minnows'- to dive between his legs when he was swimming to nibble and suck on his private parts. In an even more outlandish version of this story, he was said to cover his genitals with crumbs to entice mullet to nibble on them as he reclined in a warm rock pool. Suetonius, author of Lives of the Caesar, claimed that Tiberius had unweaned babies suck on his penis as if it were their mother's breast. To encourage them, he coated his member with milk and honey.
Suetonius also said that, during a sacrifice, Tiberius took such a fancy to the beautiful boy holding the censer that, before the religious rites were over, he took him aside and sexually abused him, along with his brother who was playing the flute. When they protested about his disgusting behaviour, he had their legs broken.
Tiberius was just as bad with women, even those of high birth and stainless reputation. A Roman matron named Mallonia was forced into his bed. He was known to be an extremely ugly man in old age and, after she showed a certain repugnance at what was required of her, he had paid informers to make false accusations about her. During her trial he kept shouting out 'Are you sorry now? ' When Mallonia left court, she went home and, after a tirade against. ' that filthy - mouthed, hairy, stinking man ', she stabbed herself to death.
It is plain that what she objected to was the wrinkly old Tiberius performing cunnilingus on her, as a joke at his expense was inserted into a play about an ' old goat' savouring does with his tongue. Goat is caper in Latin and is a pun on the name Capri. Indeed, Tiberius's sexual theme park on Capri was known as Caprineum, which means ' Goatland'.
Recently discovered inscriptions in his ruined palace have revealed that Tiberius enjoyed triple anal penetration and that every member of his household had to bow down before his wizened, diseased penis every morning. He was also devoted to sexual research, measuring the maximum capacity of the anal cavity and setting up a mile-long daisy-chain with male slaves, each of whom was to be strangled at the moment of orgasm. His ultimate aim, apparently, was for everyone in the empire to participate so that the known world would explode in one giant eruption of semen.
Though some of the accusations against him are fanciful, there is little doubt that Tiberius wad a brutal sadist who had people mercilessly flogged merely for crossing his path
A fishermen offered him a large mullet he had caught and hauled up the cliff at the rear of the palace, but Tiberius had become so afraid of assassination that he ordered the man's face to be scrubbed raw with the fish scales. I did not offer Caesar the lobster I caught.' Hearing this, Tiberius ordered that his face be scrubbed with the lobster too. When his litter was held up by bushes obstructing the road, he ordered the centurion who was supposed to make sure the road was clear to lie on the ground and had him flogged to with in an inch of his life.
Not a day went by without someone being sentenced to death. Tiberius took such delight in cruelty that anyone who actually seemed willing to die was forced to live. He would send friendly letters to people, inviting them to Capri. When they arrived he would have them tortured to death. People were flung off the cliffs into the sea where sailors waited with poles and oars to beat to death anyone who has survived the fall. One particularly nasty torture
he devised was to tie a cord tightly around a mans penis, then force him to drink huge draughts of wine Many killed themselves rather than visit him on Capri. Despite Tiberius's fear of people plotting against him in Rome, the danger was rather closer to home. He was killed in his bed by Gaius Germanicus Caligula the very man he had chosen to be his successor. Tiberius's last wish was for his corpse to be buggeres by a well- endowed slave. No one could be found to perform the task despite the large amount of cash on offer.
Klaireese, can you tell me what catamite's are?? And Thank's for the great History lesson!!
