Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Rise and Dramatic Fall of Sejanus

Episode Date: June 17, 2021

The second Roman emperor was Tiberius. His right-hand man was the leader of his Praetorian Guard, Lucius Aelius Seianus, known to us as Sejanus. Over the years, Sejanus slowly gained power and influence and a host of enemies throughout Rome. Eventually, however, all of his social-climbing and power acquisition eventually came to an end in one spectacular and disastrous day. Learn more about Sejanus and his spectacular downfall, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The second Roman emperor was Tiberius. His right-hand man was the leader of the Praetorian Guard, Lucius, alias Cianus, known to us as Cajanus. Over the year, Sejanus slowly gained power and influence, as well as a host of enemies throughout Rome. Eventually, however, all of his social climbing and power acquisition eventually came to an end in one spectacular and disastrous day. Learn more about Sejanus and a spectacular downfall

on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. This episode is sponsored by Scotty Vest. Father's Day is right around the corner and there are no better gifts for your dad.

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Everything Everywhere, all one word at checkout. Once again, that's Scottyvest.com, coupon code Everything Everywhere. The Emperor Augustus was the first, greatest, and longest-serving emperor in Roman history. His reign was so long that an entire generation of Romans never knew anything else when he died.

Because he was the first emperor, there had never been a transition of power. For decades, Augustus had tried to set up his nephews and grandchildren to assume the throne, but there was one problem. They all died. He ended up appointing his stepson and the son of his wife, Livia, as a successor, Tiberius. Tiberius was a very capable military leader, and he spent most of his life in the field with military units.

However, Augustus didn't seem particularly fond of Tiberius, and Tiberius really wasn't enthusiastic about accepting the job. Nonetheless, when Augustus died, the Senate and everyone else quickly fell behind Tiberius as the new emperor. This story isn't about Tiberius, however. This is about the man he appointed to the position of Praetorian Prefect, the head of the Praetorian Guard, Sejanus. The Patorian Guard was created by Augustus in the year 27 BC. Their primary function was to serve as the personal bodyguards for the Emperor and the Imperial family. Think of them as the Roman version of the Secret Service. Over time, the Pretorian Guard took on more responsibilities and became a vital part of the Roman Civil Service.

Being the head of the Praetorian Guard was a really big deal. Sejanus came from an equestrian-class family. They were above the common Publians, but below the senatorial class. His father was Lucius Scribes-Strabo, and he was head of the Praetorian Guard before Sejanus. Fun fact, Strabo means cross-eyed in Latin. Tiberius came to power in the year 14, and one of his first acts as emperor was to appoint Sejanus as joint commander of the guard of this father. and then the next year, Sejanus became the sole commander when his father was appointed as the governor of Egypt. Sejanus consolidated his power within the Petroian Guard to ensure that he was the sole person in charge,

as well as increasing the size of the guard to 12,000 soldiers. He became a trusted confidant of Tiberius and his chief advisor. Eventually, he became the de facto number two person in Rome. Tiberius called him Sochius Laborum or the partner in his toils. Soon after his appointment in the year 15, Sejanus was sent with Tiberius's son Drusus to quell an uprising. The two began sparring with each other, which might have had something to do with power. Sejanus was clearly the number two guy, but Drusus was the heir apparent. The conflict between the two grew over the years until it literally came to blows when Drus punched Sejanus in the face.

Drus was an impediment to Segenus's ambition. If Drus became emperor, then Sejanus would be on the outs, and most probably he would have been executed. Sejanus seduced Drus' wife, La Villa, and the two hatched a plot to murder Drus. Drus died in the year 23, having widely been thought to have been poisoned under the orders of Sejanus.

With Drus gone, Tiberius became more reliant on Cajanus. Statues of Cajanus began appearing all over Rome, and Tiberius began retreating from public life. In the year 26, Tiberius retreated to the island of Capri, which is just south of Naples, where he had built a huge pleasure. Palace. With Tiberius out of Rome, Sejanus was in full control of the city. As he controlled the Praetorian guards, which guarded Tiberius, he had total control over all of the information

