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Rome鈥檚 second emperor, Tiberius (42 BCE鈥揅E 37), has traditionally been seen as a villainous hypocrite鈥攖reacherous, grasping, vindictive, and depraved. But in Tiberius and His Age, Edward Champlin draws on vast and diverse evidence to show that Tiberius was鈥攁nd was seen by contemporaries to be鈥攔ecognizably human and far more complex than the monster of the hostile tradition that began with Tacitus and Suetonius.

Focusing on the overlapping themes of luxury, sex, power, and, especially, myth, Tiberius and His Age examines Tiberius鈥檚 standing as a folkloric figure in the Roman popular imagination and his conscious use of mythological themes to consolidate his power. It argues that the striking stories of Tiberius鈥檚 sexual depravity, which literary sources passed on to later generations, are ultimately incoherent fictions, the work of a brilliant fantasist who hated the emperor. The book鈥檚 portraits of three important figures in Tiberius鈥檚 circle鈥攖he gourmands Asellius Sabinus and Marcus Apicius and the emperor鈥檚 lieutenant, Sejanus鈥攑rovide new perspectives on the emperor and his age. Tiberius鈥檚 passions for astrology, gastronomy, and mythology, which have often been seen as eccentric scholarly diversions, are revealed instead to be central to contemporary Roman debates and keys to understanding his personality, his power, and the lasting image of Roman emperors.

Incisive, witty, and original, Tiberius and His Age presents a startlingly new picture of Tiberius and the culture and politics of the early Roman Empire.