which Tiberius received while he was in Capri. With Tiberius out of the way, Sejanus began staging treason trials to get rid of his political opponents in the Senate. He began confiscating the fortunes of his enemies as well, much of which was transferred to him personally. To integrate himself further into the imperial family, he asked Tiberius for permission to marry Drusus's widow, La Villa, which Tiberius denied. Tiberius's other adopted son, Germanicus, who also died under suspicious circumstances, had children who were now in the line of secession. Two of his three sons were arrested and starved to death, leaving only his son known as Caligula. For five years, Tiberius was in Capri, and never once returned to Rome. He

had no clue what was going on back in the capital. Everything he knew was fed to him by Sejanus. By the year 31, Sejanus was basically treated as the emperor in Rome. His birthday was a holiday. His statues were decorated. Senators courted his favor, and he was finally betrothed to Lovilla. With Tiberius off on an island, he considered himself the ruler of Rome, and no one dared challenge him. Historian Cassius Dio noted, quote, Sejianus was so great a person by reason of both his excessive haughtiness and his vast power,

that, to put it briefly, he himself seemed to be the emperor, and Tiberius a kind of island potentate, in as much as the latter spent his time in the island of Capri, unquote. It was at this point, at the height of his power, something happened to the relationship between Tiberius and Sajanus. Somehow, someone got to Tiberius and told him what had been happening in Rome. They also implicated Sejanus in the death of his son Drusus, as well as possibly his adopted son Germanicus. Tiberius took action quickly. What followed is the the entire reason for doing this episode. In the year 31, Sejanus was summoned to the Senate where a proclamation from Tiberius would be read. He was told it would be granting him

tribunate powers, basically making his person sacrosanct, and that he would also be officially named as Tiberius' heir. He arrived at the Senate full of confidence at the increase in power he would be granted, with all of the Senate in attendance. What was read to the Senate was not a promotion for Sejanus. It was a list of his crimes and an order for his execution. If I could go back in history and take a video of one thing, it might just be the face of Sejanus when his death warrant was read in the Senate. I can't think of anyone else in history who had such a dramatic fall so quickly in just a matter of seconds. Other leaders who have fallen from power usually do so over a period of weeks or months. Even a successful military coup

usually plays out over a period of hours. This was Joe Pesci getting whacked in Goodfellas when he thinks he's about to become a made man, but at an imperial level, in a very public forum. There is an excellent scene from the 1968 British series, The Caesars, which depicts the denunciation of Sejanus. The camera zooms in on the face of Sejanus, and all the senators move away from him in unison.

And I highly recommend watching it on YouTube if you can. As it turned out, A lot of people hated Sejanus. All the treason trials and the confiscations of fortunes by someone who the senators thought to be their social lesser had built a presentment. And now it was time for payback. Within a few hours, Sejanus was dead. He was strangled to death and his body was thrown down the Gomonian stairs. The crowd at the bottom literally tore his body to pieces.

And this wasn't even close to the end of the retribution. The Senate passed a resolution of Damnatio Memorra. on Sejanus. If you remember back to my previous episode on the topic, it removed any mention of Sejanus. Every statue was to be destroyed, and any mention of him was to be erased. His entire family was sentenced to death. His son and young daughter were killed, so he would have no descendants. His wife ended up killing herself. Riots broke out in Rome, and anyone who was associated with Sejanus was targeted. Tiberius then conducted his own treason trials, targeting those who had befriended Sejanus.

These were widespread and lasted for years, as basically everyone had sucked up to Sejanus. The villa was implicated in the death of her husband Truces, and she was starved to death by her own mother to protect the rest of the family. The entire Sejanus affair tainted the reputation of Tiberius. He can be found on both the list of best and worst emperors in Roman history. With Sejianus having eliminated most of the legitimate possible successors to Tiberius, the imperial throne and a a passing to Caligula, who has gone down in history as one of the worst and most insane emperors in history. The biggest legacy of Sejanus was probably with the Praetorian Guard. This was the first time that they had inserted themselves into imperial politics, but it certainly wasn't going

to be the last. Centuries later, they were the ones who chose emperors, and it literally got to a point once where they auctioned off the throne to raise money for themselves. Sejanus probably goes down as one of the most important non-emperors in the history of the Roman Empire. The associate producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Thor Thompson. If you'd like to support the show, please donate over at patreon.com. There is content only available to supporters, merchandise, and even opportunities for a show producer credit. If you know someone you think would enjoy the show, please share it with them. Also remember, if you leave a five-stop review, I'll read your review on the show.